Load balancing not actually balanced?
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I'm a new pfSense user and a new Netgate user - new 4200. I have successfully set up the firewall with Multi-WAN in a load-balancing configuration and both WANs are in fact getting hit and are active - but the balancing aspect seems very un-balanced.
First WAN is a 2.5Gbps hardware link and 2Gbps purchased bandwidth (per my account there), the second WAN is a 1Gbps hardware link and same purchased bandwidth (per my account there). When connecting a separate machine directly to the two different modems I do get full bandwidth (2Gbps and 1Gbps) per standard speedtest websites.
But when running torrent software on a capable machine - connected to the 4200 with a 2.5Gbps link - where the torrent software is limited to 260Mbps overall (due to an unfortunately slow disk) - the first WAN routinely gets a steady 35MBps flow in while the second WAN fluctuates highly but usually in the range 0.5MBps to 1.5MBps. Or, about a 10-to-1 ratio. Both WAN Gateways are set for weight == 1. All this is IPv4 only as I have IPv6 disabled (haven't figured it out yet).
As, AFAIK, the torrent software is constantly creating, using, and taking down connections, over time, over a large number of separate torrents, load balancing should be working and with both set to weight == 1 I expect to see similar bandwidth to both WANs (since the total limit the torrent program is using is under 1Gbps).
Am I right in that assumption? Is there something I should be looking at? I'd be happy to upload any configuration information or logs if that would help you answer my question. Or, I'm happy to just take hints of what to look at, how to do measurements, etc., including links to documentation or other information.
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@davidbak level devil in Load balancing not actually balanced?:
I'm a new pfSense user and a new Netgate user - new 4200. I have successfully set up the firewall with Multi-WAN in a load-balancing configuration and both WANs are in fact getting hit and are active - but the balancing aspect seems very un-balanced.
First WAN is a 2.5Gbps hardware link and 2Gbps purchased bandwidth (per my account there), the second WAN is a 1Gbps hardware link and same purchased bandwidth (per my account there). When connecting a separate machine directly to the two different modems I do get full bandwidth (2Gbps and 1Gbps) per standard speedtest websites.
But when running torrent software on a capable machine - connected to the 4200 with a 2.5Gbps link - where the torrent software is limited to 260Mbps overall (due to an unfortunately slow disk) - the first WAN routinely gets a steady 35MBps flow in while the second WAN fluctuates highly but usually in the range 0.5MBps to 1.5MBps. Or, about a 10-to-1 ratio. Both WAN Gateways are set for weight == 1. All this is IPv4 only as I have IPv6 disabled (haven't figured it out yet).
As, AFAIK, the torrent software is constantly creating, using, and taking down connections, over time, over a large number of separate torrents, load balancing should be working and with both set to weight == 1 I expect to see similar bandwidth to both WANs (since the total limit the torrent program is using is under 1Gbps).
Am I right in that assumption? Is there something I should be looking at? I'd be happy to upload any configuration information or logs if that would help you answer my question. Or, I'm happy to just take hints of what to look at, how to do measurements, etc., including links to documentation or other information.
You should double-check your pfSense load balancing configuration, especially the sticky connections, as pfSense typically balances on a per-connection basis rather than sharing the overall bandwidth evenly. Also, consider setting appropriate weights for each WAN bandwidth for a more accurate distribution ratio. Torrenting often creates many small connections, so uneven balancing can also be due to the number of connections not being large enough or some heavy connections being concentrated on the main WAN. You should also review the logs and gateway status to ensure there are no errors or dropped connections that affect the balancing. Netgate's Multi-WAN load balancing documentation and the pfSense forums have many detailed instructions to help you check and fine-tune your configuration.