CPU Usage when network used

tman222

Thanks @qwaven - I appreciate the additional info. Your numbers in the WMark (Watermark) column are a lot higher than what I see, but I'm not 100% sure how to interpret that. For instance, is this the amount of packets that crossed the water mark or is this a global limit? I think @stephenw10 or someone else with a better knowledge of the FreeBSD networking stack might be able to set shed some more light on these statistics.

After some additional thought, seeing the queue statistics on your ix and igb interfaces might also be useful.

For RX Stats:
sysctl -a | grep rx_packets

For TX Stats:
sysctl -a | grep tx_packets

and then post the tx and rx queue statistics for all active igb and ix interfaces. How are packets distributed across the tx and rx queues for all the different interfaces that are currently active?

Thanks in advance and hope this helps.

qwaven

@tman222 said in CPU Usage when network used:

sysctl -a | grep rx_packets

sysctl -a | grep rx_packets

dev.ix.3.queue7.rx_packets: 6387858
dev.ix.3.queue6.rx_packets: 6755233
dev.ix.3.queue5.rx_packets: 7452156
dev.ix.3.queue4.rx_packets: 5690876
dev.ix.3.queue3.rx_packets: 5994398
dev.ix.3.queue2.rx_packets: 6624108
dev.ix.3.queue1.rx_packets: 8177888
dev.ix.3.queue0.rx_packets: 8585302
dev.ix.2.queue7.rx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue6.rx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue5.rx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue4.rx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue3.rx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue2.rx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue1.rx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue0.rx_packets: 0
dev.ix.1.queue7.rx_packets: 16551499
dev.ix.1.queue6.rx_packets: 33534177
dev.ix.1.queue5.rx_packets: 17563120
dev.ix.1.queue4.rx_packets: 15072354
dev.ix.1.queue3.rx_packets: 39145147
dev.ix.1.queue2.rx_packets: 23228763
dev.ix.1.queue1.rx_packets: 7950923
dev.ix.1.queue0.rx_packets: 41279340
dev.ix.0.queue7.rx_packets: 22
dev.ix.0.queue6.rx_packets: 210025
dev.ix.0.queue5.rx_packets: 43
dev.ix.0.queue4.rx_packets: 861
dev.ix.0.queue3.rx_packets: 26
dev.ix.0.queue2.rx_packets: 15
dev.ix.0.queue1.rx_packets: 29
dev.ix.0.queue0.rx_packets: 23467772

sysctl -a | grep tx_packets

dev.ix.3.queue7.tx_packets: 16140452
dev.ix.3.queue6.tx_packets: 33202115
dev.ix.3.queue5.tx_packets: 17090472
dev.ix.3.queue4.tx_packets: 14520542
dev.ix.3.queue3.tx_packets: 38602349
dev.ix.3.queue2.tx_packets: 22896318
dev.ix.3.queue1.tx_packets: 7152241
dev.ix.3.queue0.tx_packets: 57226399
dev.ix.2.queue7.tx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue6.tx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue5.tx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue4.tx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue3.tx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue2.tx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue1.tx_packets: 0
dev.ix.2.queue0.tx_packets: 0
dev.ix.1.queue7.tx_packets: 4275957
dev.ix.1.queue6.tx_packets: 4377190
dev.ix.1.queue5.tx_packets: 3828586
dev.ix.1.queue4.tx_packets: 2886044
dev.ix.1.queue3.tx_packets: 4404683
dev.ix.1.queue2.tx_packets: 5183075
dev.ix.1.queue1.tx_packets: 5869218
dev.ix.1.queue0.tx_packets: 11726952
dev.ix.0.queue7.tx_packets: 2607146
dev.ix.0.queue6.tx_packets: 2812508
dev.ix.0.queue5.tx_packets: 4187141
dev.ix.0.queue4.tx_packets: 3436090
dev.ix.0.queue3.tx_packets: 2184920
dev.ix.0.queue2.tx_packets: 1856375
dev.ix.0.queue1.tx_packets: 3202041
dev.ix.0.queue0.tx_packets: 4121751

Cheers!

tman222

Hi @qwaven - thanks for the additional information. It looks like the packets are well distributed across the queues on the non pppoe interfaces, which is good. I apologize for not asking you this in the previous post, but could you please also give us the output of "netstat -m" Thanks again.

qwaven

netstat -m

106492/19253/125745 mbufs in use (current/cache/total)
98297/10023/108320/1000000 mbuf clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
98297/9987 mbuf+clusters out of packet secondary zone in use (current/cache)
0/24/24/524288 4k (page size) jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
0/0/0/524288 9k jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
0/0/0/84549 16k jumbo clusters in use (current/cache/total/max)
223217K/24955K/248172K bytes allocated to network (current/cache/total)
0/0/0 requests for mbufs denied (mbufs/clusters/mbuf+clusters)
0/0/0 requests for mbufs delayed (mbufs/clusters/mbuf+clusters)
0/0/0 requests for jumbo clusters delayed (4k/9k/16k)
0/0/0 requests for jumbo clusters denied (4k/9k/16k)
0 sendfile syscalls
0 sendfile syscalls completed without I/O request
0 requests for I/O initiated by sendfile
0 pages read by sendfile as part of a request
0 pages were valid at time of a sendfile request
0 pages were requested for read ahead by applications
0 pages were read ahead by sendfile
0 times sendfile encountered an already busy page
0 requests for sfbufs denied
0 requests for sfbufs delayed

Cheers!

tman222

Hi @qwaven - those mbuf cluster number also look good. After thinking about this a bit more and doing some more reading, I am starting to believe that we're hitting some sort of I/O constraint here (whether real or artificial). Have a look at these two sites:

https://calomel.org/network_performance.html
https://bsdrp.net/documentation/examples/forwarding_performance_lab_of_a_superserver_5018a-ftn4_with_10-gigabit_chelsio_t540-cr

What's interesting to me about the BSDRP page in particular is that the benchmark hardware was a previous generation Intel Atom CPU with half as many cores, yet the throughput was approximately twice as high (even under pure forwarding conditions, i.e. no pf, ipf, or ipfw enabled). I realize the tests were done on FreeBSD 11.1 vs. pfSense, but I wouldn't expect the difference between the two under normal circumstances to be this drastic.

Having said that, I'm not sure if the limitations that you're seeing are due to having pppoe enabled on the system or there is some type of limitation with the onboard 10Gbit ports. One thing that might be worth trying is duplicating the iperf3 tests, but using the Chelsio NIC instead to see if there is any difference in throughput.

Other than that, I'm basically out of ideas now on this one. Perhaps the other responders in this thread will have some more thoughts on what to try. Thanks again sharing the additional data with us, and hope this helps.

qwaven

Well I've done this. I popped the chelsio in. Steps after:

Moved JUST the NAS to the chelsio, no change (no vlan)
Moved the test box/network to the chelsio, no change (no vlan)
Started playing with the options in PFSense
i) adjusted the firewall policy to aggressive (was normal) , possibly saw marginal increase with parallel streams but not enough to really mention.
ii) Disabled "insert stronger ID..." and let the races start! :)
Immediately speeds are improved. I can't quite get as good as without PF at all but its def a lot better. I am unclear if this option is default enabled in PF or not?
With 6 streams:

[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 8.79 GBytes 7.55 Gbits/sec 1784 sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 8.77 GBytes 7.53 Gbits/sec receiver

Saw some spikes above 9.

I suspect it is not 100% required to use the chelsio card but actually may see even further speed increases if I move one network back to the built in which I imagine would be using different PCIe lanes than the addon card.

Also keep in mind I have done no modifications like previously done so flow control appears active...etc.

Some more numbers:

last pid: 10762;  load averages:  0.87,  0.33,  0.26    up 0+00:43:07  11:32:13
400 processes: 22 running, 256 sleeping, 122 waiting
CPU 0:   0.0% user,  0.4% nice,  0.8% system,  4.3% interrupt, 94.5% idle
CPU 1:   0.0% user,  0.4% nice,  1.6% system, 10.6% interrupt, 87.5% idle
CPU 2:   0.0% user,  0.4% nice,  1.2% system, 60.4% interrupt, 38.0% idle
CPU 3:   0.0% user,  0.0% nice,  0.4% system,  7.5% interrupt, 92.2% idle
CPU 4:   0.0% user,  0.8% nice,  0.0% system,  9.0% interrupt, 90.2% idle
CPU 5:   0.0% user,  0.4% nice,  1.2% system, 34.8% interrupt, 63.7% idle
CPU 6:   0.0% user,  0.0% nice,  0.0% system, 21.2% interrupt, 78.8% idle
CPU 7:   0.0% user,  0.8% nice,  0.8% system, 37.3% interrupt, 61.2% idle
CPU 8:   0.0% user,  0.4% nice,  0.0% system, 37.3% interrupt, 62.4% idle
CPU 9:   0.0% user,  0.4% nice,  0.4% system, 29.0% interrupt, 70.2% idle
CPU 10:  0.0% user,  0.0% nice,  0.8% system, 17.3% interrupt, 82.0% idle
CPU 11:  0.0% user,  0.0% nice,  1.2% system, 34.1% interrupt, 64.7% idle
CPU 12:  0.0% user,  0.0% nice,  0.4% system, 23.9% interrupt, 75.7% idle
CPU 13:  0.0% user,  0.8% nice,  0.0% system, 13.7% interrupt, 85.5% idle
CPU 14:  0.0% user,  0.0% nice,  0.0% system, 48.2% interrupt, 51.8% idle
CPU 15:  0.0% user,  0.4% nice,  0.0% system, 16.5% interrupt, 83.1% idle
Mem: 115M Active, 168M Inact, 675M Wired, 41M Buf, 15G Free
Swap: 3979M Total, 3979M Free

iperf3 -M90 -P10

        input        (Total)           output
packets  errs idrops      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
  719k     0     0        98M       719k     0        98M     0
  716k     0     0        98M       716k     0        98M     0
  721k     0     0        99M       721k     0        99M     0
  710k     0     0        97M       710k     0        97M     0
  720k     0     0        99M       720k     0        99M     0

Cheers!

tman222

@qwaven - that's great news!!

I just checked on my pfSense box and I do not see the "IP Random ID generation" option enabled. I don't believe it's enabled by default either. Any idea how it might have become enabled on your system?

In any case, those throughput numbers look a lot better and are more in line with what I was expecting for your C3000 based hardware originally. If you have some time, feel free to re-run some of the iperf3 tests from earlier in this thread to see where the pps limits are now -- I imagine you should be closer to 1M pps with pf enabled and potentially well above 2M pps with pf turned off.

Anyway, I'm glad this finally resolved. I'll be honest, I probably would have never have thought of the "IP Random ID generation" option :). But good to know now for future reference.

qwaven

If its not on by default I must have enabled it during my initial setup way back when I was on the other hardware even. The description does make it sound like it should be a good thing to have enabled. I'm a bit surprised that it would be capable of throttling the throughput so much. I'm guessing it must function in some sort of single thread which would make sense why my CPU cores were not utilized very evenly before. In the post above it looks more distributed to me.

The 719k is my iperf3 test. I did a few different P# options and based on the different numbers it seems to level out about 7xxk.

Cheers!

chrcoluk

Not read all 3 pages, just page 1 so far, here is my initial thoughts.

As has been stated PPPoE is a cpu hog, compared to other protocols it is cpu heavy and single threaded.

You do have multiple queues configured on nic which is good tho.

Check RSS status with netstat -Q.

Try disabling PTI (meltdown mitigation), is an option in the UI to disable it, and reboot after disabling it to apply it.

PowerD should enable turbo clocks, so if that isnt working I expect its disabled in the bios.

With all this said I dont know what you can expect out of PPPoE on that chip, especially if you also using NAT, so I got no idea what the baseline expected performance is.

qwaven

Thanks for the reply chrcoluk. However, I think we've managed to figure things out.

Thanks all for all the help/support with this. I think things have been concluded well enough. Lots of learning! :)

Cheers!

JeGr

So what numbers did/do you achieve now with those 10G interfaces? Copper/SFP+ modules? And what changes/values from sysctl or loader.conf.local did you set for it?

qwaven

Hi,

The numbers I got were posted earlier. The changes I made to the loader/sysctl for the most part do not seem to have changed much. The speed increase happened once I turned off the option to insert a stronger ID.

For reference here are the system tunables page (sysctl) and boot/loader.conf.local file. Most of which is now commented out and/or for the built in interface card and not the chelsio. :p

#Improve Cache size
hw.ix.rxd="4096"
hw.ix.txd="4096"
#Change processing limit -1 is unlimited
hw.ix.tx_process_limit="-1"
hw.ix.rx_process_limit="-1"
#Set the queues to cores
#hw.ix.num_queues="16"
#force flow control settings 0 to disable.
hw.ix.flow_control="0"
dev.ix.0.fc=0
dev.ix.1.fc=0
dev.ix.2.fc=0
dev.ix.3.fc=0
#disable cache connection detail
#net.inet.tcp.hostcache.cachelimit="0"
#ensure HT is disabled
machdep.hyperthreading_allowed="0"
#enable optimized version of soreceive
#net.inet.tcp.soreceive_stream="1"
#unlimited isr threads to maximize all core use
#net.isr.maxthreads="-1"
#net.isr.bindthreads="1"
#use msix instead
#hw.ix.enable_msix="1"
#use aim to improve efficency on network stack
#hw.ix.enable_aim="1"
#hw.ix.max_interrupt_rate="16000"
#increase max interrupts
#hw.intr_storm_threshold="9000"

Hope that helps.
Cheers!