Suggested Hardware for 1Gbit Throughput / 100% working Hardware-Suggestion
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Hello :)
We are currently having huge problems with our original HP-Hardware and pfSense
(configured as transparent bridge WAN<->OPT1).
After trying pfSense on a DL380 and a Bl20p G3 - Blade, we had on both the problem
of packets being lost or heavily delayed.
We now have a Sonicwall Pro 2040 for testing purposes and those packet-problems
are gone :-)
Well, but this appliance can only handle 200 Mbit/sec Firewall-Throughput, but we need
more, preferebly 1000 Mbit (later possibly more by changing the copper-NICs to 4 GBit
FC-Nics).
Well, I have a slightly unpleasend standing in the company at the moment as I was always
saying "We need pfSense as it is really a good solution etc." and so we originally bought
the DL380, equipped it with 3 GB Ram and two 2-Port-Intel-GBit-Server-Nics.
Then we had this packet-problem and I convinced my boss to buy a new
Bl20p G3-Blade as I thought we had a hardware-problem on the DL380. So we spent a lot
of money buying that Blade (3.2 Ghz Xeon, 2 GB Ram, 4*Gbit-Nic and a FC-Card).
Again, those packet problems… (and we had to put out the FC-Card because pfsense
didn't even boot with it installed)
So the current situation is really not pleasent for me in the company but we need a solution
here somehow.So my question is now:
Could anybody please advise a 1U or 2U-Server to me, which has enough power to provide us
with around 1 Gbit FW-Performance for now and 4 Ports (1LAN, 1WAN, 1OPT1, 1CARP
[for later failover]) and which will 100% (!) work with pfsense in bridged mode?
(And which we can possibly later expand to use 1FC-WAN and 1FC-OPT1?)
The best would be if the server could be bought here in Germany somewhere ;-)
Because this time it has to work when I try my last suggestion here for buying new hardware
again :-\I would be really thankful for your help as I desperately need to solve this problem here
for once and all :-\Thanks a lot in advance,
Christian
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what kind of cpu's do you have, for that kind of throughput i would belive the CPU's in the G3 might be a little to weak.
Whats the PFsense load?
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Hello!
Well, the G3 only had 1.3 GHz, but the Blade has a 3.2 GHz Xeon-CPU.
The problem was never the CPU-Load, but those lost/enormously delayed packets.
Could you suggest a server to us which will 100% work?
For the beginning it would be ok if the server wouldn't make the whole Gigabit Throughput, but
it should have GBit-NICs and musn't have those packet-problems ;)Thanks for your help!
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i would send a email to HP's server support and ask for a server thats fits your need f eks:
- FreeBSD6 compatible hardware
- Enough power to troughput your needs
- Max price
- etc…
(by the way, have you tested f eks m0n0wall with your servers to see if the same problem occurs there, or any other firewall distro? so you could rule out that it's a pfsense or hardware issue?)
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Thanks for your reply :-)
To be completely honest, I don't want to use HP Hardware for pfSense any more…
I had too much trouble already and no luck :(But the idea with M0n0 is interesting, I only hope that the HP-Hardware
is supported by M0n0 as it uses a waaaaay older version of FreeBSD, doesn't it?I mean a lot of companies are using pfSense without any problems...
So it would be great if they could share their Server-Type and Manufacturer
here with me so that I can choose one from those 100% working servers...
We just want to have 4*Gbit Ports ;)Thanks a again for all your comments and help!
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Find out the IRQ being assigned to those cards. If its the same try manually assigned them different IRQ in the bios, or move the cards around in different slots. IRQ sharing could be causing your problem.
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Thansk for your reply!
We have only two slots in the DL, which are both occupied by the Intel Gbit-NICs and the Blade has all
ports onboard anyway.
So as the Blade has everything onboard, I am quite sure that I cannot have an IRQ-Conflict, right?But I will have a look into the BIOS of the Blade but I am not sure if I can change anything there :(
Doesn't anybody have a 100% running pfSense on a standard 1U or 2U Server and can tell me the server-details? :(
Thanks a lot!
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Recommended Hardware Vendors
http://pfsense.com/index.php?id=40
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Thanks for your reply, I've already looked there but didn't find any
device/vendor who has a device with 4 Gbit-NICs, and a really
powerful cpu.
We've now contact to NexCom, and they will provide us with a test-device
of their product line.
It will have a 3.2 P4-CPU, 1 GB Ram and 4 GBit NICs.I've already asked in another thread, but does anybody know I can test
the maximum FW-Throughput as soon as we get the demo-device?Thanks for your help!
Best regards,
Christian
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I use netio for testing throughput. however you need 2 systems capable of producing 1 gbit traffic then (test with both trafficgenerators connected with a crossovercable first) or have several netios running between several systems simmultaneously unless you want to use some expensive hardware trafficgenerators.
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Hoba, thanks for your reply!
Well as soon as we've got the test-device and have managed to install pfSense
on it (as it has no graphic-card, we need to work with that serial-port thing… can
we use the "standard" pfSense or do we need to use the embedded-version?)
I'll try to use the Blade to generate the traffic...I hope to find a tutorial for netio somewhere on the internet :)
Thanks a lot for your reply and help!
Hopefully everything works then with the device...
Do you think that 3.2 Ghz P4 will have enough power for Gigabit Throuput on the bridge?
Best regards,
Chris
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The nexcoms usually have a com1 console redirection feature in the bios. I think it should work fine with that. I haven't tested gigabit performance yet so I'm interested in reading results from your tests.
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Sure, I'll keep you informed when I have managed to get the test-environment up and running…
May I contact you in case I need help with that?Thanks!
Best regards,
Christian
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Hello again ;)
Well the NexCom was unfortunately a complete flop :'(
It has Marvell Chips on-board and they are not recognized by pfSense at all…
Slowly I really start to think that pfSense HATES me :'( :'(Well for my last try to get this working:
Will pfSense run on this hardware here perfectly:- Intel
3010 (Mukilteo 2) Chipset 1066/800/533MHz FSB - 4xSATA-2 (ICH7R) with RAID 0/1
- 2x GigaBit LAN (Intel 82573V PCI-Express)
- Intel Xeon 3060 S775 2,40GHz 4MB FSB1066
- 2 x 1024MB DDR2 FSB667 unbuffered ECC
- 2x Hitachi 80GB SATA-2 7200U 8MB Cache
- PCI-X 133MHz Risercard for Intel Dual Port NIC Pro/1000 MT
Could anybody give me a definite "Go" for this system or does anybody know of any
component which makes a "No-Go" for pfSense?Does anybody use this Intel Dual Port pro /1000 MT - NIC successfully with pfSense?
(Without those packet-problems we have here?)Or is there any Dell-Server known as 100% functioning with pfSense?
Thanks for your answers :-)
Best regards,
Christian
- Intel
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Hello again ;)
Well the NexCom was unfortunately a complete flop :'(
It has Marvell Chips on-board and they are not recognized by pfSense at all…
Slowly I really start to think that pfSense HATES me :'( :'(did you test it with one of the latest snapshops of pfsense ???
they use a newer version of freebsd so they suport more hardware
then the 1.0.1 version -
Yes I did… I used the newest Version on the Server :(
But thanks for your hint ;)Does anybody see a "blocking point" with the hardware-config I posted above?
Thanks!
Best regards,
Christian
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To me the config doesn't seem much different from your blade server. Why don't you try the through put on the blade server with the firewall allowing a stright pass through and see what happens then.
Correct me if I am wrong though I thought that the firewall didn't work on bridge mode unless you changed the settings from the default.
Hello again ;)
Well the NexCom was unfortunately a complete flop :'(
It has Marvell Chips on-board and they are not recognized by pfSense at all…
Slowly I really start to think that pfSense HATES me :'( :'(Well for my last try to get this working:
Will pfSense run on this hardware here perfectly:- Intel 3010 (Mukilteo 2) Chipset 1066/800/533MHz FSB
- 4xSATA-2 (ICH7R) with RAID 0/1
- 2x GigaBit LAN (Intel 82573V PCI-Express)
- Intel Xeon 3060 S775 2,40GHz 4MB FSB1066
- 2 x 1024MB DDR2 FSB667 unbuffered ECC
- 2x Hitachi 80GB SATA-2 7200U 8MB Cache
- PCI-X 133MHz Risercard for Intel Dual Port NIC Pro/1000 MT
Could anybody give me a definite "Go" for this system or does anybody know of any
component which makes a "No-Go" for pfSense?Does anybody use this Intel Dual Port pro /1000 MT - NIC successfully with pfSense?
(Without those packet-problems we have here?)Or is there any Dell-Server known as 100% functioning with pfSense?
Thanks for your answers :-)
Best regards,
Christian
- Intel
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Firewall works on bridges if you enable it at system>advanced.
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As we want to support pfSense because we think it is a really great software,
we have just made an arrangement with a company, which is selling powerful
servers to make them run with pfSense.
We'll pay them for the set-up of a 1 HE-Box which will run smoothly with the newest
snapshot.
That will be our first sponsorship for this wonderful project.You can then add them to the verified hardware-list and then have the possibility to
get pfsense into those areas where really huge throughputs are needed (as most of
the currently suggested hardware is not that powerful).I hope that we have invested our money well for this project!
We will keep you updated on the progress….
Best regards,
Christian
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Yes that is what I ment be it isn't on by default is it???
I would presume by the firewall not being on the processor speed doesn't make a difference for the through put unless it is really slow. (I mean that the proc must meet the rquirements to handle 1GB data traffic)