On 3/9/22 4:27 AM, Markus Rosjat wrote:
Hi list,
has someone out there ever attemted to reuse WatchGuard devices? If so
can he point out some hints on how to go about it?
We have a few devices laying around here and i dont see the point in not
trying to reuse them.
Cheers
I haven't used Watchguard devices, and you didn't specify WHICH watchguard
device (there appear to be many), but I've recycled a lot of things over
the years that didn't look like conventional computers. General tricks:
1) Verify platform. IF the device has an amd64 or i386 compatible processor,
you will very possibly, maybe even "probably" succeed. If it is something
else, not so likely, to the point that I'd almost say, "give it up", unless
you get lucky with tip "1a" below.
1a) is it some off-the-shelf device in a case? I had used some commercial
firewall appliances that turned out to be Soekris boards in a box. If the
off-the-shelf device is supported, you are good.
1b) I've seen some devices in the past that had multiple apparent network
ports, but only one actual network adapter and a switch chip that did vlans.
That will probably be frustrating on OpenBSD, unless you just need one
port.
2) Are the specs reasonable, if not, can they be made reasonable? a 150mhz
processor with 64M RAM will probably not be satisfying.
3) What's the storage options? Flash devices (CF, USB) will probably be
frustratingly slow during the KARL and library re-link on boot, though once
booted, will work just fine.
4) What are the console options? Some devices have VGA and USB ports easily
accessible, others will require a serial console. If this is your first
experience with serial console, you might find it frustrating. Some have
VGA and USB ports, but they are hidden (my current FW is a repurposed Citrix
box. The VGA port was hiding under a chunk of plastic on the front of the
box, easy to find. There is a single USB port which was embarrassingly hard
to find -- followed the cable off the MoBo and discovered one vent hole on
the back was not a vent hole, but rather the USB port, about as far from the
VGA port as it could be. sigh. Fixed with an external USB hub)
Once you have console, watch the thing boot. If you have a chance to jump
into the BIOS configuration, do so and look around, and make sure things
are set sanely (your likely issues are booting and console redirection).
After that, you have to figure out how to persuade it to boot from a USB,
network, CD or some other device to do the install, or install on another
machine and move the drive to the converted machine. On new (to me)
hardware, I like to do a final install a release back, then do a test
upgrade, to make sure you figure out any quirks before you have an
unexpected downtime during an upgrade.
Nick.
