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

    Slow internet speed with pfSense virtualized under Proxmox on Zimaboard 832

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved
    Virtualization
    virtualization proxmox zimaboard pfsense 2.7
    5
    12
    1.1k
    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.
    • B
      brainolution
      last edited by brainolution

      I recently got a new Zimaboard 832. I installed Proxmox on it and virtualized pfSense (v2.7) under it. I have a 1 Gbps fibre broadband connection, but noticed that the internet speed that I get from pfSense is around 500 Mbps up and down. This is with 2 CPU cores and 2 GB RAM.

      Here are some other observations:

      1. When I connect my computer directly to the modem, I get about 800-900 Mbps both up and down.
      2. When I run pfSense natively on the board, I get about 800 Mbps up and down.
      3. Increasing the number of CPU cores from 2 to 4 increases the throughput to about 600 Mbps (i.e. 100 Mbps improvement).
      4. Increasing the RAM from 2 to 6 GB doesn't make any meaningful difference.
      5. The option to Disable Hardware Checksum Offloading in pfSense is checked.
      6. RAM Disk is enabled.
      7. PowerD (HiAdaptive) is enabled.
      8. Cryptographic Hardware: AES-NI CPU-based Acceleration
      9. Thermal Sensors: Intel Core CPU on-die thermal sensor
      10. VirtIO is used for the network devices.
      11. The Zimaboard uses Realtek NICs. I installed the latest Realtek driver but it didn't make any difference.
      12. I'm using speedtest for testing.

      So, is there a performance penalty due to virtualization? Is this the best performance I can hope to get with this board with virtualized pfSense?

      Urbaman75U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Urbaman75U
        Urbaman75 @brainolution
        last edited by

        This post is deleted!
        Urbaman75U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Urbaman75U
          Urbaman75 @Urbaman75
          last edited by

          This post is deleted!
          bmeeksB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • bmeeksB
            bmeeks @Urbaman75
            last edited by

            @Urbaman75 said in Slow internet speed with pfSense virtualized under Proxmox on Zimaboard 832:

            So my problem seems to be Suricata-related, stopping it the throughput get up to 2G!

            Is there a way to get Suricata faster?

            Use fewer rules. Most users wind up enabling far more rules than are actually needed. Evaluate the exposed vulnerabilities in your network and only enable rules that cover those scenarios. For example, if you don't run a web server, email server, or public DNS server, then all the rule categories related to those vulnerabilities are not needed and should not be enabled.

            I see you appear to have a Bridge interface enabled (vmbr0). Suricata is not going to play well with that setup. It wants to run on native physical interfaces and not virtual ones (a bridge is a type of virtual interface).

            You can also try swapping the RUN MODE on the INTERFACE SETTINGS tab to "workers" from "autoFP". Sometimes that can help, but usually more so when using Inline IPS Mode.

            Urbaman75U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • Urbaman75U
              Urbaman75 @bmeeks
              last edited by

              This post is deleted!
              bmeeksB Bob.DigB 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • bmeeksB
                bmeeks @Urbaman75
                last edited by

                @Urbaman75: yes, if the virtual NIC is single-queue only that will certainly impact throughput.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Bob.DigB
                  Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @Urbaman75
                  last edited by Bob.Dig

                  @Urbaman75 Have you tried turning "Multiqueue" on and off for the VirtIO paravirtualized NIC, to see if it makes any difference?

                  Urbaman75U T 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Urbaman75U
                    Urbaman75 @Bob.Dig
                    last edited by

                    This post is deleted!
                    B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • B
                      brainolution @Urbaman75
                      last edited by

                      @Urbaman75 You have completely hijacked my thread. Mine was in the context of my newly purchased Zimaboard.

                      Could you please create a new thread of your own and delete your comments so I could get the space?

                      Urbaman75U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • Urbaman75U
                        Urbaman75 @brainolution
                        last edited by

                        @brainolution done, deleted my comments, sorry for having taken up your space

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • T
                          tibere86 @Bob.Dig
                          last edited by

                          @Bob-Dig - How do you enable MULTIQUEUE on Proxmox with VirtIO NICs? I have tried this to no avail. Even though I enable the setting in the VirtIO NICS, pfSense does not see it and still reverts to a single (1) queue.

                          B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • B
                            brainolution @tibere86
                            last edited by

                            @tibere86 Please create a new post for your question. Thanks.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • First post
                              Last post