Read the original article: High Availability Router/Firewall Using OpenBSD, CARP, pfsync, and ifstated
Introduction
I have been running OpenBSD on a Soekris net5501 for my router/firewall since early 2012. Because I run a multitude of services on this system (more on that later), the meager 500Mhz AMD Geode + 512MB SDRAM was starting to get a little sluggish while trying to do anything via the terminal. Despite the perceived performance hit during interactive SSH sessions, it still supported a full 100Mbit connection with NAT, so I wasn’t overly eager to change anything. Luckily though, my ISP increased the bandwidth available on my plan tier to 150Mbit+. Unfortunately, the Soekris only contained 4xVIA Rhine Fast Ethernet. So now, I was using a slow system and wasting money by not being able to fully utilize my connection.
Naturally, I looked back to Soekris for an upgrade that would allow me to take advantage of this new speed since it served me so well for so long, but I soon discovered that Soekris stopped innovating and closed US operations a few years ago. After widening the search, I decided to try the PC Engines APU4C4. This included a 4 Core 1Ghz AMD GX-412TC CPU, 4GB of DDR3-1333 DRAM and 4xIntel PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet. A huge improvement.
Read the original article: High Availability Router/Firewall Using OpenBSD, CARP, pfsync, and ifstated