MSI MS-9877 - OK for SOHO pfSense with Snort?

2chemlud

Hello again! :-)

Planning a new SOHO pfsense, nothing exciting, up to 100Mbit in/out, only running Snort on all interfaces (typically 3 but might be 4 after all, WAN, 3x LAN).

Is this an option?

MSI MS-9877, Atom D525 2x1,8 GHz, 4GB DDR3, 30 GB SSD

specifications of board see below…

Any known issues with the board?

Many thanks in advance for helpful reply!

chemlud

MS9877.png_thumb

That board seems like it is part of their industrial line, The MSI fuzzy brand. I have a 965gme board that looks similar. I also built a rig with a MSI fuzzy QM67 board. I would not hesitate to recommend their industrial line.
I see Asrock now has an industrial line and I have a hard time swallowing that pill.

I cannot comment on how well it handles Snort. An Atom for snort might be underpowered from what I read.

2chemlud

Hi! Thanx for your reply!

I run Snort on older Atoms, no problem with my troughput, except for the amount of RAM needed, 1GB is enough for 1-2 interfaces, 2GB for 3 interfaces, otherwise Snorts for some interfaces will be killed during start up, due to "out of swap"…

So, maybe I should give this board a try.. :-D

Regards

chemlud

I cannot comment on how well it handles Snort. An Atom for snort might be underpowered from what I read.

(Where is your new hardware thread gone?) Ok here is what I found in the last half year ;D

4 Port N3700 SoC ~410 €
10 Port J1900 ~350 €
Axiomtek NA342 ~250 €
Axiomtek NA361 ~600 €
Axiomtek NA361R ~800 €

I see Asrock now has an industrial line and I have a hard time swallowing that pill.

Me too!

I run Snort on older Atoms, no problem with my troughput, except for the amount of RAM needed,

Ok but this is then more pending on the throughput you need or you must have, or?
Many of the Atom SoCs are supporting up to 8 GB RAM and at these days RAM is not so high in price
that we must hard pay for, or am I wrong with this?

2chemlud

What's your problem with Asus industrial line? Do I miss something?

I don't want to spend more than about 300.- Euros all inclusive…

I think I try this Atom thing and see how it performs... :-)

Or any clear objections?

What's your problem with Asus industrial line? Do I miss something?

Asrock please and not ASUS, ASUS will be a fine vendor that stands more for high quality.
But Asrock was a long time so called "cheap vendor" or "budget vendor" as I know.
And so it comes that I can´t or want really trust that they now producing industrial
quality hardware.

I don't want to spend more than about 300.- Euros all inclusive…

Ah ok this is the best you can do, if we know a budget it is much more easy to find
something.

I think I try this Atom thing and see how it performs… :-)

What is the cost for that board, shown by you in the opening post?

Or any clear objections?

I don´t know from where you are, the country I mean, but if oyu are from the USA you could have a look
on this one here. It is really fast and wicked enough for running 1 GBit/s at the WAN port and Snort on top.
Jetway NF9HG-2930 ~$299 + free shipping & a small mSATA on top and all is running, but with much
more power than the Atom Board of your choice will offering. Only my opinion on this.

2chemlud

As I want to spend EUROs, what's best guess? ;-)

The board with 4GB RAM, SSD, power and box just around 300.- bugs.

The board with 4GB RAM, SSD, power and box just around 300.- bugs.

Or waiting until the new APU2B4 in Q1/2016 is out.
Would be also matching for something around ~250 € + mSATA drive @ the Varia store in the early 2016.

3 miniPCIe + 1 SIM slot
3 Intel 210/211 NICs
4 CPU Cores @1GHz
AES-NI support
4 GB ECC RAM
fan less

If you have the time to wait it could be a better choice.

2chemlud

Due to 4 cores? AES?

Is installation of pfSense on APU straight forward or any tweakes and twitches?

The MSI is a good mobo, in terms of quality, right?

Due to 4 cores? AES?

Please accept we are talking about two different boards!
APU and APU2 from PC Engines, and the APU2 will be launched at the Q1/2016.
It comes with 2 more cpu cores, AES-NI support, ECC RAM and Intel based NICs.
The rest will be identically.

Is installation of pfSense on APU straight forward or any tweakes and twitches?

No tweaks and not twitches must be done, for a straight forward installation or so called fresh
and full install on a SSD or mSATA drive. But, some tweaks after the installation should be done.

Activating TRIM support SSD, mSATA, SATA-DOM, SSD-DOM.
Enabling PowerD (mode: hi adaptive)
perhaps high up the mbuf size to x

The MSI is a good mobo, in terms of quality, right?

I don´t own it and so far i can´t tell anything about it.

I personally would be more tending to the Jetway NF9HG-2930, the APU2 board
or a similar one that is even powerful enough to run pfSense & Snort with ease.

2chemlud

Hi Frank!

"some tweaks after the installation should be done.

Activating TRIM support SSD, mSATA, SATA-DOM, SSD-DOM.
Enabling PowerD (mode: hi adaptive)
perhaps high up the mbuf size to x"

Any tutorial on this or step-by-step description on this?

Regards!

chemlud

Any tutorial on this or step-by-step description on this?

System > Advanced > System Tunables > start/activate PowerD (hi adaptive) & reboot the pfSense box.
After doing this have a look in the Dashboard for the correct MHz/GHz entry will be shown there.

PowerD minimum = is using only the minimum CPU frequency
PowerD maximum = is using only the maximum CPU frequency
PowerD adaptive = is using from the minimum to the maximum CPU frequency, but prefers power saving
PowerD highadaptive = is using from the minimum to the maximum CPU frequency, but prefers throughput

How to enable TRIM support in pfSense
Only if the mSATA or SSD is supporting TRIM!
High up the mbuf size
Only if necessary or really needed!

2chemlud

…just came back to add this:

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=87434.msg480143#msg480143

...is also seen with the MS-9877 (also Atom D525 @ 1.80GHz). Temp of cores at 65°C (pfsense 2.2.6 64 bit full install with SSD wih TRIM, finally :-D )

With much older Atom Z510 had temps arround 45°C at exactly the same load (32 bit pfsense 2.2.6 full install with SSD).

powerd enabled (tried minimum and hiadaptive yet). didn't buy much yet. waiting for doc to tell me the cooling is shyte...

Or did I forget about some essential options to be set in the BIOS? Any suggestions highly appreciated!