Deploying Proxmox 7 behind a firewall VM

Firewall

Download

We’re going to download two ISOs to the local Proxmox node after we SSH in:

1. pfSense — virtualized firewall responsible for all traffic at the Wide and Local Area Networks (WAN and LAN). Since they gzip the ISO, we’ll pass it through gunzip as we save the ISO:

   wget \
       --output-document=- \
       https://ULR-GOES-HERE \
       | gunzip -c > \
       /var/lib/vz/template/iso/PFSENSE-NAME-GOES-HERE.iso \
       ;
   

2. Ubuntu Desktop — Since I run desktop configurations inside of Proxmox, I needed this ISO anyways. The installer has a trial mode that provides quick access to a web browser for configuring the bare minimum for the firewall without needing to plow through an install. Beyond the minimal configuration, everything else can then be configured remotely from your computer after you boot into the /etc/network/config-runtime file that was setup above, and will be demonstrated in an upcoming step.

   wget \
       --output-document=/var/lib/vz/template/iso/UBUNTU-NAME-GOES-HERE.iso \
       https://URLS-GOES-HERE
       ;
   

You can confirm that you’ve successfully loaded your ISOs by clicking on Proxmox node → local → ISO Images.

Virtual Machine

Create

Network Devices

In the step above, when we created the VM with a network interface, that was the WAN interface that was added. There’s still three remaining interfaces to create, which correspond to the bridges that we created in /etc/network/config-runtime:

1. Proxmox — communication between the firewall and Proxmox, so that SSH and the Web GUI for Proxmox can be accessed via the firewall.
2. Single IP — for Virtual Machines and Containers to use.
3. Optional Additional IP — for Virtual Machines and Containers to use.

Though the interfaces are available, they’re not active since the network configuration hasn’t been applied with a reboot — as a side-note, when editing interfaces from within the Proxmox GUI, it uses ifupdown2 to accomplish this without reboots. With the exception of the second interface, the other three will be set to vmbr0 and disconnected. The second interface will be set to vmbr1 and connected:

Install

Once all interfaces are added, you may proceed to start the Virtual Machine so that you may install the firewall

After completing installation and rebooting into the firewall, you will be asked to assign interface names to the four NICs:

1. WAN → vtnet0 (MAC Address: the server’s physical card: ca:fe:41:c0:ff:ee)
2. LAN → vtnet1 (MAC Address: auto-generated)
3. OPT1 → vtnet2 (MAC Address: auto-generated)
4. OPT2 → vtnet3 (MAC Address: auto-generated)

When you’re finished, the firewall will initialize itself, and then display its standard console menu.

Configure

Console

Select “Set interface(s) IP address” and you will be prompted for which interface that you wish to configure. Refer to your network settings in /etc/network/config-runtime but notice that Proxmox is set to 192.168.1.2/29 while as the firewall is set to 192.168.1.1/29, and to use my example settings:

1. WAN (vtnet0)
   • Address: 65.109.71.115
   • CIDR: 26
   • Netmask: 255.255.255.192
   • Gateway: 65.109.71.65
   • Route: 65.109.71.64
   • Broadcast: 65.109.71.127
   • Network range: 65.109.71.64 – 65.109.71.127
   • DHCP: Not Applicable.
2. LAN (vtnet1) — Proxmox
   • Address: 192.168.1.1
   • CIDR: 29
   • Netmask: 255.255.255.248
   • Gateway: None.
   • Route: 192.168.1.0
   • Broadcast: 192.168.1.7
   • Network range: 192.168.1.0 – 192.168.1.7
   • DHCP: None.
3. OPT1 (vtnet2) — Virtual Machines & Containers
   • Address: 172.16.0.1
   • CIDR: 24
   • Netmask: 255.255.255.0
   • Gateway: None.
   • Route: 172.16.0.0
   • Broadcast: 172.16.0.255
   • Network range: 172.16.0.0 – 172.16.0.255
   • DHCP Server Range: 172.16.0.200 – 172.16.0.254
4. OPT2 (vtnet3)— Virtual Machines & Containers
   • Address: 172.16.1.1
   • CIDR: 24
   • Netmask: 255.255.255.0
   • Gateway: None.
   • Route: 172.16.1.0
   • Broadcast: 172.16.1.255
   • Network range: 172.16.1.0 – 172.16.1.255
   • DHCP Server Range: 172.16.1.200 – 172.16.1.254

Live Desktop

Now that the interfaces are set, set up an ephemeral Virtual Machine for running a web browser to finish configuring the firewall. For the Virtual Machine, set the network device to vmbr1 and inside of the Virtual Machine set the network settings to:

• Address: 192.168.1.3
• Netmask: 255.255.255.248
• Gateway: 192.168.1.1

Quasi-remote

Depending on whether or not you chose to use HTTPS when setting up the firewall interfaces via the console, go to the firewall configuration page at http://192.168.1.1 or https://192.168.1.1

Default credentials:

Username: admin
Password: pfsense

Please ensure that you change your administrator password ASAP.

In the upcoming steps, your firewall’s login page will be temporarily accessible where someone would be able to login if you use a simple (or default) password.

Please ensure that HTTPS is enabled for remote login in an upcoming step.

You will receive a warning since the certificate is self-signed.

Click on Advanced, then click on View Certificate.

Scroll down to the Fingerprints section and copy either the SHA-256 or SHA-1 value (SHA-256 is preferred). In a subsequent step, these values will be used to ensure that you have a secure connection to your firewall since it’s on a self-signed certificate (for now) that you will need to accept in order to communicate to the firewall.

I like to create a Web Ports alias that I can use in my firewall rules.

For the meantime, the firewall is still running on a default web port (HTTP or HTTPS), but we’ll switch it over in a subsequent step so that Traefik can run on a Virtual Machine and instead, use these ports. The immediate focus is to get the firewall setup in a manner where we can access it remotely, and more comfortably in our native resolution.

Add a rule on the WAN interface for your Web ports alias.

Apply the new firewall rule that will allow remote access.

Now that the firewall is set up to be accessed remotely, destroy the temporary live desktop:

More (button at the top right corner) → Remove

Shut the firewall down.

SSH into the Proxmox host and copy the network’s runtime configuration into place, which will take effect after reboot:

cp -va \
    /etc/network/config-runtime \
    /etc/network/interfaces \
    ;

After the Firewall’s Virtual Machine has shut down, connect the net0 interface, which will be on the vmbr0 bridge.

Connect the remaining interfaces and change their bridges from vmbr0 to the appropriate bridges:

• net2 → vmbr2
• net3 → vmbr3

Ensure that the Firewall’s Virtual Machine is set to start when Proxmox boots.

Click on the Proxmox node, and then click on Reboot in the top-right corner.

Remote

A few minutes after rebooting your Proxmox host, you should be able to access the firewall. Similar to the live desktop configuration, you will receive a self-signed certificate warning.

When viewing the certificate, confirm that the fingerprints match the same values from when you looked at them with the live desktop in Proxmox. If they do, accept the certificate.

You should now see the login screen, and be able to login with the username of admin and the password that you set:

Now to set up port forwarding from the firewall to Proxmox for administrative use: Firewall → NAT → Port Forward. The ports to use are:

• Proxmox GUI: 8006/TCP
• Proxmox SSH: 22/TCP
• Proxmox Mosh: 60,000–61,000/UDP

By adding an associated rule for the NAT rule, you can see the changes appear in the WAN interface.

Administrative Port

To change the port, click on System → Advanced → Admin Access → TCP port. This allows me to free up the web ports for use by Traefik, and in the additions section about Tailscale, allows me to remove the need for the firewall to be directly accessible from the Internet.

Interfaces

As you delve further into customizing your firewall’s configuration to suit your needs, make it easier on yourself for rules and elsewhere by renaming the interfaces:

Aliases

Many firewall distributions support aliases that can be used in a variety of firewall settings. I like to start with a few basic aliases that help define other settings throughout a firewall:

IP / Network

• CGNAT
  • 100.64.0.0/10
• RFC 1918
  • 10.0.0.0/8 — Single class A network
  • 172.16.0.0/12 — 16 contiguous class B networks
  • 192.168.0.0/16 — 256 contiguous class C networks

Ports

• Web
  • 80 — HTTP
  • 443 — HTTPS