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    PC Engines apu2 experiences

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    • QinnQ
      Qinn @kevindd992002
      last edited by

      @kevindd992002 Why only the receive (rx) and not the transmit (tx) in the loader.conf.local file and why did you not uncheck?

      Hardware TCP Segmentation Offloading
      Hardware Large Receive Offloading

      Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
      Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
      Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

      K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • K
        kevindd992002 @Qinn
        last edited by

        @qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

        @kevindd992002 Why only the receive (rx) and not the transmit (tx) in the loader.conf.local file and why did you not uncheck?

        Hardware TCP Segmentation Offloading
        Hardware Large Receive Offloading

        Answers to your questions:

        https://forum.netgate.com/post/908003

        QinnQ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • QinnQ
          Qinn @kevindd992002
          last edited by

          @kevindd992002 You are refring to my own reply, but these settings are from a older date and referred to pre pfSense version 2.4.5-p1

          You should now have these and then reboot

          pfSense-2.4.5-p1.png

          https://forum.netgate.com/topic/95148/pc-engines-apu2-experiences/384

          Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
          Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
          Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

          K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • K
            kevindd992002 @Qinn
            last edited by

            @qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

            @kevindd992002 You are refring to my own reply, but these settings are from a older date and referred to pre pfSense version 2.4.5-p1

            You should now have these and then reboot

            pfSense-2.4.5-p1.png

            https://forum.netgate.com/topic/95148/pc-engines-apu2-experiences/384

            I'm still confused. I wasn't referring to your reply. I was referring to @dugeem 's reply when we discussed this.

            Again, read https://forum.netgate.com/post/908003

            Let me quote some parts of his reply:

            "Firstly TSO & LRO should always be disabled on routers. Netgate recommend this (hence pfSense defaults) as do others. BSDRP have even tested this and found routing performance drop negligible from enabling TSO & LRO (see link below)."

            "hw.igb.tx_process_limit already defaults to -1 so no need to change this."

            So those are the answers to your questions. Also, like I mentioned in my reply today:

            "Also, it looks like the guys here updated their article but they are still insisting to enable all three HW offloads as they see that it gives better speeds."

            So, to summarize, dugeem explained very well that TSO and LRO needs to be disabled (so checked) and that the teklager article is wrong. With their updated article, they are still insisting to keep those three offloads enabled.

            Everything clear now?

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DaddyGoD
              DaddyGo @kevindd992002
              last edited by

              @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

              Also, it looks like the guys here updated their article but they are still insisting to enable all three HW offloads as they see that it gives better speeds.

              Hi,

              Because of the behavior of the TSO and LRO, it is important ...
              This is an endpoint question and not a routing and / or a router NIC setup ...

              this will definitely help you understand the behavior (FreeBSD):

              https://calomel.org/freebsd_network_tuning.html
              https://calomel.org/network_performance.html
              https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-receive-a-million-packets/

              TSO and LRO are not good, if you are a router, but if you are an endpoint you can use them...

              remember you're talking about an APU (pcEngines) stuff and an i211 thing, you'll do more if you could increase your PCie bus speed and / or RAM

              With such a MOBO, the opportunity is not given... ๐Ÿ˜‰
              (dmesg | grep -i msi)

              which can help a lot, disabling EEE and FC on igb0-3

              Something like:

              bd259da3-26b0-4036-ac8e-4219c6515d8d-image.png

              Cats bury it so they can't see it!
              (You know what I mean if you have a cat)

              K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • K
                kevindd992002 @DaddyGo
                last edited by

                @daddygo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                Also, it looks like the guys here updated their article but they are still insisting to enable all three HW offloads as they see that it gives better speeds.

                Hi,

                Because of the behavior of the TSO and LRO, it is important ...
                This is an endpoint question and not a routing and / or a router NIC setup ...

                this will definitely help you understand the behavior (FreeBSD):

                https://calomel.org/freebsd_network_tuning.html
                https://calomel.org/network_performance.html
                https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-to-receive-a-million-packets/

                TSO and LRO are not good, if you are a router, but if you are an endpoint you can use them...

                remember you're talking about an APU (pcEngines) stuff and an i211 thing, you'll do more if you could increase your PCie bus speed and / or RAM

                With such a MOBO, the opportunity is not given... ๐Ÿ˜‰
                (dmesg | grep -i msi)

                which can help a lot, disabling EEE and FC on igb0-3

                Something like:

                bd259da3-26b0-4036-ac8e-4219c6515d8d-image.png

                So are you recommending that TSO and LRO be enabled in this use case?

                Also, I would really want to know what all those system tunables do before I implement them blindly to my system.

                @dugeem any comment on this since you were the one who explained the routing concept for these parameters in the first place?

                DaddyGoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • DaddyGoD
                  DaddyGo @kevindd992002
                  last edited by DaddyGo

                  @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                  So are you recommending that TSO and LRO be enabled in this use case?

                  So we have been using APU4d4 stuff at the endpoints of our users and colleagues for years, so I can tell you first hand that their performance is finite....

                  The answer to your question is to never enable TSO and LRO on a router

                  +++edit:
                  this is an old thread, read my posts above ๐Ÿ˜‰

                  BTW:
                  why do you think the TSO and LRO are disabled after a clean pfSense install (by Netgate)

                  Cats bury it so they can't see it!
                  (You know what I mean if you have a cat)

                  K 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • K
                    kevindd992002 @DaddyGo
                    last edited by

                    @daddygo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                    @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                    So are you recommending that TSO and LRO be enabled in this use case?

                    So we have been using APU4d4 stuff at the endpoints of our users and colleagues for years, so I can tell you first hand that their performance is finite....

                    The answer to your question is to never enable TSO and LRO on a router

                    Yes, I'm aware that you are well-experienced with this boards. And I believe you. I'm just making sure that I'm running these APU2C4's to their max potential. And as you can see in my post yesterday, I have TSO and LRO disabled since early this year.

                    Also, I transitioned from using OpenVPN to IKEv2 IPsec and I can't believe my own eyes how fast IPsec is. I had to switch because I upgraded the Internet subscription of my remote site to 100/100. In any case, do you have any ideas on my question here?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • K
                      kevindd992002 @DaddyGo
                      last edited by

                      @daddygo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                      @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                      So are you recommending that TSO and LRO be enabled in this use case?

                      So we have been using APU4d4 stuff at the endpoints of our users and colleagues for years, so I can tell you first hand that their performance is finite....

                      The answer to your question is to never enable TSO and LRO on a router

                      +++edit:
                      this is an old thread, read my posts above ๐Ÿ˜‰

                      BTW:
                      why do you think the TSO and LRO are disabled after a clean pfSense install (by Netgate)

                      Where did I say that TSO and LRO are disabled after a clean install of pfSense? I never said that.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • K
                        kevindd992002
                        last edited by

                        Is it recommended to downgrade from 14.13.0.1 to 14.11.0.6 for the APU2C4 since it says on pcengines' website that the recommended firmware is the "latest 4.11.x.x"? Can you downgrade without any issues?

                        fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • fireodoF
                          fireodo @kevindd992002
                          last edited by

                          @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                          Can you downgrade without any issues?

                          Yes, but you have to respect the correct flashing procedure.
                          Current BIOS is v4.13.0.2 so why downgrade?

                          Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                          SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                          pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                          Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • K
                            kevindd992002
                            last edited by

                            @fireodo where can I see the proper flashing procedure/order? And like I said, the only reason I'm considering downgrading is because 4.11.x.x is the recommended firmware as mentioned in their website.

                            fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • fireodoF
                              fireodo @kevindd992002
                              last edited by fireodo

                              @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                              @fireodo where can I see the proper flashing procedure/order?

                              Here:
                              Apu-Flashing

                              And like I said, the only reason I'm considering downgrading is because 4.11.x.x is the recommended firmware as mentioned in their website.

                              OK, understood.

                              Regards,
                              fireodo

                              Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                              SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                              pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                              Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                              K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • K
                                kevindd992002 @fireodo
                                last edited by

                                @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                @fireodo where can I see the proper flashing procedure/order?

                                Here:
                                Apu-Flashing

                                And like I said, the only reason I'm considering downgrading is because 4.11.x.x is the recommended firmware as mentioned in their website.

                                OK, understood.

                                Regards,
                                fireodo

                                Ahh, I thought you were pertaining to an "order" of flashing when downgrading. So it's just the usual flashing procedure then? I'm using flashrom inside of pfsense. So I can directly go from 14.13.0.1 to 14.11.0.6?

                                fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • fireodoF
                                  fireodo @kevindd992002
                                  last edited by

                                  @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                  @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                  @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                  @fireodo where can I see the proper flashing procedure/order?

                                  Here:
                                  Apu-Flashing

                                  And like I said, the only reason I'm considering downgrading is because 4.11.x.x is the recommended firmware as mentioned in their website.

                                  OK, understood.

                                  Regards,
                                  fireodo

                                  Ahh, I thought you were pertaining to an "order" of flashing when downgrading. So it's just the usual flashing procedure then? I'm using flashrom inside of pfsense. So I can directly go from 14.13.0.1 to 14.11.0.6?

                                  You mean v4.13.0.1 to v4.11.0.6? If so yes, no problem, dont forget to interrupt power supply after flashing. (important to ensure a BIOS CMOS-Reset)

                                  Regards,
                                  fireodo

                                  Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                                  SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                                  pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                                  Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                                  K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • K
                                    kevindd992002 @fireodo
                                    last edited by

                                    @fireodo Sorry, yes, that's what I meant. And yes, I always make sure to interrupt power supply after flashing, for about 10 seconds.

                                    Do you think it's still wise to downgrade though?

                                    fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • fireodoF
                                      fireodo @kevindd992002
                                      last edited by fireodo

                                      @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                      @fireodo Sorry, yes, that's what I meant. And yes, I always make sure to interrupt power supply after flashing, for about 10 seconds.

                                      Do you think it's still wise to downgrade though?

                                      If everything work as expected you dont have to downgrade. The v4.13.0.2 has cleanup all problems that raised in the latest time - so if there is no trouble you dont need to down/upgrade.

                                      Regards,
                                      fireodo

                                      Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                                      SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                                      pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                                      Packages: Apcupsd, Cron, Iftop, Iperf, LCDproc, Nmap, pfBlockerNG, RRD_Summary, Shellcmd, Snort, Speedtest, System_Patches.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • QinnQ
                                        Qinn
                                        last edited by Qinn

                                        @kevindd992002 I am for 3 days on bios mainline version 13.0.2 (don't use the legacy anymore) and no issues, IMO there is no reason to revert back to an older bios version and as @fireodo mentioned, whenever you upgraded to a new bios version you should power down the system. This is best done by going to the Diagnostics -> Halt System, wait for the system to power down, check if the power led is off, then remove the power plug, wait for 30 sec and then re-insert the power plug.

                                        Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
                                        Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
                                        Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

                                        K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • K
                                          kevindd992002 @Qinn
                                          last edited by

                                          @qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                          @kevindd992002 I am for 3 days on bios mainline version 13.0.2 (don't use the legacy anymore) and no issues, IMO there is no reason to revert back to an older bios version and as @fireodo mentioned, whenever you upgraded to a new bios version you should power down the system. This is best done by going to the Diagnostics -> Halt System, wait for the system to power down, check if the power led is off, then remove the power plug, wait for 30 sec and then re-insert the power plug.

                                          Ok, I'll just upgrade to 4.13.0.2 instead. And yes, I always do those same steps when upgrading the APU2 firwamre. I always gracefully shutdown/reset the APU2.

                                          QinnQ DaddyGoD 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • QinnQ
                                            Qinn @kevindd992002
                                            last edited by Qinn

                                            Another advise when you got the time. When you are still using UFS it is best to move over to the filesystem ZFS, this system can withstand power-loss better than UFS, as the APU2C4 has ECC memory which gives almost a 100% safeguard against bit errors.

                                            Also recommend by Netgate https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/install-walkthrough.html

                                            Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
                                            Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
                                            Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

                                            K V 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
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