Broadcom 57414 / 57504 10/25GbE SFP28 Compatibility with pfSense CE 2.7/2.8

iamsumesh

We are planning to upgrade our pfSense CE server (version 2.7 / 2.8) with a high-speed NIC and would like to confirm driver and compatibility support before making the purchase. The adapters I am considering are:

Broadcom 57414 Dual Port 10/25GbE SFP28 Adapter
Broadcom 57504 Quad Port 10/25GbE SFP28 Adapter

Has anyone deployed these cards on pfSense CE and can confirm whether they are detected properly, stable under high load, and work as expected?

If these Broadcom adapters are not well supported, I would appreciate recommendations for dual/quad port 10/25GbE SFP28 NICs that are known to work reliably with pfSense CE 2.7/2.8.

tman222

Based on what I can see in the man pages, there should be support in the latest versions of pfSense (which are based on FreeBSD 15) through the bnxt driver:

https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bnxt&apropos=0&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+15.0-CURRENT&arch=default&format=html

@stephenw10 - can you please confirm that the bnxt driver is included with pfSense?

I have not used Broadcom cards myself with pfSense, but have had good experiences with both Intel and Chelsio. Hope this helps.

stephenw10

It is in 2.8:

[2.8.0-RELEASE][admin@t70.stevew.lan]/root: kldstat -v | grep bnxt
		 94 pci/bnxt
		 93 bnxt_mgmt

I've never tested that NIC though.

mmercier

Hello,

Not exactly the same card, but some information for you.

I have the following on a pfSense 2.7.2 install:

BCM57416 NetXtreme-E Dual-Media 10G RDMA Ethernet Controller

The interfaces are the 'onboard' interfaces in a Dell R440 server. I'll admit that the latest firmware is likely not installed on the server, so this might only be a me problem?

I have found that playing with SFP modules (i.e. remove / insert) while the system is running can cause the NIC to stop transmitting / receiving traffic. The only work around I have found is to reboot the node.

Mike