How to install pfSense on VirtualBox

In this tutorial, I will show you how to install pfSense on VirtualBox. VirtualBox is a free virtual machine software that allows you to install pfSense as a virtual instance. I'll guide you through each step.

As always, let's first have a look if something has changed in the installation routine. We are going to do a fresh install on VirtualBox.

For the latest pfSense tutorials make sure to check out the pfSense Category!

Requirements
Part 1: Creating a VM in VirtualBox
Part 2: Install pfSense 2.4 on Virtual Box
Part 3: Logging in via Web Interface
Conclusion

👀 This Tutorial has some related Articles!
👉 The Complete pfSense Fundamentals Bootcamp
👉 Install pfSense from USB - The Complete Guide
👉 Install pfSense on VirtualBox
👉 The Complete pfSense OpenVPN Guide
👉 The Complete pfSense DMZ Guide
👉 Generate SSL Certificates for HTTPS with pfSense
👉 The Complete pfSense Squid Proxy Guide (with ClamAV!)
👉 pfSense Site-to-Site VPN Guide
👉 pfSense Domain Overrides Made Easy
👉 pfSense Strict NAT (PS4,PS5,Xbox,PC) Solution
👉 The Best pfSense Hardware
👉 Traffic Shaping VOIP with pfSense
👉 pfSense OpenVPN on Linux - Setup Guide
👉 pfSense Firewall Rule Aliases Explained
👉 Email Notifications with pfSense
👉 pfSense DNS Server Guide

Requirements

So make sure you have the following prepared:

VirtualBox
Download the latest version of pfSense (Select AMD64 and ISO Image!)

Let's first run through the installation and have a look at the new features afterward!

Part 1: Creating a VM in VirtualBox

Start up VirtualBox and click on New.

We use the Guided Mode, not the Expert mode.

Choose a Name and choose Linux / Other Linux (64-bit) and click Next.

1024MB of RAM should be sufficient.

Choose to Create a Virtual Hard Disk now and click on Create.

Choose VDI and click Next.

For Storage on a physical hard disk choose Dynamically allocated.

Choose a location where to store the .VDI file and give it around 10GB of Space.

Now your VM is created. Now we need to adjust the Network settings.

I will run this pfSense on a separate internal network and I want pfSense to have 3 Network Adapters to play around with.

So select your VM, click on Network and Enable 3 Network Adapters. Choose if you want to run them on an Internal Network for testing purposes.

Now go ahead and Unzip the pfSense-CE-2.4.0-RC-amd64-latest.iso.gz file you downloaded earlier. The .ISO file we need for the installation resides inside it. Use 7zip to unzip it.

Select your VM, click on Storage, select the empty CD Drive, select the CD Symbol, select Choose Virtual Optical Disk File and choose your pfSense 2.4 .ISO file.

Alternatively, just fire up the Virtual Machine, it will ask you for the location of your .iSO file on the first startup.

Now start the Virtual Machine.

Part 2: Install pfSense 2.4 on Virtual Box

After starting just wait until you end up on the Welcome Screen. Everything so far stays in default and continues automatically.

This Welcome screen is already the first new thing I see in 2.4

Choose Install pfSense, obviously.

Now choose a Keymap of your flavor and hit Enter.

Select Continue with <YourKeyMap> and hit Enter again.

And here is already another new thing. We can now choose the ZFS Filesystem. Some of you might be familiar with it if you used FreeNAS in the past.

For now, we choose Auto (UFS)

After confirming with Enter we choose Entire Disk.

The next step, Partition Scheme, is also new to me.

We choose GPT here.

To install pfSense on VirtualBox, leave all on Default and click on Finish.

Confirm again with Commit and wait until the installation is finished.

Another new feature after the Installation is finished. We can now still make modifications to the system before rebooting into pfSense.

We skip that for now.

Before you choose No, make sure you remove the .ISO file from your machine by clicking on Device and Unmount the Installation Media.

Finally, to install pfSense on VirtualBox, click No and confirm to Reboot.

pfSense will now boot into your fresh Installation. Take a Snapshot at this point if you plan to play around with it, so you can always revert back to a freshly installed state.

DHCP is enabled by default. pfSense has 192.168.1.1 as a default IP Address.

Part 3: Logging in via Web Interface

Now, with a VM or Computer residing on the same Subnet as your pfSense, open a Web Browser and enter the IP of your pfSense Firewall: 192.168.1.1

You can safely add an exception to your Browser and ignore the Security Warning. If you want to know how to get a Secure Connection to pfSense, read my Article on it!

And look at that! We are greeted with a completely fresh Log In Screen, including the new pfSense Logo! Fancy!

Run through the Wizard if you want, I went through and think I haven't seen any significant changes in that, but it's a good way to get your basic setup going.

One more thing we are going to do to finish the installation part is changing the Default Password. (If you haven't done that already in the Wizard.)

Navigate to System / User Manager

Click on Edit next to the Admin User and Change the Password.

Scroll down all the way and click on Save.

And that's it for the installation part. Check out the pfSense Tutorial Section to continue from here.

The most significant change in the Installation Routine was really the different Partitioning Options we have now, and that we can choose the ZFS Filesystem! Excited about that and looking into it for sure. ZFS is an amazing Filesystem.

Conclusion

This is how easy it is to install pfSense on VirtualBox. It is also a great way to play around with the firewall before dedicating it to a physical device. Make sure to check out some of our other pfSense Tutorials!

2 thoughts on “How to install pfSense on VirtualBox”

Munir Awan

February 16, 2019 at 7:35 pm

sir i’m unable to install it on VM. after rebooting, it again starts installation process.
secondly if i uncheck pfsense iso from devices it pops up with error.

kindly help me out.

thanking in advance.
- ceos3c
  
  February 19, 2019 at 10:50 am
  
  You have to click on Devices -> Optical Drives -> Remove Disk from Virtual Drive.