PowerConnect 2724 (L2) interoperating with X1026 switch (L3)

Greetings everyone,

my company has an old PowerConnect 2724 switch (L2) and several resources connected to it, on the same network. I want to isolate one or more resources (endpoints) in different VLANS (say 9 VLANs) and add a firewall (Pfsense appliance) between my ISP and my network, using it for internal / external purposes (blocking unspecific traffic ports, create VPN and so forth). The problem is that my switch is L2 and it cannot route the labeled VLAN packets. So, I’m wondering to buy Dell X1026 (L3) and cascade it with my L2 switch, creating something like this:

ISP >> router / gateway >> PfSense Appliance >> Layer 3 Sw (Routing) >> Layer 2 Sw (9 VLANs) >> Endpoints

However, I have a few questions related to this topology in order to worth the investment on L3 switch:

• Can PowerConnect 2724 cascade with X1026 and also interoperate with VLANs?
• Can I share one specific port between all VLANs? Let say my ISP or even one of my resources (servers, printers, …).
• The performance of my network could be damaged with this new topology (L3 switch and Pfsense appliance), supposing that the firewall is configured correctly?

Best Regards

Rafael