Playing with fq_codel in 2.4

belt9

There's a redmine feature request to get an automatic bandwidth limiter added to dummynet.

If anyone is interested and technically inclined please chime in!

Check out the links in my signature for more info.

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/7904

cplmayo

I finally got fq_codel limiters applied to just my WAN connection via floating rules.

From what I am seeing I think I like it better than using my vlan's interfaces. From what I am seeing in my own testing the jitter seems lower and I see fewer latency spikes on my upload bandwidth tests. Also since this is queuing all traffic on the WAN interface I feel like it is handling separate flows better than it did before.

I could be wrong and all of this is anecdotal or a placebo affect from all of my messing around with shappers and limiters.

If anyone is interested in trying it out the setup is fairly easy.

Firewall > Rules > Floating

*Add new rule

*Change "Action" from "Pass" to "Match"

*Select "WAN" in Interface

*Set "Direction" to "Out"

*Set "Protocol" to "any"

*Source to "any"

*Destination to "any"

Advanced settings

*Set Gateway (Cannot leave as default; you have to specifically set it to your configured gateway)

*Set In/Out (Because it is a floating rule and it is set to "Out" it gets a little confusing. It reverses In/Out ie In is for outgoing and Out is for incoming.)

Harvy66

dslreports.com has a good bufferbloat test.

w0w

@superbree:

Would love to try this patch out. This will show fq_codel on the limiter info page? Is there are kind soul who could explain how to implement this to the lay person?

You need "System patches" package.
Create new patch and apply it. See attachment.

limiters.jpg_thumb

johnpoz

I got asked in a PM to post some screenshots of my settings.. Figured post it here as reference.

Just apply the in/out pipe to firewall rule on your interface.. So that these do not effect your intervlan traffic if you have any. Put a rule above to allow access to your other vlans without the pipe's applied.

These settings changed my bufferbloat tests on dslreports to A..

fqcodel.png_thumb

belt9

Why a /32 IPv4 mask?

johnpoz

Because that is what comes up in the gui when this is the rules.limiter

[2.4.0-RELEASE][root@pfsense.local.lan]/root: cat /tmp/rules.limiter

pipe 1 config bw 85Mb
queue 1 config pipe 1 mask dst-ip6 /128 dst-ip 0xffffffff

pipe 2 config bw 11Mb
queue 2 config pipe 2 mask src-ip6 /128 src-ip 0xffffffff

Is something wrong there? It was working great!!!

belt9

Haha, I don't know to be honest. I had mine set the same way until I noticed that, then set it to /24 to match my network (I'm IPv4 only). I haven't been on that network in awhile now but I don't remember noticing a difference. My config is otherwise pretty much the same as yours.

Maybe someone can chime in on whether that setting matters or not and exactly what it is doing?

I know that in some parts of traffic shaping GUI there are options presented that don't apply to all types of shaping.

johnpoz

The person that asked for the screenshot says its working great for him as well..

I just am not knowledgeable enough when it comes to shaping and limiters to know one way or the other either. I understand the basic principles is about all. I just took the settings as given and applied them to my bandwidth at the time and yeah it drastically reduced the bufferbloat test without noticing any serious hit to the top end numbers on speedtest or during normal use.

But to be honest I had not really noticed any issues before that ;) Other than the test showing me my bufferbloat was bad..

Looking forward to when I can apply it to my new 500/50 line when get new pfsense hardware. I can tell you for sure that on the usg that currently stuck with that when you turn on their smart queues my download is limited to 80ish down vs the 530 I see on speedtest currently. Seems to handle the upload ok but the download gets shit on..

belt9

Yikes, that's pretty limited!

johnpoz

Which is why its not on ;) When you turn on their queues you loose the hardware offload it seems.. So yeah speed takes a hit ;)

belt9

And that is why I am thankful for pfSense!

johnpoz

Oh believe me I will be back to pfsense as soon as get new hardware that can handle the speed.. The usg was a temp solution that was cheap enough to sneak through the budget committee (wife).. its was only a 100$ ;)

It can handle the speed in hardware offload.. But its feature set is so lacking.. Still running my pfsense vm for dhcp and dns since those features on usg need a huge amount of work to be viable in anything other than the most basic of home user networks.. And really just forget about ipv6 and or openvpn without manipulate of json files and having to reload them any time you reprovision the usg from the controller.. And the firewall rules are just nuts to setup on it as well.. I counting the days til I have pfsense back that is for sure ;)

sideout

I ran this on my router at my LAN party and it worked out great. 184 people with a 300mbit modem and 2 100mbit modems , made 2 download shapers and 1 upload shaper.

i made the system patches as well so it would apply after updates.

gsmornot

I should skip this since I don't know what I'm doing but still really curious to make it work. I have gigabit service and get D's and F's on buffer bloat.

I'm sure its in the post and I have indeed read though but still don't understand. What are the steps to enable this? I have 2.4 installed.

Looks like install patches package, run patch posted on page 8 which I was going to do until it said I could not remove this so I thought I better study a bit before I keep going. If you have the energy, please tell me what are the steps and I will follow them. Thanks.

belt9

You don't have to install the patch.

Just set up limiters (look at Johns screenshots a few pages above this) then run the ipfw commands for fq_codel and add them to shellcmd.

Run a speed test and set your limiters to 95% of the speeds you get.

Now go to your firewall rules to pass traffic and in the advanced section just select the queues you just made.

That's it.

w0w

@belt9:

You don't have to install the patch.

Just set up limiters (look at Johns screenshots a few pages above this) then run the ipfw commands for fq_codel and add them to shellcmd.

Run a speed test and set your limiters to 95% of the speeds you get.

Now go to your firewall rules to pass traffic and in the advanced section just select the queues you just made.

That's it.

I don't think it's that simple. If you don't override rules.limiter with own one like TS suggests by patching php code, then any firewall config or even WAN IP change that wants and would reload this file will destroy your manually configured fq_codel, until you manually run ipfw commands again or restart firewall to let shellcmd to do it. Am I wrong?

johnpoz

No sorry it is that simple.. You do not need to make any files changes at all.. Just create the limiters and then put in the commands via shellcmd to put them in every time you reboot, etc.

belt9

Yeah, I just tried adding and deleting firewall rules then checking ipfw and it still has my fq_codel flows.

If there's some other action you're worried might remove fq_codel then just try doing that action then check ipfw after to see if fq_codel is still in place.

ipfw sched show

w0w

OK so may be quick start quide?

1. RTFM for FQ_CODEL http://caia.swin.edu.au/freebsd/aqm/patches/README-0.2.1.txt
2. Config limiters (pipes) via GUI.
3. View /tmp/rules.limiter

for example it will be


pipe 1 config  bw 280576Kb
queue 1 config pipe 1 mask src-ip6 /128 src-ip 0xffffffff

pipe 2 config  bw 280576Kb
queue 2 config pipe 2 mask dst-ip6 /128 dst-ip 0xffffffff

4. USE shellcmd package to recreate pipes with commands like


ipfw pipe flush

ipfw pipe 1 config  bw 280576Kb
ipfw sched 1 config pipe 1 type fq_codel target 7ms quantum 2000 flows 2048
ipfw queue 1 config pipe 1 mask src-ip6 /128 src-ip 0xffffffff

ipfw pipe 2 config  bw 280576Kb
ipfw sched 2 config pipe 2 type fq_codel target 7ms quantum 2000 flows 2048
ipfw queue 2 config pipe 2 mask dst-ip6 /128 dst-ip 0xffffffff

5. Add your limiters to firewall rules (IN/OUT pipes), this step can be any after step 2 actually.

Is it correct?
Maybe it's better to run script at startup? Just placing it into /usr/local/etc/rc.d? I found that using shellcmd is a little bit uncomfortable with multiple command lines at once, have I missed something?