Choosing hardware based on throughput performance

Keljian

does it matter the network adaptor?
Usually supermicro uses Intel.

Intel is ideal.

Guest

Same old question seems to be again in discussion.

Why not, mostly all is pending on the installed packages, offered services, amount of users and
the entire WAN speed. This can be very difficult from case to case and varying each time.

Got this task to choose a box for a fast wan connection (1000 Mbps fiber).
I know CPU matters, then Lan Adaptor and Ram

And this is all, we are only talking about 1 GBit/s WAN speed?

My question is : What's the best choice between all SoC's on the market? N3700, J1900, C2750 etc

This could be also really owed to your budget for sure!
But if we are talking about 1 GBit/s WAN speed only, you could take many of them to handle that.

For the private or home usage I would consider or taking something from that hardware here:
Budget:
Jetway NF9HG-2930 would do the job with ease
More horse power but also more power consuming:
Intel Core i3 or Core i5 biggest you can get your hands on will do the job also fine, if parts are there
If you have the money take it!
C2758 would be the best balance between power consuming and power serving

For business usage I would at this days going more to tend on this hardware:
Intel Xeon D-1520 or D-1540
Intel Xeon E3-12xx v3/v4

Nothing beats an Intel Xeon CPu at these days as I see it right.

and also does it matter to have more than 2 Lan's on the same mobo?

WAN Port
DMZ Port
LAN Port

Would be mostly the best and common way to solve the most things out as today.
So it would be better to have some spare ports then you have one or two to less!

There are also SUpermicro models with 4x but still they share the same controller.

There are many different options served by the Supermicro from 4 ports, 5 ports and 7 ports with mSATA
slot or SATA only, likes you want or need it! All based on the Intel Atom C2x58 (Rangeley) platform.

Forgot to tell you : wan will be over PPPoE

For the hardware this might be not interesting.

does it matter the network adaptor?
Usually supermicro uses Intel.

Intel gets at this time the best driver support in pfSense as I see it right and so it would be good to get
hardware attached or sorted with Intel NICs for sure. But the real concern with Intel NICs is the following:
Consumer or onBoard NICs:

Intel NICs are coming with a small chip that handles the parity and this is then offloading the CPU less
or more and there fore I would be even prefer to go with the more expensive but better sorted Intel NICs.
Server grade NICs:
This NICs are sorted with a real DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and they are offloading many things more
then the consumer grade NICs but this makes them often also much more expensive!

nikkon

ok,
for now i have 3 choices:

supermicro A1SAi-2750F
asus P9A-I/C2750/SAS/4L
gigabyte GA-9SISL

I expect all to be better in terms of bandwith-throughput that the actual sollution : cisco asa 5506-x

Keljian

@nikkon:

ok,
for now i have 3 choices:

supermicro A1SAi-2750F

asus P9A-I/C2750/SAS/4L

gigabyte GA-9SISL

I expect all to be better in terms of bandwith-throughput that the actual sollution : cisco asa 5506-x

Please note I said C2758, not C2750, the 8 variant has quickassist.

nikkon

i know…but it seems that is not so importan...as far as i read on google.will this help in my case?

update: yes...it does make sense...thanks for the warning! :)

nikkon

then i only have this option: A1SAi-2758F

Guest

supermicro A1SAi-2750F

This is a board from the Avoton series with TurboBoost and thats better for running a server
likes apache or samba or any other server.

The Intel Atom C2xx8 series is the Rangeley platform and does not have TurboBoost, but AES-NI
and QuickAssist that would be perhaps more important in the future and is also more tended to
building security appliances likes pfSense.

then i only have this option: A1SAi-2758F

Cool thing as I see it right and balanced out for power serving and power saving.

nikkon

A1SAi-2758F + sc101i case must be the choice.
The only concern is now if i can add an extra network adaptor on pci-e.

heper

A1SRi-2758F has 4x gbit interface. you need more ?

nikkon

Ideally 2 more for a nas lagg :P

Guest

A1SAi-2758F + sc101i case must be the choice.

I personally was also thinking exactly at first likes you!
You have 4 common, mainly or mostly used case free to choose from for that board.
1U Rackmount

1U SC505-203 with Front I/O (Ports)
1U SC504-203 with Rear I/O Ports
Mini-ITX
Mini-ITX SC101i with Front Ports
SC721TQ-250B Mini-ITX Tower (But with 1 PCIe Slot outbreak)
The M350 Mini-ITX also without an PCIe Slot outbreak

The only concern is now if i can add an extra network adaptor on pci-e.

This might be not really able with the mini ITX form factor for the case.
But if you perhaps swap over to a 1U chassis or case, there are more way to help you out.
I don´t know from where you are nikkon and what are the price for this hardware will be
that you have to pay for it but Supermicro offers also other boards in other form factors.
So let us imagine you would tend to a 1U form factor then you could go with this one.
A1SRM-LN7F-2758
C2758
8 Cores

1 Intel IPMI LAN Port
7 Intel GB LAN Ports
AES-NI & QuickAssist
8 GB LAN Ports direct on the mainboard no other cards are needed
mSATA Slot (half high) direct on the mainboard no expensive SSD is needed
Normal DDR3 RAM modules can be used and not the more expensive SO-DIMMs

If you need more GB LAN ports or perhaps different Ports for your appliance you
might be happy with this appliances from Axiomtek, they will be not cheap but comes
with some interesting features on top and also more Ports as usual.
Axiomtek NA361 C2358 Dual Core
Axiomtek NA361R C2558 Quad Core or C2758 8 Core
In the middle of the NA361R are a module bay to insert modules for the NA361R.
- VPN Modul
- 4 SFP+
- 4 RJ45 PoE
- 8 RJ45
- 8 SFP

nikkon

i deviced to get supermicro case SC101i and another ethernet adaptor for wan only: INTEL Gigabit CT or http://www.supermicro.nl/products/accessories/addon/AOC-CGP-i2.cfm
hope to be enought space in the case for it.
any other ideas? pci-express 8x ?

Guest

or http://www.supermicro.nl/products/accessories/addon/AOC-CGP-i2.cfm

Is this then for the PCIe Slot on the A1SRi-2758F? Is this compatible together?

nikkon

I belive they are. Still need to confirm with super micro dealer.

Keljian

Why don't you get a secondhand pair of Chelsio 310s or Mellanox connectx-2 cards and whack one in the pfsense box?

Or just get a Chelsio t420 for pfsense ($75-80USD on eBay) and Mellanox (Connectx-2 - $19USD) for your server.

10gig is much easier than lagg.

nikkon

I have 2 concerns here :
-how's gonna sell this in romania

if will feat in the case

Keljian

@nikkon:

I have 2 concerns here :
-how's gonna sell this in romania

if will feat in the case

EBay sellers will ship to Romania.
With a low profile bracket, and some dremelling, you'll get a chelsio t420 in that case, it's a very small card. (100mm. x 69mm), you won't find much smaller that isn't specific (like the card mentioned above). The 4xPci-e slot will be able to keep up with the two 10gbe ports.

NegativeEntropy

@nikkon:

…
Got this task to choose a box for a fast wan connection (1000 Mbps fiber).
...
Forgot to tell you : wan will be over PPPoE
...

Careful with Rangely and this set of conditions. According to here: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=100900.0

PPOE connections are currently limited to a single core for some of the related CPU load. On the Rangely SoC, this then limits throughput to less than 1 Gigabit. According to the link and the linke thread(s), you'd need a faster CPU (i.e. more single core performance) to be able to use the full Gigabit.

Guest

@NegativeEntropy:

@nikkon:

…
Got this task to choose a box for a fast wan connection (1000 Mbps fiber).
...
Forgot to tell you : wan will be over PPPoE
...

Careful with Rangely and this set of conditions. According to here: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=100900.0

PPOE connections are currently limited to a single core for some of the related CPU load. On the Rangely SoC, this then limits throughput to less than 1 Gigabit. According to the link and the linke thread(s), you'd need a faster CPU (i.e. more single core performance) to be able to use the full Gigabit.

If he gets a real or pure fiber modem (not a router) he could set up the data inside if the modem and then he
gets a better or a faster throughput. So this problem can be pushed away or solved out, for sure not in all cases
but many where the ISP is using for that pure modems or the router is able to be setup in the so called "bridged mode".

Jailer

@nikkon:

Ideally 2 more for a nas lagg :P

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SRM-LN7F-2758.cfm