3100 will reach "End of Life" in 5 days

gweempose

@SteveITS I get over a gig down from my cable company, and I have a 2.5 Gbps network, so I definitely want something that can take full advantage of that. I don't currently use a VPN on my router, but that seems like something that could come in handy. I also don't currently run any packages, although there are a few I find intriguing.

SteveITS

@gweempose With that speed, definitely the 4200. The 2100 won't get to a gig.

stephenw10

Yup the 4200 is a big step up from the 3100 but you would need that for 2.5G internal routing.

gweempose

@SteveITS said:

@gweempose With that speed, definitely the 4200. The 2100 won't get to a gig.

@stephenw10 said:

Yup the 4200 is a big step up from the 3100 but you would need that for 2.5G internal routing.

Thanks for the responses, guys! I ended up pre-ordering the 4200. It may be overkill for my current needs, but it should future-proof my network, at least for a while.

YannTKO

Hello,
Does it mean that the 3100 will be updated again with FreeBSD 15 ?
HEADS UP: FreeBSD is stopping all 32-bit Hardware support except ARMv7

Thank you.
Y.

stephenw10

It's supported by current 24.03-dev snapshots.

24.03-DEVELOPMENT (arm)
built on Thu Feb 15 6:00:00 GMT 2024
FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT

There may be some packages that no longer build.

jimp

While they have not fully dropped support yet, FreeBSD degraded ARMv7 from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 architecture, meaning it's more of a "best effort" / "if it works, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't" sort of situation.

It's only going to get more and more broken as time goes on until it's fully dropped.

stan-qaz

Since this is the most helpful 3100 topic I found I'll add an April 2024 update to it:
From the 24.03 release notes
Netgate 3100 (32-Bit ARM) Limitations
Support for the EOL Netgate 3100 device architecture, armv7, is being phased out upstream in FreeBSD. While this release still contains base system functionality for the Netgate 3100, several packages are unavailable as they can no longer build for that architecture. The list of packages unavailable for the Netgate 3100 now also includes Suricata, Squid, and squidGuard.

Users who wish to continue using those packages on a Netgate 3100 should not upgrade to this release.

adamw

I'm on the fence swapping for 2100 vs 4200.
Our 3100 is generally sitting at around 20-30% CPU, memory and MBUF usage most of the time.
Downgrading might be risky and upgrading might be a big overkill.
Any other factors to consider?

SteveITS

@adamw Bandwidth is a big one...the 2100 maxes out around 600 Mbps or thereabouts, without packages.

mcury

I sold my SG-3100 and I regret that.. I miss that little device.
See, there are a lot that you can do with an EOL device, even more with a builtin switch.

There is a veterinary clinic that is asking me to deploy a VPN solution, they are a small business, don't want to buy a switch, just a nobreak, few cables and the gateway.

They want to be able to access the clinic from home, check some documents, cameras, it is not anything really fancy.
So, for a 9W device, SG-3100 is king, two WANs and 4 switched ports, 24.03 firmware, enough speed for almost every small business...

I wonder if there will be a SG-3200 device someday..

adamw

@mcury

I'm wondering about 3200 as well. Is it in the pipeline at all?

We use squid proxy which is no longer supported on 3100 and upgrading to 24.03 not recommended for that reason.

We can survive a couple of months but I don't want to stretch it too much.

mcury

@adamw said in 3100 will reach "End of Life" in 5 days:

I'm wondering about 3200 as well. Is it in the pipeline at all?

Not that I'm aware of, I'm just a regular user..

@adamw said in 3100 will reach "End of Life" in 5 days:

We can survive a couple of months but I don't want to stretch it too much.

If I were in your position now, I would get a SG-4200, it will give you a lot of time don't thinking in upgrade..

adamw

@mcury

Any idea about EOL dates for 2100 and 4200?
https://www.netgate.com/support/product-lifecycle doesn't mention either.

Gertjan

@adamw said in 3100 will reach "End of Life" in 5 days:

4200

The MAX version was presented 3 weeks ago ....
Not sure they already know when it stops before it begins ^^

mcury

@adamw said in 3100 will reach "End of Life" in 5 days:

@mcury

Any idea about EOL dates for 2100 and 4200?
https://www.netgate.com/support/product-lifecycle doesn't mention either.

Well, according to the link you provided, EOL will happen after 1-3 years after EOS (end of sales).

As I see it, someone corrects me if I'm wrong about it, you shouldn't worry to much with EOL for x86 devices.
SG-5100 is a device that we can use as an example for this, it is EOL for a long time and to this day, you can install the latest firmware, with all packages available.

SG-3100 is a particular case, it is ARM-32 bit and it is the only 32-bit device in the Netgate appliances lineup and it was released 6 years ago (not sure about the date).
I heard that upstream (FreeBSD), is also not going to support 32-bit architecture anymore.

The lifespan of the SG-3100 has been great to be honest.

So, answering your question, I'm not sure about the SG-2100, but SG-4200 will definitely be around for a long time, even if its EOL.

Everything that I said here is my point of view, I could be wrong ok ?

stephenw10

Nothing planned yet for 2100 or 4200. No plans to stop building for either AFAIK. The 4200, being x86-64, will likely be supportable for many years.
It's hard to know the future but we only stopped supporting x86-32 years after we stopped selling hardware that required it. Everything we have ever sold that is x86-64 will still run current pfSense AFAIK.

mcury

@stephenw10 said in 3100 will reach "End of Life" in 5 days:

Nothing planned yet for 2100 or 4200. No plans to stop building for either AFAIK. The 4200, being x86-64, will likely be supportable for many years.
It's hard to know the future but we only stopped supporting x86-32 years after we stopped selling hardware that required it. Everything we have ever sold that is x86-64 will still run current pfSense AFAIK.

Thanks stephenw10 for clarifying things for us.

So, is it correct to assume that SG-4100 will also be here for a long time, right ?
PS: I'm a SG-4100 owner

stephenw10

I would certainly expect it to be. There is no complex custom code required for that, for example, which would need significant developer time to maintain.

At some point it will be marked EoL and from then it would be maintained as best effort. If some new bug or security issue was discovered specific to that platform it might potentially be excluded but AFAIK that's never happened to any previous devices. Hard to predict the future though!