Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Pfsense 2.1 vmware cpu host high usage

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Virtualization
    50 Posts 21 Posters 22.3k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • D
      deagle
      last edited by

      • What is the ESXi host machine and processor?
        Tried many builds of 5.1 and 5.5 with same result
        Supermicro X8SIL
        Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (Lynnfield)

      • Which version of pfSense and whether 32 or 64-bit?
        Tried 2.1.1 x64, then tried 2.1.2-3 x86

      • How many vCPUs have you allocated to the VM?
        Tried 1, had to bump up to 2 because if this issue, 50Mbit throughput = 70-80% of one physical core

      • How much memory have you allocated to the VM?
        Tried 512-2048 MB

      • Have you  installed the pfSense packaged VM tools or the VMware-supplied tools?
        Tried packaged tools in the past but since read not to use them. Then tried VMware-supplied, no difference

      • Are you using the e1000 adapter type or something else?
        Tried both e1000 and vmxnet3 (w/VMware-supplied driver), no difference.

      Packages - Avahi, OpenVPN export util, Cron, RRD Summary.
      It also happens on fresh install.

      Just to be clear, you have to watch esxtop to see this issue, it doesn't show up in the guest.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • K
        kenshirothefist
        last edited by

        @biggsy, any news regarding this topic?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • B
          biggsy
          last edited by

          I can't see anything common between these configs and haven't been able to reproduce it any way.  Only have one machine to play with now though.

          Have you guys checked that link about speed mismatch?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • K
            kenshirothefist
            last edited by

            @biggsy:

            Have you guys checked that link about speed mismatch?

            I have auto negotiate and it negotiates at 1000 Full … Anyway, I have 20+ running VM's on this host and only this pfSense appliance is having these issues with high pCPU load, although pfSense is the only freeBSD-based VM (others are centos and ubuntu based).

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • B
              biggsy
              last edited by

              The worst I can do is about 93% CPU running a 120 Mbit/s download from AARNET (it's local).

              That's with a single vCPU on a Xeon E3-1265L v2 @ 2.5 GHz inside a Gen8 MicroServer.

              Idle the VM runs along at about 1.5% CPU  :-[

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • D
                deagle
                last edited by

                That's the thing, it has no business doing 93% of one core at 120Mbit, virtualization overhead should be minimal like with other OSes.

                I'm starting to think that people who "don't have" this problem aren't really seeing it.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • K
                  kenshirothefist
                  last edited by

                  Is it possible that this is related to VMware virtual machine monitor mode?

                  http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1036775

                  For example:

                  datetime| vmx| MONITOR MODE: allowed modes : BT HV HWMMU
                  datetime| vmx| MONITOR MODE: user requested modes : BT HV HWMMU
                  datetime| vmx| MONITOR MODE: guestOS preferred modes: BT HWMMU HV
                  datetime| vmx| MONITOR MODE: filtered list : BT HWMMU HV

                  Where:

                  allowed modes – Refers to the mode that the underlying hardware is capable of.
                      user requested modes – Refers to the setting defined in the virtual machine configuration.
                      guestOS preferred modes – Refers to the default values for the selected guest operating system.
                      filtered list – Refers to the actual monitor modes acceptable for use by the Hypervisor, with the left-most mode being utilized.

                  I have "automatic" for my pfsense VM and it reads like this:

                  datetime| vmx| I120: MONITOR MODE: allowed modes          : BT32 HV HWMMU
                  datetime| vmx| I120: MONITOR MODE: user requested modes  : BT32 HV HWMMU
                  datetime| vmx| I120: MONITOR MODE: guestOS preferred modes: HWMMU HV BT32
                  datetime| vmx| I120: MONITOR MODE: filtered list          : HWMMU HV BT32

                  Therefore it is using hardware MMU and hardware instruction set virtualization … can't change it right now, but can someone test with different settings and post results?

                  Also, is it possible that is related to using distributed vSwitch? Can someone test by using regular vSwitch vs. distributed vSwitch (again, I can't change my environment to regular vSwitch right now)?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • D
                    deagle
                    last edited by

                    Distributed vSwitch is just an abstraction for many standard vSwitches.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • K
                      kenshirothefist
                      last edited by

                      FYI: there is even more overhead when you go from 1 vCPU to 2 vCPU … I had 2.3 GHz CPU usage when my pfSense VM was configured with 1 vCPU (approaching to limit 2.67 GHz), then I reconfigured VM to use 2 vCPU and now I have 3.0 GHz CPU usage (probably from CPU threads trashing) ... this is really annoying ... and I really don't want to go back to physical ...

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • KOMK
                        KOM
                        last edited by

                        I've been following this thread but didn't think it was affecting me.  Then I took a look.  pfSense tells me it's using 2% CPU.  VMware tells me it's using almost nothing.  ESXTop tells me 20%…

                        My config:

                        Dell Powervault NX3000 (8 x L5520 @ 2.26 GHz)
                        ESXi 5.5U1
                        pfSense 2.1.3 i386
                        2 x vCPU, 2GB RAM
                        VM version 8 hardware
                        Intel E1000 vNICs

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • P
                          podilarius
                          last edited by

                          I have 2 pfSense VMs running (one 2.1.3 [143MHz used] and the other 2.2-Alpha [95MHz used]) and both are running with very low CPU. Both as reported by ESX and pfSense.
                          Are you guys running powerd, I am?

                          Edit:
                          Meant to add my config:
                          ASUS Server
                          AMD Opteron 12 core processor
                          Intel NICs on 2.1.3
                          VMXNET3 on 2.2
                          1024MB of memory
                          VMTools package is installed
                          No other packages running.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • B
                            biggsy
                            last edited by

                            KOM and podilarius,

                            Under what sort of network load?

                            My CPU numbers are also low - until I start a heavy (120 Mb/s) download then they diverge very quickly.  The ESXi/esxtop numbers go through the roof while pfSense sees little change.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • KOMK
                              KOM
                              last edited by

                              I pumped up a few torrents to try and saturate my 90/90 link and could only manage about 10Mb/s.  Even then, ESXTop showed pfsense taking from 50-103% of %USED.

                              I don't use powerd.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • P
                                podilarius
                                last edited by

                                I am about to load test my 2.2 so I will let you know.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • P
                                  podilarius
                                  last edited by

                                  @podilarius:

                                  I am about to load test my 2.2 so I will let you know.

                                  Okay so pushing 500Mbits in and out of pfsense 2.2, I am getting 5987MHz and ESXTOP is showing 225-266% CPU usage for just pfsense 2.2. I hope that is out of 1000%.
                                  The VM itself is showing 89-91% usage. I have a AMD 6234 at 2.4GHz per core and has 12 cores.
                                  As you all know, if you are running 2.1 series and before, pf and i  think ipfw are giant locked and will only use 1 processor.
                                  To me it seems that 2.2 is giant locked to 2 CPUs. This could be because I have 2 nics involved, so I am not sure if it is one CPU per NIC or just locked to dual CPUs. I have asked in another thread with no answer.
                                  I am trying to get to 10GB speed, but I seem locked to 1GBE, but alas that is another issue for another topic.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • G
                                    Gabri.91
                                    last edited by

                                    Hi,
                                    is this problem solved or still present?

                                    I want to move my pfSense to ESXI purchasing new hardware, but now I'm not really sure about it..

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • M
                                      MichelZ
                                      last edited by

                                      I seem to have the same problem. 1.5 GhZ in ESX, ~14% on pfsense, about 1 MBit (!) traffic… :(
                                      Happens to both VM's of a HA Pair. Using Intel NICs, E1000 vNIC

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • M
                                        MichelZ
                                        last edited by

                                        • What is the ESXi host machine and processor?  Supermicro X8DTU / E5620
                                        • Which version of pfSense and whether 32 or 64-bit?  64-bit
                                        • How many vCPUs have you allocated to the VM?  1
                                        • How much memory have you allocated to the VM?  1 GB
                                        • Have you  installed the pfSense packaged VM tools or the VMware-supplied tools? Open-VM-Tools
                                        • Are you using the e1000 adapter type or something else? E1000
                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • G
                                          gdi2k
                                          last edited by

                                          I have the same problem with pfsense 2.1.5 running on KVM on Ubuntu Server 14.04.

                                          See attached screenshot with pfsense running top on the right and the host machine running the VMs on the left.

                                          • What is the ESXi host machine and processor?  Thinkserver TS140 / Intel Xeon CPU E3-1225 v3 @ 3.20GHz
                                          • Which version of pfSense and whether 32 or 64-bit?  pfsense 2.1.5 - 32-bit
                                          • How many vCPUs have you allocated to the VM?  4
                                          • How much memory have you allocated to the VM?  2 GB
                                          • Have you  installed the pfSense packaged VM tools or the VMware-supplied tools? No
                                          • Are you using the e1000 adapter type or something else? E1000

                                          1_0862.png_thumb
                                          1_0862.png

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • E
                                            EarlBacid
                                            last edited by

                                            I have the same issue running pfsense 2.1.5 within a proxmox (kvm) virtualization.

                                            • What is the ESXi host machine and processor?  PCEngines APU (AMD G-T40E, 2*1GHZ, 4GB RAM), running proxmox 3.2 under debian 7
                                            • Which version of pfSense and whether 32 or 64-bit?  pfsense 2.1.5 - 64-bit
                                            • How many vCPUs have you allocated to the VM?  2
                                            • How much memory have you allocated to the VM?  2 GB
                                            • Are you using the e1000 adapter type or something else? testet all kind of virtual NICs including virtio

                                            pfsense idle: while pfsense assuming less than 10% on both CPUs, the hosts recognizes about 50-60% on both cores.
                                            pfsense busy:  while pfsense assuming about 30% on both CPUs, the hosts recognizes about 70-80% on both cores. Throughput is limited to aprox. 80 MBit/s.
                                            Other guests like a Debian installation consume only 1-2 % of host CPU during idle state.

                                            I also tried the latest 2.2 snapshot. The cpu consumption decreased to 20-30%, which is still to much, but much better than 2.1.5, but the throughput was limited to ~40 MBit, so this is not an option since my internet connection is 100 MBit/s

                                            Another issue is, that I have to emulate the CPU as an qemu64 cpu, becaus using "host" causes pfsense to crash during bootup (other guests are ok with the "host" option). I also had to turn of all kind of checksum offloading to reach these throughputs. with checksum offloading enabled, the throughput is less than 1 MBit/s

                                            I have no packages installed.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.