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    Pfsense maximum throughput

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • stephenw10S Offline
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      @Harvy66:

      I was getting about 15k packets/second average. Now the tests only lasted a few seconds, but I made sure to run them within the minute. The tests only lasted about 10 seconds, so if I multiply 15k by 6, that's 90k packets/sec.

      This doesn't make sense.
      Your test period was only ~10s so the average may not be that good, you would see less jitter across multiple tests with a longer period, but that doesn't mean the figure is not valid. 15K pps for 10 seconds would give you 150K packets total or for 1 minute 900K packets total but the rate is still 15Kpps. Multiplying by 6 is a meaningless calculation.  ;)

      Steve

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      • H Offline
        Harvy66
        last edited by

        @stephenw10:

        @Harvy66:

        I was getting about 15k packets/second average. Now the tests only lasted a few seconds, but I made sure to run them within the minute. The tests only lasted about 10 seconds, so if I multiply 15k by 6, that's 90k packets/sec.

        This doesn't make sense.
        Your test period was only ~10s so the average may not be that good, you would see less jitter across multiple tests with a longer period, but that doesn't mean the figure is not valid. 15K pps for 10 seconds would give you 150K packets total or for 1 minute 900K packets total but the rate is still 15Kpps. Multiplying by 6 is a meaningless calculation.  ;)

        Steve

        I'm not saying it's fully representative of a full 1min run, but if a 60 second average is 15k when I was only running for 10 seconds, then simple math says that I had to have been averaging 90kpps for 10 seconds in order to reach 15kpps average. The other 50 seconds was ~0 pps.  x*10/60=15,000  solve for x

        ok.. so decided just to use "-t 120" and see what my new max is
        iperf -c 192.168.1.1 -f m -p 5001 -w 2M -M 128 -N -P 8 -t 120 -m -l 16KB

        [ ID] Interval      Transfer    Bandwidth
        [ 10]  0.0-120.0 sec  1683 MBytes  118 Mbits/sec
        [ 10] MSS size 1 bytes (MTU 41 bytes, unknown interface)
        [  9]  0.0-120.0 sec  1682 MBytes  118 Mbits/sec
        [  9] MSS size 1 bytes (MTU 41 bytes, unknown interface)
        [  6]  0.0-120.0 sec  1682 MBytes  118 Mbits/sec
        [  6] MSS size 1 bytes (MTU 41 bytes, unknown interface)
        [  8]  0.0-120.0 sec  1682 MBytes  118 Mbits/sec
        [  8] MSS size 1 bytes (MTU 41 bytes, unknown interface)
        [  5]  0.0-120.0 sec  1681 MBytes  118 Mbits/sec
        [  5] MSS size 1 bytes (MTU 41 bytes, unknown interface)
        [  4]  0.0-120.0 sec  1681 MBytes  118 Mbits/sec
        [  4] MSS size 1 bytes (MTU 41 bytes, unknown interface)
        [  7]  0.0-120.0 sec  1682 MBytes  118 Mbits/sec
        [  7] MSS size 1 bytes (MTU 41 bytes, unknown interface)
        [  3]  0.0-120.0 sec  1682 MBytes  118 Mbits/sec
        [  3] MSS size 1 bytes (MTU 41 bytes, unknown interface)
        [SUM]  0.0-120.0 sec  13456 MBytes  940 Mbits/sec

        LAN in-pass 1min avg was 80.11kpps. Not 90k,but I was doing rounding on rounding. Pretty close. So, yeah, drop down the MTU to make the test more stressful.

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        • stephenw10S Offline
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Hmm, so you're saying the test ran for a minute but was only sending traffic for the first 10 seconds?  :-
          That's not normally how iperf functions. Running the test longer simply gives you more data to avarage across so you are less likely to see glitches. However I see you have a long command line string so maybe you're using something I don't. In fact I see it's reporting a '1 minute average' so that makes sense. Seems odd that it would do that when the test is less than 1min though.

          Steve

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          • H Offline
            Harvy66
            last edited by

            @stephenw10:

            Hmm, so you're saying the test ran for a minute but was only sending traffic for the first 10 seconds?  :-
            That's not normally how iperf functions. Running the test longer simply gives you more data to avarage across so you are less likely to see glitches. However I see you have a long command line string so maybe you're using something I don't. In fact I see it's reporting a '1 minute average' so that makes sense. Seems odd that it would do that when the test is less than 1min though.

            Steve

            Sorry, I was using the PPS RRD graph, which shows in 1min averages. I have not noticed a PPS real-time graph in PFSense, so the average is the best I had.

            As for why I did a short test, I didn't notice the "-t" flag that someone so graciously pointed out :

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            • stephenw10S Offline
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              @Harvy66:

              Sorry, I was using the PPS RRD graph

              Ah, that explains my confusion.  ;)
              Anyway, 940Mbps, looks like you've got some strong numbers there.

              Steve

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              • ? This user is from outside of this forum
                Guest
                last edited by

                iperf measure overall performance.  i want to find a solution to measure throughput for specific package in pfsense, like dansguardian, firewalling, snort, … .

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                • P Offline
                  podilarius
                  last edited by

                  snort and other programs are usually based on state openings. To me the best way to test is with a BitTorrent of your favorite Linux distro, or several all at the same time.

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                  • ? This user is from outside of this forum
                    Guest
                    last edited by

                    Dear podilarius,
                    I need to create torrent files with default tracker URI and seed them from server side.  then i should open torrent files in client side. average of "Down Speed" is my throughput.
                    Am i right?

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                    • P Offline
                      podilarius
                      last edited by

                      If they are running concurrently add the averages. Otherwise yes, just average out the connections. This really will test snort. To test dansguardian, you would need to have an html spider doing out and hitting lots of different sites. Again, average or add the averages.

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                      • ? This user is from outside of this forum
                        Guest
                        last edited by

                        thanks a lot,
                        What about firewalling? is bittorent a good choice with a pass rule?
                        I want to measure maximum users(Concurrent Sessions) and new sessions per second too.
                        do you know a tool for this purpose?

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                        • P Offline
                          podilarius
                          last edited by

                          Try Google. look for a firewall test program or suite. There might be a free one. Please let us know what you found, used, and the results. I don't have a strong enough connection to test the limits of my hardware.

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                          • stephenw10S Offline
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Concurrent sessions is where pfSense really stands out as a firewall device. Just add more RAM if you need more. Have a look at this thread to see what can be acheived. I have no idea what you might test it with though.
                            https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=72810.0

                            Steve

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                            • ? This user is from outside of this forum
                              Guest
                              last edited by

                              There isn't any free network firewall test program that can measure firewall throughput and max. concurrent sessions. Commercial products are spirent avalanche and breakingpoint firestorm.

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                              • stephenw10S Offline
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                http://curl-loader.sourceforge.net/ ?

                                Steve

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                                • ? This user is from outside of this forum
                                  Guest
                                  last edited by

                                  Great software!
                                  Thank you very much Steve

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