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    Load updated Intel IX module to get 10Gbps

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    • O
      ogghi @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10
      I guess I figured out what HW we have here:
      Must be one of those guys, except we don't have the 4 port Ethernet card in:
      https://www.newegg.com/supermicro-sys-5018d-fn8t-intel-xeon-processor-d-1518-2-2-ghz-cpu-tdp-support-35w-fcbga-1667/p/370-0003-000G9

      Also now I am thinking: If the Mellanox cards might give us better throughput, I could get a MCX4121A-ACAT which as of this list: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/12.1R/hardware/#support
      is supported officially by FreeBSD?
      I found that card for ~230 bucks :)

      You think it's worth a try?

      Best regards!

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        @ogghi said in Load updated Intel IX module to get 10Gbps:

        MCX4121A-ACAT

        We have seen a number of reports of issues with that card specifically so, no, I wouldn't get that one. The user who reported getting close to 25Gbps was using a ConnectX-5 NIC.

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          ogghi @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10
          All right, I'll try and get a Mellanox MCX512A-ACAT aka ConnectX-5 EN and report back :)

          Thanks!

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            I will say that I've never tested that myself. It would be good to get a second test with it though as that first result was very surprising.

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              tman222
              last edited by

              I ran a Xeon D-1518 based pfSense system up until recently and the best performance I saw, if I recall correctly, was around ~6-7Gbit/s routing traffic between two different internal network segments (no NAT, no IDS/IPS) via an iperf3 test (single stream). I imagine with NAT in the picture, performance through WAN would have been a bit lower than that.

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                With the included ix NICs I assume? That's about what I'd expect. Which is why the reports of 25Gbps with Mellanox NICs are so surprising.

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                  ogghi @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10
                  hi there, I got the card.
                  How would I go to install it actually?
                  Install the card, change LAN setting to one of the new ports, apply, switch over cables?
                  Then do the same for WAN?

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Yes, pretty much exactly that. Just switch the interface assignments to the new NICs.

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                    • O
                      ogghi @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10
                      Hi there!
                      I was not successful here this morning, had to revert and restore backup. Seems the routes were not updating, same for firewall rules.
                      All back running. What I saw as warning output above in the webUI made me think the issue with the limitation might be something else:

                      Filter Reload
                      There were error(s) loading the rules: pfctl: interface ix0 bandwidth limited to 4294967295 bps because selected scheduler is 32-bit limited - The line in question reads [0]: @ 2024-03-07 07:38:45
                      

                      So I tried disabling traffic shaper completely.
                      No change though.

                      But most important, what did go wrong with interface change? I tried in UI to re-assign, also from cmd locally...

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by stephenw10

                        Ah, looks like you have some limiters set on that and the link speed is above what it can handle. Which itself is interesting.

                        What traffic shaping do you have enabled there?

                        Do you have an interface with the bandwidth set as a percentage?

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                          ogghi @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10
                          I disabled all traffic shaper queues this morning to test after I saw that output.
                          No change so far, but I haven't rebooted since, is it required?

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                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            No you should not need to reboot.

                            If you reload the ruleset in Status > Filter Reload does it regenerate the error?

                            If so that value must still be in the config somewhere.

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                              tman222 @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              @stephenw10 said in Load updated Intel IX module to get 10Gbps:

                              With the included ix NICs I assume? That's about what I'd expect. Which is why the reports of 25Gbps with Mellanox NICs are so surprising.

                              Actually, this was mostly tested between two interfaces on a Chelsio T540-SO-CR expansion card. I do recall testing between the Chelsio interfaces and onboard ix interfaces at a time or two as well and seeing similar speeds (i.e. no major increases or decreases).

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                                ogghi @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10
                                I tried to do the reload while tail -f on /var/log/system.log
                                I only saw:
                                Mar 11 14:40:29 vm12 check_reload_status[331]: Reloading filter

                                That's where it had logged the error before I bet?

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                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  Yes it would show in the system log. It would also show on the filter reload page if the error was regenerated.

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                                  • O
                                    ogghi @stephenw10
                                    last edited by

                                    @stephenw10 So no errors here :)
                                    But problem not solved either.

                                    https://hastebin.com/share/visalixawa.bash

                                    I am confused why it still generates ALTQ queues?
                                    3d594a12-f8ce-4b47-9675-57bd9a7aa8cb-image.png

                                    Anyway, because of a power outage the firewall might reboot tonight (unless UPS holds up long enough)

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      It doesn't. The script is simply logging that it has reached that section where it would be creating queues if they were configured.

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                                      • O
                                        ogghi @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10
                                        Good!

                                        The question remains on how to change NICs while maintaining the NAT and firewall rules etc?

                                        Did I not use the right procedure?

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          I don't know. It should be trivial since all the interface config is abstracted from the NIC. You just assign WAN to the new ix NIC and all the settings follow it.

                                          The traffic shaping is potentially an issue because it tries to detest the NIC link speed and obviously that can/will change.

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                                            ogghi @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 As I disabled traffic shaping that should not be an issue anymore.
                                            The new interface has a different name, mce0 and mce1 but that shouldn't matter?

                                            I'll try again at an appropriate time where down-time is possible!

                                            Thanks for the quick replies!

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