OpenVPN server low upload throughput

ElMacko

I have created an openvpn server in pfsense which listens on port 9002, clients can connect fine and I have run tests using iperf3. Results are as follows:

OpenVPN Client as iperf client
ubuntu server on LAN as iperf server

Bandwidth: ~25Mbit/s

OpenVPN Client as iperf server
ubuntu server on LAN as iperf client

Bandwidth: ~700kbit/s

Both ends have 100/100 internet from provider. I have also tested upload speed from the same ubuntu server using the following command:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest.py | python -

Which shows an upload speed of ~97Mbit/s. This is another indication that the problem might be with the openvpn server. Hardware should not be a problem since the server is brand new, the processor only show around 3% load when running iperf tests. Worth noting is that I am running pfsense and the ubuntu server as virtual servers in vmware esxi 6.0. I am attaching my openvpn server config as images.

pfsense version: 2.4.0-RELEASE
ubuntu server version: 16.04

What could be the cause of the low speeds for uploading data to connected openvpn clients? Thanks.
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ElMacko

bump

johnpoz

I would try the fast i/o option and play with your send/recv buffers while doing your testing Does that help?

kejianshi

You didn't say how far apart the vpns are in miles or kilometers or what sort of processor the two ends have.

ElMacko

@kejianshi:

You didn't say how far apart the vpns are in miles or kilometers or what sort of processor the two ends have.

Both ends are in the same city in Sweden.

pfsense is installed as a virtual machine on a Dell PowerEdge T20 server with an Intel Xeon E3-1225V3 3.2 GHz, I will check how many cores I have assigned the virtual machine when i get home later but I think it's one. The client connects using tunnelblick on a macbook pro with an Intel Core i5 2.4 GHz.

Speed tests from server and client:

server:
Hosted by AllTele AB (Umea) [96.32 km]: 18.34 ms
Testing download speed….............................................................................
Download: 89.77 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed................................................................................................
Upload: 92.06 Mbit/s

client:
Hosted by NORDUnet A/S (Stockholm) [0.87 km]: 16.015 ms
Testing download speed….............................................................................
Download: 87.76 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed................................................................................................
Upload: 58.52 Mbit/s

ElMacko

@johnpoz:

I would try the fast i/o option and play with your send/recv buffers while doing your testing Does that help?

It got a little better when enabling fast i/o, It seemed like I got the best speed (~4 Mbit/s) with 2.00 MiB send/receive buffer. I still think I could expect higher speed than this no?