10G Dual port NIC - Please recommend
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Sooooooo… You can see where this gives me pause when I see someone about to order them?
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I am ordering the X520-DA2 in few days, and will return with some serious feedback :)
The X520-T2 is based on ethernet, and probably another chip controller, hence it can't be compared totally as DA2.
Under FreeBSD Chelsio is a very solid choice and solid driver support. The question as to how well they work in pfSense is the only open issue.
For example EMC Isilon clustered NAS storage which is based on FreeBSD uses Chelsio 10 gig nics.
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I am ordering the X520-DA2 in few days, and will return with some serious feedback :)
The X520-T2 is based on ethernet, and probably another chip controller, hence it can't be compared totally as DA2.
Under FreeBSD Chelsio is a very solid choice and solid driver support. The question as to how well they work in pfSense is the only open issue.
For example EMC Isilon clustered NAS storage which is based on FreeBSD uses Chelsio 10 gig nics.
I try to stick with intel cards, but if someone can confirm chelsio with 2.1, i may consider it.
I think i will wait ordering x520 so far… :) -
If you follow the thread about the Intel ixgbe issues you'll see that Renato is working on it (thanks again).
But yes, cxgbe (Chelsio T4), cxgb (Chelsio T3) are also part of FreeBSD 8.3.
Additionnaly sfxge (Solarflare 10GE) has been backported to pfSense 2.1 since quite some time back into the beta.
I believe it's about in the state of what is in FreeBSD 9.1.I think the general consensus with production hardware is that the NIC should not be something to save money on and to get a server grade product.
Allas, I haven't seen any enduser 10G products by now, they all are server-grade. ;-) -
@MatSim:
If you follow the thread about the Intel ixgbe issues you'll see that Renato is working on it (thanks again).
But yes, cxgbe (Chelsio T4), cxgb (Chelsio T3) are also part of FreeBSD 8.3.
Additionnaly sfxge (Solarflare 10GE) has been backported to pfSense 2.1 since quite some time back into the beta.
I believe it's about in the state of what is in FreeBSD 9.1.I think the general consensus with production hardware is that the NIC should not be something to save money on and to get a server grade product.
Allas, I haven't seen any enduser 10G products by now, they all are server-grade. ;-)Correct, and the Chelsio's are pricey - about 2x that of an Intel 520 dual port for DAC models - and have been rock solid where we use them. But our preference is also the Intel 520's for Linux and Windows boxes as on those drivers are not an issue at all.
I've not used Solarflare personally but have heard good things about them.
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What if you run Pfsense in a Vm on 10 gbit hardware? Would it have a driver issue with FreeBSD?
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VMware is the safest because the few hardware components that are listed as compatible with ESXi are rock solid.
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Exactly my point. I run the X520's here and they work fine. I bet the DA2's would do that as well
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Exactly my point. I run the X520's here and they work fine. I bet the DA2's would do that as well
Yes, DA2's are solid under VMWare out of the box.
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(I didn't know Chelsio was so much more expensive, thanks for the heads-up)
Yes, it also seems Solarflare is quite OSS-friendly, since the not only support Linux, but offered drivers for the lesser known OS like not only FreeBSD but illumos too.In terms of the 520's: the sole difference between -DA2 and -SR / -LR models that I know is that the later models get delivered with Intel-branded optics.
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hi,
i posted guide how i created pfsense cluster with Intel 10Gb NICs. take a look http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,66573.msg369650.html#msg369650
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But the cards didnt have issues when virtualized in VmWare? Why not install ESXi and run it that way?
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this is exactly what i did. esxi and pfsense as VM with VNXNET3 NICs