LOW
The situation described does not involve any active vulnerabilities or threats. The user is inquiring about best practices for setting up a redundant network infrastructure, which has no direct security implications until the setup is attempted without proper planning and configuration.

The user is seeking advice on setting up a homelab with redundant Opnsense firewalls using M920Q routers. The goal is to create a failover configuration between two M920Q devices for high availability and redundancy of the network infrastructure. This setup would involve isolating the WAN connections from the internal network to ensure that only the active firewall manages external traffic, while the standby unit monitors and takes over in case of failure. The user mentions researching this topic but is looking for specific guidance on how to properly isolate the WAN and connect both routers to a dedicated switch for failover purposes.

Affected Systems
  • M920Q Routers
  • Opnsense Firewalls
Remediation
  • Configure the primary M920Q router with a static IP address for WAN access.
  • Install Opnsense on both M920Q devices and configure them in a CARP (Common Address Redundancy Protocol) failover configuration.
  • Ensure that the secondary M920Q is set to 'Backup' mode within the Opnsense dashboard, mirroring the primary's settings for redundancy.
Stack Impact

The setup described will enhance network reliability and provide a fallback in case of hardware failure. However, it does not directly impact common homelab stacks unless there are specific dependencies on uptime or failover capabilities.

Source →