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

    New Tunable: kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc on fresh install

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Plus 25.07 Develoment Snapshots
    13 Posts 6 Posters 152 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.
    • provelsP
      provels @luckman212
      last edited by

      @luckman212
      Docs
      Maybe because QAT is faster? It's '1' on mine, but my proc doesn't have QAT.

      Peder

      MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
      BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • T
        tedquade @luckman212
        last edited by

        @luckman212 On my stock 6100MAX 25.07RC it is set to 1.

        Ted

        luckman212L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • luckman212L
          luckman212 LAYER 8 @tedquade
          last edited by

          @tedquade Guess when 25.07 officially releases I'll factory erase and check again.

          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • M
            mcury Rebel Alliance @luckman212
            last edited by mcury

            SG-4100, 24.11, set to 0 here.
            Weird, this is explicit set in my config file:

            <sysctl>
            <item>
            <tunable>kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc</tunable>
            <value>0</value>
            </item>
            </sysctl>
            

            Edit:
            If you enable IPsec-MB, it will set kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc to 0.
            Since I`m running Wireguard only, that is what I want, in my SG-4100.
            Just a FYI only, QAT is enabled but not in use.

            dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • dennypageD
              dennypage @luckman212
              last edited by

              @luckman212 said in New Tunable: kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc on fresh install:

              Noticed a new tunable that I haven't seen before

              kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc
              On a stock 6100 25.07 RC install, this is being set to 0

              Any more info on this?

              See documentation on Crypto here.

              luckman212L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • luckman212L
                luckman212 LAYER 8 @dennypage
                last edited by luckman212

                @dennypage Yes thanks I saw that, so I assume that for the 6100 (which does have QAT) that 0 is the preferred value here? Or does it not even really matter much?

                provelsP RobbieTTR dennypageD 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • provelsP
                  provels @luckman212
                  last edited by

                  @luckman212 No idea, just spitballing, but is it dependent on the type of VPN you choose? I use OpenVPN, not IPSec.

                  Peder

                  MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
                  BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • RobbieTTR
                    RobbieTT @luckman212
                    last edited by

                    @luckman212

                    kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc
                    Enables handling of AES-CBC. IIMB can be slower than QAT for CBC so this is a toggle to disable handling for AES-CBC while accelerating other algorithms so IPsec-MB and QAT can coexist in such environments. Supported on x86-64 only.
                    
                    Default is enabled (1). To disable, set a value of 0.
                    

                    So I read that as 'set zero' when using both IPsec-MB and QAT. Well, that is what I have set it to on my Xeon system.

                    ☕️

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • dennypageD
                      dennypage @luckman212
                      last edited by dennypage

                      @luckman212 said in New Tunable: kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc on fresh install:

                      Yes thanks I saw that, so I assume that for the 6100 (which does have QAT) that 0 is the preferred value here? Or does it not even really matter much?

                      Mine shows as 1 in System / Advanced / System Tunables, however I do not see it actually being used by the kernel:

                      [25.07-RC][root@fw]/root: sysctl kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc
                      sysctl: unknown oid 'kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc'
                      [25.07-RC][root@fw]/root: 
                      

                      kldstat on my 6100 shows that iimb.ko isn't loaded, so this makes sense. Looking at /etc/inc/pfsense-utils.inc, the loading of iimb.ko is controlled by system/ipsec_mb.

                      Looking at /etc/inc/config.console.inc, it appears that system/ipsec_mb is set to true on the 6100, but only on initial install. This explicit setting of ipsec_mb on the 6100 appears to be new. Ditto for kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc, which is now set to 0, but only on initial install. So now, you get the option of using iimb on the 6100.

                      Again looking /etc/inc/config.console.inc, on the 6100 system/crypto_hardware will be set to qat during install, so iimb may be an option, but qat is still the default.

                      So in summary, to answer your question, I don't think it matters at all. 🤠

                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • M
                        mcury Rebel Alliance @dennypage
                        last edited by

                        @dennypage said in New Tunable: kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc on fresh install:

                        So in summary, to answer your question, I don't think it matters at all. 🤠

                        Well, according to the documentation, ChaCha20-Poly1305 is accelerated by iimb, so if you are running only wireguard, you would benefit by enabling it.
                        If that is the case, kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc will be 0.

                        Not sure if QAT enabled or disabled, will influence in that value.

                        dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

                        luckman212L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • luckman212L
                          luckman212 LAYER 8 @mcury
                          last edited by

                          @mcury so...

                          I do use WireGuard, and I DON'T use IPsec. I DO have kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc=0 set

                          e57841aa-b0da-4ec8-8d80-bf5ab1f90b36-image.png

                          And it seems iimb.ko is loaded...

                          [25.07-RC][root@r1.lan]/root: kldstat
                          Id Refs Address                Size Name
                           1   74 0xffffffff80200000  2dcd238 kernel
                           2    1 0xffffffff82fcf000   60b278 zfs.ko
                           3    1 0xffffffff835db000    1e2a8 opensolaris.ko
                           4    3 0xffffffff83e20000     6780 gpiobus.ko
                           5    1 0xffffffff83e27000     2140 gpioled.ko
                           6    1 0xffffffff83e2a000     22a0 cordbuc.ko
                           7    1 0xffffffff83e2d000     5a80 udf.ko
                           8    1 0xffffffff83e33000     23a0 cpuctl.ko
                           9    1 0xffffffff83e36000     4250 ichsmb.ko
                          10    1 0xffffffff83e3b000     2178 smbus.ko
                          11    1 0xffffffff83e3e000     4390 qat.ko
                          12    6 0xffffffff83e43000    14dd0 qat_hw.ko
                          13    9 0xffffffff83e58000    2ffe0 qat_common.ko
                          14    8 0xffffffff83e88000    68cd8 qat_api.ko
                          15    1 0xffffffff83ef1000   122c20 qat_c3xxx_fw.ko
                          16    1 0xffffffff84200000   5d67c8 iimb.ko
                          17    1 0xffffffff84014000    11258 qat_c2xxx.ko
                          19    1 0xffffffff84056000     20f0 coretemp.ko
                          20    1 0xffffffff84026000    2f5e0 if_wg.ko
                          

                          9b4565c6-1d09-4dd4-841a-65773a0007a3-image.png

                          I did a fresh USB wipe and reinstall to get here, so these are "default" settings I think...

                          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • M
                            mcury Rebel Alliance @luckman212
                            last edited by

                            @luckman212 said in New Tunable: kern.crypto.iimb.enable_aescbc on fresh install:

                            I did a fresh USB wipe and reinstall to get here, so these are "default" settings I think...

                            You should be good now, for wireguard. 👍

                            dead on arrival, nowhere to be found.

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