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

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

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    166 Posts 6 Posters 28.2k 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.
    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @ngr2001
      last edited by

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

      My LAN MTU is now 1460 in PF, so far no change is certain speedtests

      Did you set MSS like I suggested though? MTU does nothing to pf.

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

        @stephenw10 Copper 10G-BaseT SFP+ modules most likely being used

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

          @lnguyen

          Yes I have SPF+ RJ45 adapters in the 7250, thus I can easily move the CAT8 from one jack to the over for this test.

          L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • L
            lnguyen @ngr2001
            last edited by

            @ngr2001 Can you do a show int 10GigabitEthernet1/2/8?

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

              @stephenw10

              I did not, but I just corrected that. I reset the states, waited a few mins and so far there may be a small boost in performance. I seem to be averaging now 700Mpbs instead of 500Mbps on fast.com, however if I switch ports we get the full 900+. So better but not perfect.

              64251468-6ed7-46ed-8090-ba5a1bd08939-image.png

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

                @lnguyen

                1/2/8 - My 10Gb uplink to PF LAN Nic.
                689ff83c-9756-4b10-8dcf-72af121c1c0e-image.png

                I just noticed that 2 of my main clients currently at 1Gb on the switch have a lot of dropped packets. However right now I am running speedtests and I am not seeing the dropped packet counter increasing, so who know under which setup all these packets were dropped.

                1Gb Win 11 Client
                f5181091-f64a-483e-9e0a-69214260fd35-image.png

                1Gb Win 11 Client
                2ffd20e3-6932-412c-9007-0460e4980f0d-image.png

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

                  @lnguyen

                  Should I disable flow control on my WAN NIC as a long term production setup being I am on Cable Internet ?

                  L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • L
                    lnguyen @ngr2001
                    last edited by lnguyen

                    @ngr2001 I am not sure you are catching what I have said a few times across the two threads. Ethernet Flow Control is done on L2, which is what you have been configuring. TCP Flow Control is done at L4 which seems to not function when pfSense WAN is connected to DOCSIS cable modem. If you want to use Ethernet Flow control, which IMO is ugly, then you should leave it enabled.

                    With my setup, I don't use ethernet flow control.

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

                      Mmm, try with the MTU at the default 1500 so it matches the switch and client.

                      200k input errors is pretty significant though.

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

                        @stephenw10

                        Just tried, same diff, speeds quickly taper down to 5-600Mbps.

                        I clear my stats on switch, right now at least the dropped packet count is not increasing.

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

                          Just to be clear you are running the switch at layer2 only right?

                          It's hard to see how adding the switch, or just changing the port speed, can have any effect on the tcp dircetly. It could be that is some how broken upstream such that when introducing some lower lever issue it's very badly effected though. 🤔

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

                            @stephenw10

                            I am not using any layer 3 features that I am aware of right now, thus I guess it should be in layer 2. I do have flow control enabled on the switch though.

                            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 1/1/8
                            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
                            !

                            ip ssh idle-time 120
                            !
                            end
                            SSH@romulus#

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

                              @stephenw10

                              So I believe I upgraded to the Layer 3 firmware and enabled it from what I recall.

                              HW: Stackable ICX7250-48

                              UNIT 1: SL 1: ICX7250-48 48-port Management Module

                                Software Package: **ICX7250_L3_SOFT_PACKAGE**
                                Current License: l3-prem-8X10G
                                P-ASIC  0: type B344, rev 01  Chip BCM56344_A0
                              
                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Right. As long as it's not actually routing that shouldn't matter.

                                It sure seems like it's failing to negotiate flow control though. What does: ifconfig -vvm ix1 show in pfSense?

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

                                  This post is deleted!
                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • N
                                    ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                    last edited by ngr2001

                                    @stephenw10

                                    When connected at 10Gb I get this:
                                    216eb3fc-702c-4ba6-b3ec-1b0b1e8e953e-image.png

                                    When connected at 1Gb I get this:
                                    5748e43a-b81b-42b8-8923-d8992d880b61-image.png

                                    L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • L
                                      lnguyen @ngr2001
                                      last edited by

                                      @ngr2001 Maybe the 10GBASE-T SFP+ module you have is not passing along the 802.3x FC negotiation to the SFP+ port on the Brocade 7250

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

                                        Yes I would start to suspect the module. It should negotiate that over base-T but....
                                        For other media types it's fixed like:

                                        ix1: flags=1008843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1500
                                        	description: WAN4
                                        	options=4e138bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG>
                                        	capabilities=4f53fbb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,NETMAP,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG>
                                        	ether 00:08:a2:12:e2:cb
                                        	inet6 fe80::208:a2ff:fe12:e2cb%ix1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x6
                                        	media: Ethernet autoselect (10Gbase-Twinax <full-duplex,rxpause,txpause>)
                                        	status: active
                                        	supported media:
                                        		media autoselect
                                        		media 1000Base-KX
                                        		media 10Gbase-Twinax
                                        	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
                                        	drivername: ix1
                                        	plugged: SFP/SFP+/SFP28 Unknown (Copper pigtail)
                                        	vendor: OEM PN: SFP-H10GB-CU5M SN: CSS51F70287 DATE: 2015-07-01
                                        

                                        There it's just set to 'enabled' in the switch. I would try setting both ends as enabled rather than negotiated.

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

                                          @stephenw10

                                          I dont see any other options other than negotiate on the brocade side, are you suggesting I tweak the PF Side with a tunable ?

                                          https://docs.commscope.com/bundle/fastiron-08095-managementguide/page/GUID-A5971868-1051-4807-8ED2-D3BC6B10AA3B.html

                                          I also found this in the manual:

                                          66a76d39-c8ba-48de-a453-da9940939b39-image.png

                                          So what the heck does that mean, the manual does not offer any means or clues on if you can manually force flow control on a 10Gb port. To me this simply reads as not supported ?

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

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

                                            https://docs.commscope.com/bundle/fastiron-08095-managementguide/page/GUID-A5971868-1051-4807-8ED2-D3BC6B10AA3B.html

                                            Auto-negotiation of flow control is not supported on 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps ports, fiber ports, and copper or fiber combination ports. 
                                            

                                            So you need to set a 10G port to enabled not neg-enabled.

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