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Your Experience Switching from UTM 9 to XG?

utmadm

I have been running UTM 9 (and earlier) for many years, both in an office environment (hardware) and at home (virtual machine). I recently moved my UTM 9 at home from a virtual machine to a UTM 120 (hardware) and it is slow, so I purchased an XG 135 v2 box to replace it.

I know the UTM 9 software very well, but have never used XG, so there would be a learning curve if I switch. My questions are:

* For those who switched from UTM to XG, would you recommend that I do the same? Is now the time to switch, or should I stay with the familiar UTM 9 software, which would be an easy transfer and a familiar interface?

* What did you learn when you switched? Are there important lessons to do or avoid?

I would appreciate it if anyone can share their experience or has advice for me. Thank you!



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    Thanks to those who followed or read my post above. I just wanted to share my experience and close out this thread.

    HOW I GOT HERE:

    I have been running a home UTM in a VMware virtual machine on a 2012 Mac mini host (quad-core i7). See my detailed "how to" description in this thread:

    community.sophos.com/.../80436

    The virtual machine was running well, until it didn't. An Apple OS update or a VMware update caused an interface timing change, where the Mac would grab the USB/Ethernet adapter (used for the UTM's WAN port) and prevent the VMware virtual machine UTM from attaching to it. This meant that every time we would have a power failure or I needed to reboot the Mac mini, I had to wait, then unplug and reconnect the USB/Ethernet adapter. It was a pain.

    I also run a UTM for a friend's small business. When he replaced his company's UTM 120 appliance in 2017, he it to me. A few weeks ago with "pandemic time" on my hands, I decided to replace the virtual machine with the UTM 120. My goal was to eliminate the need to disconnect and reconnect the USB/Ethernet adapter for power failures and reboots. It also freed up the Mac mini for other uses. 

    Replacing the virtual machine UTM with the UTM 120 was easy, but I was surprised to see that the UTM 120 was much slower. The WebAdmin interface was VERY slow, and the internet speeds were half of the virtual machine. I decided to upgrade, and purchased an unboxed-but-unused XG 135 appliance on the internet. 

    UTM vs. XG:

    After ordering the XG 135 appliance and posting here, I did further  research and learned that it is not easy to install or run the XG home-licensed software on XG hardware appliances - there are more protections to prevent such use. It is relatively simple to install UTM 9 on the XG appliance and run it with a home license. (NOTE: Neither is officially approved by Sophos.)

    After reviewing the XG software and trying out the online demo, I decided to install UTM on the new XG 135 appliance. I tried multiple times to make a USB flash drive installer without success, but burning the ISO to a DVD worked. (NOTE: The ISO version of the UTM says "CD" but the file is too large for a CD - you must burn a DVD.) I used a USB-powered DVD burner and the UTM install was successful with no issues. It didn't take that long for one installation.  

    I connected to the WebAdmin interface and loaded my saved configuration backup from the UTM 120. The new appliance was up and running quickly. I removed the UTM 120 appliance and replaced it with the XG 135 appliance. Done.

    INTERNET CONNECTION RESULTS, USING SPEEDTEST.NET:

    • Virtual Machine: ~95 mbits/sec. 
    • UTM 120: No better than 50 mbits/sec.
    • XG 135: ~205 mbits/sec
      That is the maximum speed our internet connection supports. The XG 135 may do better if we had a faster internet connection.

    I am pleased with the results. I hope this information helps others.

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  • 0

    Thanks to those who followed or read my post above. I just wanted to share my experience and close out this thread.

    HOW I GOT HERE:

    I have been running a home UTM in a VMware virtual machine on a 2012 Mac mini host (quad-core i7). See my detailed "how to" description in this thread:

    community.sophos.com/.../80436

    The virtual machine was running well, until it didn't. An Apple OS update or a VMware update caused an interface timing change, where the Mac would grab the USB/Ethernet adapter (used for the UTM's WAN port) and prevent the VMware virtual machine UTM from attaching to it. This meant that every time we would have a power failure or I needed to reboot the Mac mini, I had to wait, then unplug and reconnect the USB/Ethernet adapter. It was a pain.

    I also run a UTM for a friend's small business. When he replaced his company's UTM 120 appliance in 2017, he it to me. A few weeks ago with "pandemic time" on my hands, I decided to replace the virtual machine with the UTM 120. My goal was to eliminate the need to disconnect and reconnect the USB/Ethernet adapter for power failures and reboots. It also freed up the Mac mini for other uses. 

    Replacing the virtual machine UTM with the UTM 120 was easy, but I was surprised to see that the UTM 120 was much slower. The WebAdmin interface was VERY slow, and the internet speeds were half of the virtual machine. I decided to upgrade, and purchased an unboxed-but-unused XG 135 appliance on the internet. 

    UTM vs. XG:

    After ordering the XG 135 appliance and posting here, I did further  research and learned that it is not easy to install or run the XG home-licensed software on XG hardware appliances - there are more protections to prevent such use. It is relatively simple to install UTM 9 on the XG appliance and run it with a home license. (NOTE: Neither is officially approved by Sophos.)

    After reviewing the XG software and trying out the online demo, I decided to install UTM on the new XG 135 appliance. I tried multiple times to make a USB flash drive installer without success, but burning the ISO to a DVD worked. (NOTE: The ISO version of the UTM says "CD" but the file is too large for a CD - you must burn a DVD.) I used a USB-powered DVD burner and the UTM install was successful with no issues. It didn't take that long for one installation.  

    I connected to the WebAdmin interface and loaded my saved configuration backup from the UTM 120. The new appliance was up and running quickly. I removed the UTM 120 appliance and replaced it with the XG 135 appliance. Done.

    INTERNET CONNECTION RESULTS, USING SPEEDTEST.NET:

    • Virtual Machine: ~95 mbits/sec. 
    • UTM 120: No better than 50 mbits/sec.
    • XG 135: ~205 mbits/sec
      That is the maximum speed our internet connection supports. The XG 135 may do better if we had a faster internet connection.

    I am pleased with the results. I hope this information helps others.

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