Initial Configuration

After successfully installing OPNSense, you'll need to perform some initial configuration to get your firewall operational. This guide walks you through:

1. Configuring network interfaces
2. Setting up IP addresses
3. Accessing the Web UI
4. Completing initial setup

Network Interface Configuration

Step 1: Assign Interfaces

1. Log in to the console with your credentials:

2. You'll see the main configuration menu:

3. Select option 1 to assign interfaces

4. When prompted about LAGGs or VLANs, choose no:

5. You'll see a list of available interfaces. Note that vtnet0 will be your WAN interface - you can verify this by matching the MAC address with your OVH IP Virtual MAC:

6. Assign the WAN interface by entering vtnet0:

7. Assign the LAN interface by entering vtnet1:

8. Press Enter without typing anything to skip the optional interface:

9. Confirm the configuration by entering y:

Step 2: Configure IP Addresses

From the main menu, select option 2 to set interface IP addresses:

Configure LAN Interface

1. You'll see a list of available interfaces:

2. Select the LAN interface and configure its IP address:

3. Enter your desired LAN IP configuration:

4. Complete the LAN configuration:

5. Verify the LAN configuration is complete:

Configure WAN Interface

1. Select the WAN interface:

2. For the WAN gateway, use your OVH server's gateway address:

3. Test your network connection to verify everything is working:

Web UI Access

WARNING

Initial Web UI access isn't possible directly from WAN as there are no firewall rules configured yet, and nothing exists on the LAN segment.

Option 1: SSH Port Forwarding (Recommended)

Use SSH port forwarding to access the Web UI:

ssh -L 8080:10.69.42.1:80 -L 8443:10.69.42.1:443 -N -f user@remote-server

Configuration

Replace:

• 10.69.42.1 with your firewall's IP address
• user@remote-server with your Proxmox host credentials (typically root@your-proxmox-host-ip)

This creates local port forwards:

• Port 8080 → Firewall HTTP (80)
• Port 8443 → Firewall HTTPS (443)

Option 2: LAN VM Access

Alternatively, you can:

1. Create a new VM with GUI
2. Attach it to your LAN interface
3. Access the WebUI through this VM

Initial Web UI Setup

1. Access the Web UI at https://localhost:8443:

2. Log in with:

   • Username: root
   • Password: The one you set during installation

3. Complete the Getting Started wizard:

4. Configure basic system settings:
   • Hostname
   • Domain
   • DNS servers
   • Other general preferences

5. Review the configuration summary:

Final Configuration Check

Hardware Offloading

TIP

These settings should be disabled by default when using virtio. If not, disable them manually:

Completion

Your firewall should now have a working baseline configuration. You can access the dashboard to monitor your system:

Next Steps

From here, you can:

• Configure firewall rules
• Set up VLANs
• Add additional security features
• Configure VPN access
• And more...