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    VMWare GSX Server & LAN Speed over 10MBit ?

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    • S
      siri69
      last edited by

      Hi,
      I run pfSense under VMware GSX Server with ADSL 16000/800 but I get only Downloads about 1000 KB/sek should be about 1500 I think.
      Is it possibel that the VMware "vlance" networkdrivers only support 10MBit ? (The DSL-Modem has 100MBit Connection)

      There is als an alternative vmxnet Dadapter type I normaly use for windows, but when i set this pfsense detect no network cards,
      is it possibel to incule the network-drivers for VMware in the router ?
      I down't know how to install the bsd VMWare Tools… Via VMWare Menue it does not work

      cu

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      • S
        sullrich
        last edited by

        I am not sure if GSX supports this but Virtual Server, player and crew support em1000 interfaces.

        Here's an example config (note the e1000 entries):

        config.version = "8"
        virtualHW.version = "4"
        scsi0.present = "TRUE"
        scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
        memsize = "64"
        ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
        ide0:0.fileName = "FreeBSD.vmdk"
        ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
        ide1:0.fileName = "C:\pfSense.iso"
        ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
        floppy0.fileName = "A:"
        Ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
        ethernet0.virtualDev="e1000"
        usb.present = "FALSE"
        displayName = "pfSenseTest_RELENG_1"
        guestOS = "freebsd"
        priority.grabbed = "normal"
        priority.ungrabbed = "normal"
        powerType.powerOff = "default"
        powerType.powerOn = "default"
        powerType.suspend = "default"
        powerType.reset = "default"

        ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
        floppy0.present = "FALSE"
        Ethernet1.present = "TRUE"
        ethernet1.virtualDev="e1000"

        ide0:0.mode = "independent-nonpersistent"

        uuid.bios = "56 4d ef c5 88 9d ec 9a-01 46 e5 77 4f c8 38 86"
        uuid.location = "56 4d ef c5 88 9d ec 9a-01 46 e5 77 4f c8 38 86"

        ide0:0.redo = ".\FreeBSD.vmdk.REDO_a03176"
        ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
        ethernet1.addressType = "generated"
        checkpoint.vmState = "pfsensetest_releng_1.vmss"
        ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:c8:38:86"
        ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
        ethernet1.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:c8:38:90"
        ethernet1.generatedAddressOffset = "10"

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        • S
          siri69
          last edited by

          With VMware-gsx-server–3.2.1-19281 it will not work,
          after change to e1000 the machine did not find boot config and after restart all network & disk devices are gone.

          So i try with VMware-server--22874, there ale vlanc ist set but after change to e1000 it will work and BSD detect Inte Pro 100/1000

          The Virtual Prozessor settings should I better use one or two prozessor ?

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          • S
            sullrich
            last edited by

            Use two.

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            • Y
              YoMarK
              last edited by

              You should only use Vmware's multiprocessor capabilities if you have more then 2 hardware processors/core's.
              For example; on a dual singlecore Xeon (hyperthreading enabled - doesn't matter) it's best to use only 1 virtual processor.

              Note:
              10Mbit vlance(vlance has a big overhead - and overhead in Vmware means processorpower), can make 1000Mbit. The speed is "virtual", and can go as fast as your processor can process internaly, and as fast as you physical NIC(used in the Vmware server) can do externaly(if your processors can handle it).

              The e1000 driver has a slightly better performance then vlance, but the vmxnet driver is more then 10 times faster(that means in vmware almost no overhead).
              Has someone tried to install/include the vmxnet drivers in pfSense?

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              • C
                ChillyWilly
                last edited by

                I installed the vmxnet and vmmemctl drivers in pfSense. The performance is better, but I have 2 problems.

                1. vmxnet drivers don't support ALTQ, so no traffic shaping

                2. After about 12 hours pfSense stops responding. This is with the same config.xml as before (except that I replaced lnc with vnx). The vm is still running and i can still ping from the console menu. The webconfigurator is not responding.

                I'm now gonna try the e1000's. I have a good test setup. A PIII 866, and it maxes out at 1mbyte with the vlance drivers and 1.4 mbyte with the vmxnet drivers. So about a 40% increase.

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                • C
                  ChillyWilly
                  last edited by

                  Well the e1000 interfaces give me about 1.2 mbyte, so thats right in the middle.

                  The PIII 866 is gonna be replaced bij a P4 2.8ghz machine so throughput won't be a problem then.

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                  • S
                    sullrich
                    last edited by

                    @ChillyWilly:

                    Well the e1000 interfaces give me about 1.2 mbyte, so thats right in the middle.

                    The PIII 866 is gonna be replaced bij a P4 2.8ghz machine so throughput won't be a problem then.

                    Thats good to hear.  Please bench the 2.8ghz box when you get it in production.  I am curious how fast it will go.

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