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    Suggested Hardware for 1Gbit Throughput / 100% working Hardware-Suggestion

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    • M
      mastrboy
      last edited by

      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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      • C
        CryoGenID
        last edited by

        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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        • M
          mastrboy
          last edited by

          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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          • C
            CryoGenID
            last edited by

            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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            • R
              rsw686
              last edited by

              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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              • C
                CryoGenID
                last edited by

                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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                • S
                  sai
                  last edited by

                  Recommended Hardware Vendors

                  http://pfsense.com/index.php?id=40

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                  • C
                    CryoGenID
                    last edited by

                    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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                    • H
                      hoba
                      last edited by

                      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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                      • C
                        CryoGenID
                        last edited by

                        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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                        • H
                          hoba
                          last edited by

                          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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                          • C
                            CryoGenID
                            last edited by

                            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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                            • C
                              CryoGenID
                              last edited by

                              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

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                              • J
                                jeroen234
                                last edited by

                                @CryoGenID:

                                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

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                                • C
                                  CryoGenID
                                  last edited by

                                  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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                                  • J
                                    Jonb
                                    last edited by

                                    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.

                                    @CryoGenID:

                                    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

                                    Hosted desktops and servers with support without complication.
                                    www.blueskysystems.co.uk

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                                    • H
                                      hoba
                                      last edited by

                                      Firewall works on bridges if you enable it at system>advanced.

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                                      • C
                                        CryoGenID
                                        last edited by

                                        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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                                        • J
                                          Jonb
                                          last edited by

                                          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)

                                          Hosted desktops and servers with support without complication.
                                          www.blueskysystems.co.uk

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                                          • C
                                            CryoGenID
                                            last edited by

                                            Jonb,

                                            regarding the bridge: You have to activate it manually. Per default it is deactivated!

                                            Regarding the CPU:
                                            Well I think it is a combination of everything. Like when we test the throughput and have around 526 MBit/second with 130kbyte-TCP-Packets, our CPU is at 70% (tested on an old P-III with 1.3 Ghz and 3 GB Ram)
                                            So the new System will have the power of not only handling the throughput but also (if needed later) AV-Scans etc.  :)

                                            Best regards,

                                            Chris

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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