Adding 2.5Gbps Ports to XG-7100-1U

Mael

I have a cable modem that has a 2.5Gbps RJ45 port that I'd like to plug into my XG-7100 to get speeds in excess of 1Gbps. AFIK it's not possible to put a SFP module into the SFP+ port that would 2.5Gbps over RJ45. Is it possible to add an interface card into the XG-7100-1U with 2.5Gbps RJ45 ports?

heper

@mael
No clue about hardware or software compatibility with 2.5gbe sfp's.

Is it an option to put a (small)multi-gig switch in between the modem and wan? That way the modem could be linked at 2.5gbe & pfsense wan at 10gbe

stephenw10

You're correct, you cannot use an RJ-45 SFP+ module in the 7100 on-board ports.

You should be able to use a 2.5G expansion card though I've never tested one myself.

I'm aware of only one case when a 2.5G card was tested and it didn't work:
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/159994/intel-ethernet-controller-i225-lm-support
It may have been an outdated Coreboot issue in that case.

Steve

Mael

@heper - I suspect your right, probably the only way to do this is adding a switch. I know Ubiquiti makes an 8 port POE switch with 2 SFP+ ports and 8 2.5Gbps ports, but it's $479. Does anyone know of an inexpensive switch that has both SFP+ and 2.5Gb ports?

Mael

The cheapest I've been able to find is the Zyxel XGS1210-12 for $199. It has 2 SFP+ ports, 2 2.5G ports and 8 1G ports. Anyone know of anything cheaper?

stephenw10

I mean a 2.5G NIC should work. I just don't have anything to test.

Mael

@stephenw10 - That's the ideal solution, but I'd really like to see something confirmed as working on the 7100. My wife and I both work from home and I don't have a lot of time to fiddle with this beyond dropping in the card and updating the config.

AndyRH

Would it be fair to say that if a 2.5Gb card works in a home built it should work in a 7100? There are been a few posts about people having success with 2.5Gb cards.

Mael

I realized there might be another way to get increased bandwidth from my old modem to the router. I have an Arris Surfboard SB8200 that supports LAG on it's two Ethernet interfaces.
@stephenw10 - Can I create a corresponding WAN LAG using two of the 1G ports on the 7100 and if so, how? Normally this would be easy , but the whole virtual switch thing on the 7100 can be a bit confusing.

stephenw10

@andyrh said in Adding 2.5Gbps Ports to XG-7100-1U:

Would it be fair to say that if a 2.5Gb card works in a home built it should work in a 7100?

Yes, in terms of drivers. But without actually testing it's impossible to say 100%. We had a Coreboot update to address a compatibility issue for the 4x 1G NIC we add to it. I've tried a number of random PCIe NICs in the one I have and since the update they have all worked.

@mael said in Adding 2.5Gbps Ports to XG-7100-1U:

Can I create a corresponding WAN LAG using two of the 1G ports on the 7100 and if so, how?

The switch, and therefore the Eth ports, only support a load-balance LAGG, not LACP. So maybe. To set that just add another lagg group in the switch port settings. So for ports 7 and 8:

Screenshot from 2021-11-19 00-05-00.png

Steve

stephenw10

@mael said in Adding 2.5Gbps Ports to XG-7100-1U:

That's the ideal solution, but I'd really like to see something confirmed as working on the 7100.

I tested an i225-v NIC in a 7100 running 21.05.2 and it worked fine:

[21.05.2-RELEASE][admin@7100.stevew.lan]/root: pciconf -lv igc0
igc0@pci0:2:0:0:	class=0x020000 card=0x00008086 chip=0x15f38086 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Ethernet Controller I225-V'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet
[21.05.2-RELEASE][admin@7100.stevew.lan]/root: ifconfig igc0
igc0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
	description: OPT1
	options=e120bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
	ether 68:54:5a:79:d4:78
	inet6 fe80::6a54:5aff:fe79:d478%igc0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
	inet 192.168.232.10 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.232.255
	media: Ethernet autoselect (2500Base-T <full-duplex>)
	status: active
	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

It gets 2.5G even from box so I would expect that to work fine for you:

[21.05.2-RELEASE][admin@7100.stevew.lan]/root: iperf3 -c 192.168.232.1 -i 10 -P 4
Connecting to host 192.168.232.1, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.232.10 port 61153 connected to 192.168.232.1 port 5201
[  7] local 192.168.232.10 port 58933 connected to 192.168.232.1 port 5201
[  9] local 192.168.232.10 port 39167 connected to 192.168.232.1 port 5201
[ 11] local 192.168.232.10 port 49013 connected to 192.168.232.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   702 MBytes   589 Mbits/sec    0    160 KBytes       
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec   700 MBytes   587 Mbits/sec    0    145 KBytes       
[  9]   0.00-10.00  sec   699 MBytes   587 Mbits/sec    0    145 KBytes       
[ 11]   0.00-10.00  sec   697 MBytes   584 Mbits/sec    0    145 KBytes       
[SUM]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.73 GBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec    0             
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   702 MBytes   589 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   702 MBytes   589 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec   700 MBytes   587 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec   700 MBytes   587 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[  9]   0.00-10.00  sec   699 MBytes   587 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  9]   0.00-10.00  sec   699 MBytes   587 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[ 11]   0.00-10.00  sec   697 MBytes   585 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[ 11]   0.00-10.00  sec   697 MBytes   584 Mbits/sec                  receiver
[SUM]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.73 GBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[SUM]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.73 GBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

Steve

ahking19

@mael Just my opinion but...If this isn't for the learning experience and your worried about downtime why bother? This is for a home/WFH network for you and your wife right? You are never going to notice or benefit from going from 1 Gbps to 2.5 Gbps. A 1 Gbps Internet service for a home network is already over provosioned, are you sure you want to pay to upgrade to a 2.5 G service?

Mael

@stephenw10 said in Adding 2.5Gbps Ports to XG-7100-1U:

I tested an i225-v NIC in a 7100 running 21.05.2 and it worked fine:

This is great news. Can you post the model number of specific card you tested? I realize all the i225-v cards should all be the same, but I've found that isn't always the case.

Mael

@ahking19 - There are plenty of times we max out our current 1Gb connection, so anything I can do to continue to bump up the bandwidth will help.

stephenw10

The card I used was (close to) the cheapest I could find on Amazon single port NIC that uses the i225-v chip. There are many to choose from all around the same price and I'm sure they all come out of the same factory in China. I'm not going to reference a particular device because I think there's every chance if I ordered it again I'd get something slightly different. Anything based on that chip should work though.

Steve

Mael

@stephenw10 I've been scouring Amazon and can't seem to find a card with an i225-v controller. I found a bunch with realtek controllers and some with i225-LM controllers, but nothing yet with i225-v. Is the i225-v equivalent to the i225-LM with the i225-v being built into motherboards? Any hints on what to search for would be appreciated.

stephenw10

I searched for 'i225v' and I note that not one uses 'Intel' in the description. Which seems suspicious! But it seems to work. You can also try '2.5GBase-T'.

AndyRH

@stephenw10 I am not saying it will work, but it has the right chips. Verify.
QNAP QXG-2G2T-I225 Dual Port 2.5GbE 4-Speed Network Card

And be so kind as to report back on the results.

Mael

@andyrh Looks like that card has the i225-LM controller. the QNAP QXG-2G1T-I225 is the single interface version with the i225-LM controller. So far I haven't found ANY NICs with an i225-v controller.

stephenw10

That's the i225-LM I believe and it was reported to have issues in the 7100 here. I've never tested it personally.

Steve