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    Mixing different NIC Speeds (1Gb & 10Gb) Performance Problem Question

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    • keyserK
      keyser Rebel Alliance @ngr2001
      last edited by

      @ngr2001 Hmm, well maybe this thread can help you:

      https://forum.netgate.com/topic/195289/10gb-lan-causing-strange-performance-issues-goes-away-when-switched-over-to-1gb

      I don’t know the CLI of that switchmodel, so you would need to use google/the manual to figure out your options.

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

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • keyserK
        keyser Rebel Alliance @ngr2001
        last edited by

        @ngr2001 ohh, that thread was started by you as well…

        The SSH command for flow control is in that thread, and there is som inspiration for changing buffers on a switch

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

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        • N
          ngr2001 @keyser
          last edited by

          @keyser

          Lol totally forgot that, must have hit my head. Yes had the same issue with my Cisco switch it seems. I moved to a Brocade to get more 10Gb ports. Now I need to reproduce the same success.

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            Mmm, I would also check for MTU/MSS issues. They can present exactly like that.

            I'd be amazed if the ICX7250 had a problem with that. Though it has many config options, it could misconfigured to do it!

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              ngr2001 @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10

              So I forgot you solved this issue once for me when I had a Cisco 3650.

              Seems like the Brocade ICX-7250 has the same issue but I find its CLI way more confusing and not as well documented as Cisco.

              The Cisco fix was:
              qos queue-softmax-multiplier 1200

              Brocade does not seem to have an equivalent that I can find, thus far I have tried.

              Enabling Flow Control on all the Brocade Ports - Result no difference

              Enabling "buffer-sharing-full" - Result no difference

              Perhaps Brocades QOS "ingress-buffer-profile" or "egress-buffer-profile" would do the trick but the documentation and google searching is not leading me anywhere with something I can try.

              If I cant get this working I may seriously consider getting a Cisco 3850, however I would like to get something that has 8Mb+ port buffers so I don't have to play this tuning game.

              My ICX 7250 Config:

              SSH@romulus>show run
              Current configuration:
              !
              ver 08.0.95pT213
              !
              stack unit 1
              module 1 icx7250-48-port-management-module
              module 2 icx7250-sfp-plus-8port-80g-module
              stack-port 1/2/1
              stack-port 1/2/3
              !
              vlan 1 name DEFAULT-VLAN by port
              router-interface ve 1
              !
              !
              symmetrical-flow-control enable
              !
              !
              optical-monitor
              optical-monitor non-ruckus-optic-enable
              aaa authentication web-server default local
              aaa authentication login default local
              enable aaa console
              hostname romulus
              ip dhcp-client disable
              ip dns server-address 10.0.0.1
              ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.0.0.1
              !
              no telnet server

              !
              clock timezone us Eastern
              !
              !
              ntp
              disable serve
              server time.cloudflare.com
              !
              !
              no web-management http
              !
              manager disable
              !
              !
              manager port-list 987
              !

              !
              interface ethernet 1/1/4
              flow-control neg-on
              !
              interface ethernet 1/1/48
              flow-control neg-on
              !
              interface ethernet 1/2/1
              flow-control neg-on
              !
              interface ethernet 1/2/8
              flow-control neg-on
              !
              interface ve 1
              ip address 10.0.0.3 255.255.255.0
              !
              !
              end

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                I would also try specifically disabling flow-control on all interfaces in the path. We have seen cases where flow-control itself was the problem. I really wouldn't expect flow-control to be an issue here when there are 1G links both up and down stream limiting the flow already.

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                • N
                  ngr2001 @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10

                  Last time I tried it made no difference but I'll try again. To me its clearly a Brocade issue, much like the Cisco issue I had but was able to fix with your help, I just cant find a comparable setting.

                  I should have just bought a Cisco 3850 with the 12x multigig ports. I am seeing them on ebay for $99. At that price I may just buy one and give up on the brocade.

                  With the 3850 I could have my WAN, LAN, and Win 11 clients all at 2.5Gb with a few remaining Win 11 clients at 1Gb. With the larger buffer and known QOS tweaks it would likely go a lot smoother for me.

                  keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • johnpozJ
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @ngr2001
                    last edited by

                    @ngr2001 Ok so we are sure we are on the same page..

                    In this config where its 1ge from your switch to pfsense, a single client is able to get 900ish Mbps..

                    1ge.jpg

                    But in this config.. Where pfsense has 10ge to your switch.. A single client is only able to get 600Mbps?

                    10ge.jpg

                    Is there any way you can test this config?

                    client.jpg

                    Where the client has a connection that can do your wan 2Ge isp connection? ie 2.5 or 5 or 10 directly connected to just a single client?

                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                    SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                    N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • keyserK
                      keyser Rebel Alliance @ngr2001
                      last edited by

                      @ngr2001 said in Mixing different NIC Speeds (1Gb & 10Gb) Performance Problem Question:

                      @stephenw10

                      Last time I tried it made no difference but I'll try again. To me its clearly a Brocade issue, much like the Cisco issue I had but was able to fix with your help, I just cant find a comparable setting.

                      I should have just bought a Cisco 3850 with the 12x multigig ports. I am seeing them on ebay for $99. At that price I may just buy one and give up on the brocade.

                      With the 3850 I could have my WAN, LAN, and Win 11 clients all at 2.5Gb with a few remaining Win 11 clients at 1Gb. With the larger buffer and known QOS tweaks it would likely go a lot smoother for me.

                      It just borderline insane how cheap Cisco switches are used in the US..... You really must have a lot of shops that just rotates all the equipment on a schedule instead of actually looking at the value and lifetime the products offer.

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

                      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • johnpozJ
                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @keyser
                        last edited by

                        @keyser said in Mixing different NIC Speeds (1Gb & 10Gb) Performance Problem Question:

                        With the 3850

                        hahah - yeah you would also have what sounds like a jet taking off where ever you put it ;)

                        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • N
                          ngr2001 @johnpoz
                          last edited by

                          @johnpoz

                          In this setup all clients perform great, 900+Mbps sustained speedtests, no issues.
                          808f834c-1b54-4557-9ebc-cadf305d823b-image.png

                          In this setup those 1Gb clients have issues, speedtest starts off strong and quickly drops to 500-600Mbps.
                          75a97e3b-1772-46d0-9509-d674630e971d-image.png

                          In this test both PFSense LAN NIC and the Client is at 10Gb, is this scenario the clients performance is also perfect, hitting 1.9Gbps sustained speedtest scores. The WAN is at 2.5Gb.
                          6e59a061-c6d1-43d1-a30e-1f502afa8c03-image.png

                          johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • johnpozJ
                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @ngr2001
                            last edited by

                            @ngr2001then yeah that sure seems like its switch related to me.

                            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              So do you see dropped packets in the switch? On which ports?

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                              • N
                                ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10

                                Oddly, on the new Brocade switch I am not seeing any dropped packets, even when the performance drops.

                                If you recall, the Cisco 3650 would record dropped packets like crazy until we modified the config.

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                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  Are you running the L2 or L3 firmware? L2 doesn't appear to offer the qos values but I'm not sure if that implies it doesn't use it..... 🤔

                                  N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    If you haven't already you might as well try bumping the ip-qos-session value.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • N
                                      ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                      last edited by ngr2001

                                      @stephenw10

                                      On the Brocade ICX 7250 I have the Full Layer 3 Firmware / License.

                                      Just the pure lack of community support and viable example documentation for the Brocade has me about to click buy-it now on a Cisco WS-C3850-12X48U-S.

                                      Since I messed up once already, can anyone think of a better multigig switch than the WS-C3850-12X48U-S, by better I mean larger buffers to handle 10Gb traffic and mixed client speeds.

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                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        I must say I find it almost impossible to believe that the 7250 can't handle this. I have an older 6450 here and have never seen problems like that with it. I have a 7250 also I just haven't found time to install it. Yet.

                                        N L 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • N
                                          ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10

                                          I agree, I 100% feel its fixable, there is just not much info or example configs floating around to go off of.

                                          Even their VLAN setup feels confusing compared to Cisco.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            Ha, well you have to hand it to Cisco, they have successfully convinced the world that their UI is the only and best UI. Including the Cisco terms for things that already had perfectly good names. 😉

                                            But a 10G trunk link between a router and switch with 1G downstream devices is pretty common setup. I'd expect to see numerous threads complaining about this yet....

                                            N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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