Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    IPSec is very slow between two pfsense routers

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved IPsec
    40 Posts 8 Posters 9.3k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • N
      NOCling
      last edited by

      The ARM GCM Problem is gone. It was in 22.05 and after 23.01 GCM runs again.

      I run my S2S with AES GCM 128, SHA256, DH19, and Upstream is the Iimit.
      In Run my NAS Backup over it and if the Docis 3.1 Modem is stable, it run over Days with max Upsteam Speed.

      Netgate 6100 & Netgate 2100

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • P
        patrick.pesegodinski
        last edited by

        Hello.

        I have two Pfsense 2.6.0 configured with IPSEC, AES-NI on the hardware. The latency between the two links is 3ms.
        With IPSEC, the transfer does not exceed 5MB/s, whereas with OpenVPN, the transfer reaches 50MB/s, which is the maximum bandwidth of the internet link.

        I have already tested all protocols in phase 1 and 2 and the rate does not change.

        What could be "blocking" IPSEC?

        M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • M
          michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @patrick.pesegodinski
          last edited by

          @patrick-pesegodinski Could be fragmentation. Try setting MSS to 1350 or 1300 to start and test.
          How are you performing the speedtest? On a client behind the pfsense?
          Also please post the specs of your system

          Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
          Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
          Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
          Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
          JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

          P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • P
            patrick.pesegodinski @michmoor
            last edited by

            @michmoor

            The test is carried out by transferring files from the server at one end to computers at the other end.

            Should I reduce the MSS at both ends?

            Main Pfsense Configuration:

            Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8400 CPU @ 2.80GHz
            Current: 2800MHz, Max: 2801MHz
            6 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 6 core(s)
            AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (active)
            QAT Crypto: No

            Secondary Pfsense Configuration:

            Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8100 CPU @ 3.60GHz
            4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)
            AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (active)
            QAT Crypto: No

            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • M
              michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @patrick.pesegodinski
              last edited by

              @patrick-pesegodinski
              What NICs are used?
              Try reducing MSS on both.
              Are these SMB file transfers?

              Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
              Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
              Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
              Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
              JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

              P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • P
                patrick.pesegodinski @michmoor
                last edited by

                @michmoor

                • NICs was TP-LINK TG-3468;
                • SMB file
                P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • P
                  patrick.pesegodinski @patrick.pesegodinski
                  last edited by

                  @michmoor Should the IPsec tunnel be restarted after MSS modification?

                  M keyserK 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @patrick.pesegodinski
                    last edited by

                    @patrick-pesegodinski doesnt have to be i believe.

                    Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                    Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                    Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                    Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                    JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • keyserK
                      keyser Rebel Alliance @patrick.pesegodinski
                      last edited by

                      @patrick-pesegodinski I know this sounds like BS, but you need to try and benchmark the VPN connection with something other than SMB. SMB is NOTORIOUSLY bad on “less than 1500 bytes” MTU links like a VPN. It’s all over the place if any fragmentation is involved.
                      So try and clamp down your MSS and benchmark it with a iPerf3 TCP test.

                      Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                      P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • P
                        patrick.pesegodinski @keyser
                        last edited by

                        @keyser I understand your thinking, but with OpenVPN I get transfer rates 10x higher than IPSEC.

                        keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • keyserK
                          keyser Rebel Alliance @patrick.pesegodinski
                          last edited by

                          @patrick-pesegodinski i know, and thats likely because OpenVPN knows how to participate in MTU Discovery so the SMB Client knows the proper packet sizes to use.
                          IPSec VPN on pfsense does not play Nice in this Area - it’s a known bug and has been for years, But unfortunately IPSec VPN sees Very little developer love, so we have to work around it.
                          Thats why we need MSS clamping and an iPerf3 test - then we really know where the culprit is buried.

                          Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                          P M 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • P
                            patrick.pesegodinski @keyser
                            last edited by

                            @keyser hello friend.

                            The test iperf

                            Connecting to host 172.29.0.1, port 5201
                            [ 5] local 10.0.0.1 port 45903 connected to 172.29.0.1 port 5201
                            [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
                            [ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 26.3 MBytes 221 Mbits/sec 19 64.1 KBytes
                            [ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 27.1 MBytes 227 Mbits/sec 15 61.8 KBytes
                            [ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 26.7 MBytes 224 Mbits/sec 15 82.0 KBytes
                            [ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 27.1 MBytes 228 Mbits/sec 28 57.6 KBytes
                            [ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 26.1 MBytes 219 Mbits/sec 16 71.2 KBytes
                            [ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 26.6 MBytes 224 Mbits/sec 19 67.0 KBytes
                            [ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 27.1 MBytes 227 Mbits/sec 15 27.4 KBytes
                            [ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 26.5 MBytes 223 Mbits/sec 36 68.6 KBytes
                            [ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 26.8 MBytes 225 Mbits/sec 18 81.6 KBytes
                            [ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 21.0 MBytes 176 Mbits/sec 67 81.7 KBytes


                            [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
                            [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 261 MBytes 219 Mbits/sec 248 sender
                            [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 261 MBytes 219 Mbits/sec receiver

                            iperf Done.

                            keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • keyserK
                              keyser Rebel Alliance @patrick.pesegodinski
                              last edited by

                              @patrick-pesegodinski Is this before or after clamping down MSS?
                              You are seeing 220mbit which is around 25MB/s (Half your OpenVPN throughput). But I cannot see if you tried a single session iPerf or the default with multiple parallel streams.

                              Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

                              P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • P
                                patrick.pesegodinski @keyser
                                last edited by

                                @keyser Test performed without changing the MSS.
                                I used the iperf client in Pfsense itself with the default settings.

                                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • M
                                  michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @patrick.pesegodinski
                                  last edited by

                                  @patrick-pesegodinski

                                  Post your iPerf syntax here so we can understand what you are doing.
                                  Something along the lines of

                                  iperf3 -c 192.168.70.26 -P 50 -t 30
                                  

                                  Also post for us the before MSS change and after MSS change results.

                                  Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                                  Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                  Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                  Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                                  JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                                  P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • M
                                    michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @keyser
                                    last edited by

                                    @keyser
                                    I found something in redmine for MTU suggestions.

                                    https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/14508

                                    Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                                    Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                    Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                    Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                                    JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • P
                                      patrick.pesegodinski @michmoor
                                      last edited by

                                      @michmoor Excuse my ignorance, but I'm not familiar with iperf. Which fields do I need to adjust?

                                      5466484c-126b-4694-8621-f314189cc88b-image.png

                                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • M
                                        michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @patrick.pesegodinski
                                        last edited by

                                        @patrick-pesegodinski
                                        do not use iperf on the firewall.
                                        use iperf between your clients (sitting behind your firewall).

                                        Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
                                        Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                        Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
                                        Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
                                        JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

                                        P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • P
                                          patrick.pesegodinski @michmoor
                                          last edited by

                                          @michmoor 1f121d95-5939-4faa-a741-3386bf11b08d-TESTE.txt

                                          The test with MSS standard.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • N
                                            NOCling
                                            last edited by

                                            https://packetpushers.net/ipsec-bandwidth-overhead-using-aes/
                                            Best MSS for IPsec tunnel Model 1328, if you use transport Mode and a 1500 WAN line, you can use 1372.

                                            Netgate 6100 & Netgate 2100

                                            P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.