PC Engines apu2 experiences

mattlach

Hi Frank,

@BlueKobold:

@ktk:

Did anyone actually manage to boot PFsense 2.3 on APU2? I ran into an issue as reported here https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=110366.0

What is the BIOS version you are using? The latest one will be from the 3/11/2016.

update to the latest BIOS

prepare a USB pen drive to install from with the right and matching 2.3-amd64-memstick-console-image

insert a mSATA or HDD/SSD drive

connect via console via Putty (please set Putty to 115200 8/N/1 and the BIOS settings
too pfSense is coming by default with that settings)

change the boot order to USB and do a reboot please

install form the USB pen drive and change after that the boot order back to mSATA, HDD/SSD and reboot again

I am on latest bios already. I tried booting on SD card and from USB stick, neither did work. The SD card cannot mount ufs:/dev/ufs/pfsense0 and with USB stick I had so many errors reported on my console that I couldn't see which one actually triggered it.

I had issues installing using the 2.3.1 serial console images. The memstick version had problems writing to partitions in the dmesg, and the CD ISO couldn't mount the root partition of the installer at all, all resulting in an error console, and thus no pfSense installer.

On a whim, I downloaded the previous memstick installer from the mirror (2.3, instead of 2.3.1) and this installed just fine. I was then able to use the web interface to upgrade to 2.3.1_1 without any issues.

mattlach

@BlueKobold:

Nice and interesting thread about the new APU2 board.

For the APU I can say we were getting something around ~500+ MBit/s at the WAN Port and with enabled
PowerD (hi adaptive) we got ~650 MBit/s as throughput. Perhaps this will be different from the APU2 with
a quad core CPU. But otherwise I would recommend to enable PowerD (hi adaptive).

In 2.3.1_1 I wind up getting ~595Mbit/s throughput (as tested with iperf) without enabling PowerD. Enabling PowerD in the web interface does not seem to affect throughput speed, whether set to hidaptive or not, but it also seems to have no impact on idle power consumption, which hovers between 5.8W-6.5W regardless of whether PowerD is on or off. It makes me wonder if it is working at all. Either way, if it is not making a difference on power consumption, I might just leave it off.

I also don't get any CPU temp output like I do with my Intel based box. I was a little concerned about CPU temp due to the passive cooling setup just using the case to cool it, but it is a very low wattage part, so maybe that is silly of me. Feeling the case, it doesn't feel too hot. (In fact it barely gets warm)

hda

@mattlach:

I also don't get any CPU temp output like I do with my Intel based box. I was a little concerned about CPU temp due to the passive cooling setup just using the case to cool it, but it is a very low wattage part, so maybe that is silly of me. Feeling the case, it doesn't feel too hot. (In fact it barely gets warm)

Firmware has testmode and it reports T as about 55 Celsius if with correct coolpad, else may fry (90 C) after 8 minutes…

No GUI temps is due to missing FreeBSD code.

apollo17

To fix cpu temps follow the guide here https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=108262.0

My temps stay around 55-60 degrees c

edwardwong

Your CPU has 4 cores, can you test with "-multi 4" option to run 4 threads together? Then we can see the actual speed for this CPU.

@dugeem:

With aesni kernel module loaded:


openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc       1527.90k     5867.93k    21607.17k    65414.14k   162611.20k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc       1512.18k     5761.15k    20833.28k    58732.20k   127229.95k

With aesni kernel module unloaded (i.e. use openssl internal AES-NI support):


openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc     125586.59k   174393.26k   213315.07k   226097.49k   230883.33k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc     100216.39k   136148.85k   157464.49k   162677.42k   165601.28k

Zebibyte

Here is what I got trying the same command with -multi 4

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 4
evp 5582.70k 22238.25k 81301.33k 244524.47k 593181.72k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 4
evp 5615.02k 21855.49k 77674.24k 220074.67k 465368.41k

Then after setting "Cryptographic Hardware" in the GUI back to none (not sure if this does the right thing)

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 4
evp 5645.37k 19885.66k 70725.03k 217378.47k 524483.65k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 4
evp 5586.90k 21842.43k 77226.75k 219488.40k 455090.18k

@edwardwong:

Your CPU has 4 cores, can you test with "-multi 4" option to run 4 threads together? Then we can see the actual speed for this CPU.

@dugeem:

With aesni kernel module loaded:


openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc       1527.90k     5867.93k    21607.17k    65414.14k   162611.20k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc       1512.18k     5761.15k    20833.28k    58732.20k   127229.95k

With aesni kernel module unloaded (i.e. use openssl internal AES-NI support):


openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc     125586.59k   174393.26k   213315.07k   226097.49k   230883.33k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc     100216.39k   136148.85k   157464.49k   162677.42k   165601.28k

AndrewZ

Just started to configure APU2C4 as a replacement for my old Alix 2D13.
I'm wandering if it is possible to see the current CPU frequency in a dashboard?

edwardwong

Impressive result.
BTW, using "-evp" will force using crypto hardware, so whatever you set in GUI doesn't really matter, maybe you should try to skip this option to see the difference.

@Zebibyte:

Here is what I got trying the same command with -multi 4

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 4
evp 5582.70k 22238.25k 81301.33k 244524.47k 593181.72k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 4
evp 5615.02k 21855.49k 77674.24k 220074.67k 465368.41k

Then after setting "Cryptographic Hardware" in the GUI back to none (not sure if this does the right thing)

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 4
evp 5645.37k 19885.66k 70725.03k 217378.47k 524483.65k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 4
evp 5586.90k 21842.43k 77226.75k 219488.40k 455090.18k

@edwardwong:
Your CPU has 4 cores, can you test with "-multi 4" option to run 4 threads together? Then we can see the actual speed for this CPU.

@dugeem:
With aesni kernel module loaded:
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc       1527.90k     5867.93k    21607.17k    65414.14k   162611.20k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc       1512.18k     5761.15k    20833.28k    58732.20k   127229.95k
With aesni kernel module unloaded (i.e. use openssl internal AES-NI support):
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc     125586.59k   174393.26k   213315.07k   226097.49k   230883.33k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc     100216.39k   136148.85k   157464.49k   162677.42k   165601.28k

apollo17

@AndrewZ:

Just started to configure APU2C4 as a replacement for my old Alix 2D13.
I'm wandering if it is possible to see the current CPU frequency in a dashboard?

See my previous post in this thread (post #17).

after following the details from here https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=108262.0 the dashboard temperature readout works perfectly.

AndrewZ

@apollo17:

after following the details from here https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=108262.0 the dashboard temperature readout works perfectly.

Indeed, I've noticed that post earlier and already implemented the workaround described on my system.
My question was about frequency, not temperature.
For some reasons I was able to see the current and the maximum frequency (600 and 1000 as I recall) very briefly only 2 times during the page reload. All other time I see only the following:

CPU Type AMD GX-412TC SOC
4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)

apollo17

@AndrewZ:

@apollo17:

after following the details from here https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=108262.0 the dashboard temperature readout works perfectly.

Indeed, I've noticed that post earlier and already implemented the workaround described on my system.
My question was about frequency, not temperature.
For some reasons I was able to see the current and the maximum frequency (600 and 1000 as I recall) very briefly only 2 times during the page reload. All other time I see only the following:

CPU Type AMD GX-412TC SOC
4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)

Sorry, my mistake i misread your post. I know what you mean mine does that aswell, i'm not sure if you can change it. If you have powerd enabled you can get a realtime frequency read out using the shell command powerd -v.

I don't think the dashboard freqency readout is just amd related, it behaves the same on intel systems too.

AndrewZ

@apollo17:

I know what you mean mine does that aswell, i'm not sure if you can change it. If you have powerd enabled you can get a realtime frequency read out using the shell command powerd -v.

I don't think the dashboard freqency readout is just amd related, it behaves the same on intel systems too.

Thanks for that, good to know.

aGeekhere

What transfer speed does the apu2 get from squid's local cache?

Guest

What transfer speed does the apu2 get from squid's local cache?

This is mostly also owed to the circumstance what storage drive is used in that case!!

Stewart

I'd like to add what I've found and compare the APU1D with the APU2C4. Each test was run 5 times and the average is shown:


_______________APU1D__________Without aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-128
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc      20,150.25	   21,593.45	 22,101.23	   55,892.72	 57,108.07
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc      20,879.17	   22,096.23	 22,604.51	   22,781.61	 22,756.18
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc -multi 2
aes-128-cbc      37,715.27	   42,234.96	 43,208.21	  108,581.00	108,638.48
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 2
evp              41,202.15	   43,115.07	 43,609.43	   42,840.60	 44,048.14

_______________APU1D__________Without aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-256
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc
aes-256 cbc      14,700.73	   15,444.83	 15,733.50	   41,247.34	 41,710.94
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
aes-256-cbc      15,243.62	   15,707.42	 15,961.70	   16,126.77	 15,934.53
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc -multi 2
aes-256 cbc      23,949.23	   26,988.24	 29,858.76	   65,845.54	 64,089.45
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 2
evp              29,593.04	   26,244.35	 26,773.70	   28,397.03	 27,938.67

_______________APU1D__________With aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-128
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc
aes-128 cbc      19755.576	  21431.89	   21989.752	55771.576	 55630.234
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc      20863.098	  22093.112	   22559.898	22602.114	 22531.338
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc -multi 2
aes-128 cbc      37336.336	  38520.556	   42471.264   105237.468	99426.206
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 2
evp              36558.862	  40986.052	   42027.06	    40009.182	 41684.274

_______________APU1D__________With aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-256
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc
aes-256 cbc      14591.166	  14837.534	   14614.882	39739.044	 40290.906
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
aes-256-cbc      14994.722	  15396.05	   16006.702	16093.2	     15921.974
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc -multi 2
aes-256 cbc      24330.116	  27610.256	   26142.88	    71589.386	 70645.116
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 2
evp              25427.984	  27953.616	   26119.284	28292.242	 26312.212

_______________APU2C4__________Without aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-128
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc       14,602.14 	 15,604.71 	 16,020.81 	 41,673.96 	 42,613.15 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc      116,857.16 	 167,172.30 	 205,183.44 	 216,286.74 	 219,179.69 
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc -multi 2
aes-128-cbc       52,436.02 	 58,305.43 	 58,527.76 	 154,819.86 	 162,012.23 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 2
evp               5,339.28 	 20,562.37 	 75,235.53 	 230,458.68 	 567,333.62 

_______________APU2C4__________Without aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-256
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc
aes-256 cbc       10,657.51 	 11,205.91 	 11,310.90 	 30,765.00 	 31,377.54 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
aes-256-cbc       96,810.10 	 129,034.06 	 150,190.10 	 156,638.07 	 158,143.28 
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc -multi 2
aes-256 cbc       39,620.04 	 40,461.33 	 40,217.14 	 120,696.35 	 117,217.43 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 2
evp               5,224.40 	 21,083.67 	 73,885.68 	 201,226.44 	 442,017.98 

_______________APU2C4__________With aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-128
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc
aes-128 cbc       14,547.43 	 15,599.68 	 16,005.85 	 41,691.67 	 42,459.34 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc       1,455.86 	 5,778.35 	 21,179.49 	 64,385.85 	 158,815.65 
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc -multi 2
aes-128 cbc       53,114.91 	 57,221.27 	 58,445.19 	 159,149.88 	 158,859.67 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 2
evp               5,355.99 	 21,216.93 	 75,614.86 	 228,806.89 	 572,782.12 

_______________APU2C4__________With aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-256
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc
aes-256 cbc       10,657.26 	 11,111.40 	 11,175.44 	 30,771.72 	 31,289.62 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
aes-256-cbc       1,404.00 	 5,528.13 	 19,735.86 	 55,687.85 	 119,758.85 
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc -multi 2
aes-256 cbc       39,908.48 	 39,509.88 	 41,580.65 	 117,316.88 	 117,157.87 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 2
evp              5,456.64 	 20,749.14 	 70,953.42 	 207,225.20 	 456,061.90

Some things stand out fairly obvious but I'll need some help determining what is going on.
First, it's obvious that enabling aes-ni in the Advanced-Misc section does something. It seems to have a modest affect on the APU1D and a fairly detrimental affect on the APU2C4.
Second, the APU2C4 only has about 73% of the performance of the APU1D using a single core and no hardware acceleration.
Third, the APU2D4 seems to excel in some circumstances and bomb in others. I expected to see a fairly consistent trend, but the charts seem to say otherwise.

Does anyone know which number is most representative of performance when running the openssl speed test? From what I'm seeing it appears that on the APU1D with aes-ni disabled we should be able to get 108MB/s on aes-128 with an 8k block size and 65MB/s on aes-256 with an 8k block size. It also appears that with the APU2D4 we should be able to get 567MB/s on aes-128 with an 8k block size and 442MB/s on aes-256 with an 8k block size. Those don't seem right to me. Can anyone care to elaborate?

Also, I've attached a screenshot of the spreadsheet I've put together with basic heatmaps. All values are the same and "are in 1000s of bytes per second processed". I just dropped the "k" so I could run calculations. Also, the commands that were run that include the multi switch were run as "multi 2" on the APU1D and as "multi 4" on the APU2C4.

Edit: I should note that these are all run with powerd on set to hiadpative. Also, added APU2C4 numbers that were forgotten.

APU1DvsAPU2C4.jpg_thumb

Stewart

The average I get running iperf across the LAN interfaces is:
APU1D -> APU2C4 = 235Mb/s
APU2C4 -> APU1D = 218Mb/s
APU1D -> Core2Box = 121Mb/s
APU2C4 -> Core2Box = 222Mb/s

Services enabled on the APU1D and APU2C4 in case they affect things are:
Squid
SquidGuard
AV Integrated in Squid
Snort
pfBlockerNG
darkstat
LightSquid

kevindd992002

Are you guys using a full install or a nanobsd install on an msata 16gb ssd on an apu2c4?

Stewart

I'm running a full install.

kevindd992002

Without any modifications like using ramdisks for /tmp and /var? Fulll install as is?

Stewart

Yes. Using an msata ssd.