Adding 2.5Gbps Ports to XG-7100-1U

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

Mael

I stumbled across the XIAOLO 2.5GBase-T PCIe Network Adapter I225V Chip 2.5G on Amazon. Its been ordered and I'll give it a try and report back here.

Mael

@stephenw10 - I received the card the card yesterday and realized I needed to order a right angle PCIe x4 adapter. Is there anything specific I need to look for when picking an adaptor? Do you know what model adaptor you ship with the add-on PCI-e x4 network cards?

Mael

@stephenw10 - I called the Netgate sales team and they pointed me to the right adaptor. It's kind of hard to find in the store, but I have it on order.

Mael

I finally received the PCIe adaptor and was able to install the XIAOLO 2.5 I225V 2.5G card into the XG-7100 and move the WAN interface over to it. Everything is working great. The router sees the card and so far the connection has been solid. This upgrade, along with a new Netgear CM2050V modem with a 2.5Gb interface, has increased my download speeds from 940Mbps to 1414Mbps.

Thank You @stephenw10 for all your help!

Mael

The only odd thing I've noticed is the traffic graphs for the WAN interface no longer show up and this is what I see in the interfaces widget (I've cropped out my IP addresses.)

Here's what I see under Interfaces --> Status

And finally here's what I see from the command line (again removing my IP info)

ifconfig -vvm
igc0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        description: WAN
        options=e120bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        capabilities=f53fbb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,NETMAP,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        ether xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        inet6 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx%igc0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
        inet6 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx prefixlen 128
        inet xxxxxxxxxx netmask 0xfffff800 broadcast 255.255.255.255
        media: Ethernet autoselect (2500Base-T <full-duplex>)
        status: active
        supported media:
                media autoselect
                media 2500Base-T
                media 1000baseT
                media 1000baseT mediaopt full-duplex
                media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex
                media 100baseTX
                media 10baseT/UTP mediaopt full-duplex
                media 10baseT/UTP
        nd6 options=23<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

Any ideas how I can fix this, or is this just something I'll have to live with?

stephenw10

That is almost certainly because your WAN interface was previously using the switch port Eth1 and it's still referencing that. Interfaces using the switch ports use the switch port status since the internal ports are always up.
The easiest way to correct that is to edit the config and remove the line.
Your WAN interface config will look something like:

		<wan>
			<enable></enable>
			<if>igc0</if>
			<mtu></mtu>
			<ipaddr>dhcp</ipaddr>
			<ipaddrv6>dhcp6</ipaddrv6>
			<subnet></subnet>
			<gateway></gateway>
			<blockpriv></blockpriv>
			<blockbogons></blockbogons>
			<dhcphostname></dhcphostname>
			<media></media>
			<mediaopt></mediaopt>
			<dhcp6-duid></dhcp6-duid>
			<dhcp6-ia-pd-len>0</dhcp6-ia-pd-len>
			<switchif>switch0.port1</switchif>
		</wan>

Just remove the line: <switchif>switch0.port1</switchif> and reboot.

Or backup the config, remove the line and restore it without that.

Steve