Mercury IV 1U Server pfSense Appliance

Mercury III 1u server
Mercury IV BackRemove rack ears for desktop chasis

Mercury IV pfSense 1U Server. Multi-core 2.8Ghz i3-3220T. Four (4) x Realtek RTL8111C Gigabit Ethernet ports. 4GB DDR3 RAM (maximum 16GB). Stateful inspection firewall. Up to 10,000 users. 2,000,000 concurrent connections. 300 Mbps IPSec VPN throughputs. 1U short-depth case dimension: 19" x 1.75" x 9.84".

pfSense is an open-source firewall distribution based on FreeBSD.

The 1U server Mercury IV appliance has been employed at the following network locations to protect SMB (Small and Medium Business) and Enterprise:

  1. SOHO/SMB
  2. Branch Office
  3. VPN Endpoints
  4. Internet edge

Features

  1. Multicore 2.8Ghz Intel i3-3220T (2 cores/4 threads)
    • 4GB DDR3 RAM (expandable to a maximum of 16GB)
    • There is NO serial/comm port! Console is through VGA only.
  2. Short-Depth 1U Rackmount Case. The form factor of the 1U server is about 19 inches by 10 inches by 1.75 inches in dimensions. Weight about 12 lbs.
    • The 1U rack ears can be removed to turn into a desktop chassis. See picture!
  3. High Performance IPSec VPN without VPN Hardware Accelerator:
    • 300 Mbps AES256 (110 Mbps 3DES)
  4. Four (4) Gigabit Ethernet Ports:
    • Multi-WAN for load balancing, redundancy and failover
    • Four (4) Realtek RTL8111C (optional Intel 82574L) Gigabit Ethernet on one (1) quad-port PCIe x1 card (limited to 1.2 Gbps throughput).
    • There is one (1) extra built-in Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit Ethernet that is recongized only under pfSense 2.1 Beta.
  5. Low power-consumption: 45W without a hard drive
Price: $899.99
$899.99
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SKU: RM1U PFJI61G-ITXI3
Specifications

Capabilities, Performance and Cost Comparison:

Firewall Mercury IV 1U Server Cisco ASA 5512-X3 Cisco ASA 5515-X3
Performance Summary
Concurrent Sessions 2,000,000 (4GB RAM) 100,000 250,000
Firewall Throughput 1.5 Gbps 1 Gbps 1.2 Gbps
IPSec VPN Throughput 300 Mbps AES-2561 200 Mbps3 250 Mbps3
Maximum Site-to-Site and Remote Access VPN Sessions 10,000
(limited by RAM capacity)		 250 250
Multi-Wan
Load Balancing

Three (3) WAN
(limited by number of available interfaces)

 ? ?
Failover Supported Active/Standby5 Not Supported Active/Standby Active/Active6
Technical Summary
CPU Speed Multicore 2.8Ghz i3-3220T
(2C/4T)		 Multicore, enterprise class
(2.8Ghz Intel 2C/2T)		 Multicore, enterprise class
(3.06 Ghz Intel 2C/4T)
Memory 4GB
(Maximum 16GB) 		 4GB 8GB
Storage 2GB Flash Drive
(optional 2.5inch HD/SSD)		 4GB System Flash 8GB System Flash
Interfaces

4 x Gibagit Ethernet
(5 x Gigabit Ethernet under pfSense 2.1 BETA) 

 6 Gigabit Ethernet ports
and 1 Gigabit Ethernet Dedicated Management port
(Expandable 12 Gigabit Ethernet ports)		 6 Gigabit Ethernet ports
and 1 Gigabit Ethernet Dedicated Management port
(Expandable 12 Gigabit Ethernet ports)
Virtual Interfaces (VLAN) ~4,000 50 100
Power Consumption 60W ~ 100W (estimated) ~ 100W (estimated)
Additional Network Security Capabilities
Intrusion Prevention Snort
(Subscription required)		 IPS Edition License features IPS Edition License features
Anti-spam, anti-phishing, URL filtering Squid
Squidguard
(HD required)		 Content Security Plus License features Content Security Plus License features
Content Security
(Anti-virus, Anti-Spyware, File Blocking)		 HAVP
(HD Required)		 Content Security Plus License features Content Security Plus License features
Cost $900 $2,7077 $3,3857

Notes:

1As measured by IPerf.
2With the Soekris VPN1411 VPN Hardware Accelerator. The IPerf performance of the Jupiter I was measured and discussed in the article IPSec Performance Gained by VPN Hardware Accelerator.
3As reported in Cisco Sales Literature and Documentation. (Cisco Router Performance data come from here.)
4Estimated from Cisco ASA 5510 iperf data. The IPerf performance of the Cisco ASA 5510 was measured and discussed in the article IPSec Performance of Cisco ASA 5510 as Measured by IPerf.
5Detail CARP configuration is discussed at http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Configuring_pfSense_Hardware_Redundancy_(CARP). Active-active configuration is not possible at this time.
6Active/Active configuration requires multiple security contexts (or virtual firewalls).
7Cisco ASA firewall cost is typically found on the Internet and includes the basic firewall feature set of Cisco ASA Software Release 8.2. Advanced features like security contexts and active/active high-availability may require additional licenses.

Support and Warranty

  1. One (1) year industry standard warranty. A single contact for both hardware and software issues.
  2. Depend on the maintenance options, we will walk you through the initial VPN server setup to configuration of multi-wan load balancing and failover
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