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    Supermicro X11SBA-LN4F-O N3700 - Has anyone used this board?

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    • G
      guardian Rebel Alliance
      last edited by

      It was suggested https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=111335.msg620109#msg620109 that the Supermicro X11SBA-LN4F-O board might be a good cost effective platform for a pfSense build.

      • What is the quality of the Supermicro boards-Especially capacitors (Chinese Caps/Japanese Caps)?

      • What is the expected lifespan of this type of hardware? I've had ASUS boards run 7-8 years… is Supermicro in the same class? Better? Worse?

      • What throughput should I expect running VPN?

      I'm targeting a 250/20 cable connection with a lot of the traffic through a OpenVPN.

      Any guidance would be much appreciated from anyone with experience with this platform.

      If you find my post useful, please give it a thumbs up!
      pfSense 2.7.2-RELEASE

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      • JailerJ
        Jailer
        last edited by

        It would behoove you to read this thread. It's long but worth it.

        https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=98230.0

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        • G
          guardian Rebel Alliance
          last edited by

          Thanks, that's an interesting read….

          It's not clear if the issue has been solved... It appears that someone may have solved the issue... 
          https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=98230.msg620591#msg620591

          The board required an RMA to fix an issue which was likely a firmware issue somewhere in the network stack and/or support chips. 
          https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=98230.msg594532#msg594532

          If you find my post useful, please give it a thumbs up!
          pfSense 2.7.2-RELEASE

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          • E
            Engineer
            last edited by

            @guardian:

            Thanks, that's an interesting read….

            It's not clear if the issue has been solved... It appears that someone may have solved the issue... 
            https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=98230.msg620591#msg620591

            The board required an RMA to fix an issue which was likely a firmware issue somewhere in the network stack and/or support chips. 
            https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=98230.msg594532#msg594532

            While firmware was updated to latest, there was some sort of hardware modification.  I searched over my board and found no traces of hardware mods (no solder marks, etc).  I suppose it could have been some sort of PLD (programmable logic device).  Firmware alone has not solved this for anyone that I know of.

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            • PerforadoP
              Perforado Rebel Alliance
              last edited by

              I have 3 of these in production. Worked fine until Friday when they suddenly lost Link on one or two links during a scriptkiddie-dos  :o

              My guess for the fix is a change in aspm parameters on the nics eeprom. I am testing with aspm and msix disabled now.
              Not sure if it helps though as the scriptkiddie is done w*nking  ::)

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              • G
                guardian Rebel Alliance
                last edited by

                @Perforado:

                I have 3 of these in production. Worked fine until Friday when they suddenly lost Link on one or two links during a scriptkiddie-dos  :o

                How long was it in production before the failure? 
                Do you know what revision the boards are (or were they RMA's to receive a mod)?
                Can you please comment on:
                What case you used? / Do you have fans in the case? / What Temperature does the CPU run when under a reasonable workload?

                My guess for the fix is a change in aspm parameters on the nics eeprom. I am testing with aspm and msix disabled now.
                Not sure if it helps though as the scriptkiddie is done w*nking  ::)

                Thanks.

                If you find my post useful, please give it a thumbs up!
                pfSense 2.7.2-RELEASE

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                • G
                  guardian Rebel Alliance
                  last edited by

                  Engineer has done a lot of work to figure out what the issues are
                  with this board, and based on his experience, the presence of
                  ECO 18137 makes the Supermicro X11SBA-LN4F-O N3700 a stable
                  and low power pfSense platform with decent performance.

                  I took some of the info from the forum and approached SM Tech Support,
                  and I got the following back:

                  –------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                  -------- Forwarded Message --------
                  Subject: RE: X11SBA-LN4F-O - Pre-Sales Enquiry [WT]
                  Date: Tue, 10 May 2016 00:02:16 +0000
                  From: Technical Support support@supermicro.comTo: –---@---.ca>, Technical Support support@supermicro.comHello

                  After further investigation,  the ECOs has been implemented onto
                  PCB 1.02 for the aforementioned issues.  When you place an order
                  with your distributor, please ensure to specify a PCB 1.02 to be
                  shipped to you.

                  Regards,

                  Technical Support


                  Assuming reasonable cost and workload match, would the above
                  make the X11SBA-LN4F-O N3700 PCB 1.02 a recommended pfSense
                  platform?/support@supermicro.com/support@supermicro.com

                  If you find my post useful, please give it a thumbs up!
                  pfSense 2.7.2-RELEASE

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                  • P
                    pfsense_user12123
                    last edited by

                    I use this board for 4 months now.
                    I have no problems at all.

                    Performance is great using ips, squid, Pfblocker.
                    Power consumption can’t be lower.

                    It’s a very solid board. I like the Ipmi feature.

                    MB: Supermicro X11SBA-LN4F/F
                    RAM: 8GB
                    HD: 120 GB SSD
                    Switch: Cisco SG 200-08
                    AP: TP-Link AP500

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