Network port splitting ??
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Is there a way to split a single high speed port into 4 lower speed ports ?
Such as a single 40GB link into 4x 10 GB links or a 100GB port into 4x 25gb link ??
I know that most datacenter centric network cards and switches support it in hardware form but also back by software... but unsure about pfSense and I'm not even sure what the correct term would be as well as trunking would be the closest but also only refers to a single link carrying multiple tagged vlans where as mine is physically separating a single port into 4 physical links.Does anyone have any insight ??
If it ain't broken, fix it till it is :P
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@_adrian_ What you're referring to is called a multiplexer, or mux for short.
pfSense can't do that. -
@_adrian_ Are you saying your pfSense box has a 40Gb interface or 4 x 10Gb ?
You can get these, if pfSense / FreeBSD support them it's an entirely different matter.
https://www.fs.com/uk/products/30827.html
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I'm running a HP DL320e with a Xeon E3-1280v3, 16GB of RAM with a Boradcom N20KJ thats been modified to accept a 2.5GB SFP+ that my ISP is using as the ONT ( Optical Network Terminal ) while on thr network side i have a Mellanox MCX416A-CCAT which is a dual port 100GB card...
I was trying to see if there was a way to "mux" those ports and gain a multitude ( 8x 25GB ) of high speed links -
pfSense would need to see it as separate NICs. The Mellenox NICs can do some unusual things...so...maybe. I've never seen it done. Some firmware setting perhaps.
You won't pass 25Gbps though. You'd be better trying to get 10GbE interfaces out of it.Steve
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Im looking at this switch USW-Pro-Aggregation as my top of rack switch followed by a USW-Pro-48-PoE.
This way all my gaming and streaming gear is on a high speed network while my typical users ( voip, ap, security cameras) can ride the gigabit ports on the tier below.
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Ok, well having never run a 25G link in pfSense I can't really recommend any NICs for that. You're welcome to try though.
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@stephenw10 i will definitely attempt it once my main switch arrives. I am using a mellanox branded 2M DAC cable. I really need to do some home work, but figured someone here has tried it before so it was worth a shot in the dark
If it ain't broken, fix it till it is :P
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I'm sure someone has. We occasionally get questions about it but I'm not sure a report of success.
Let me check....Mmm, there are NICs supported by bnxt(4) and ice(4) for example but I'm not seeing any reports of 100% success. There are VLAN issues in the current bnxt driver for example.
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@stephenw10 That in a way is good news as I'm not planning to run VLANS lol
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If you have any choice I'd probably look at one of the Intel 800 series NICs supported by the ice(4) driver:
https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/blob/devel-12/sys/dev/ice/ice_common.c#L57Even if it's not supported now it's likely to be the best supported hardware in FreeBSD.
But if you have the Mellanox NIC already you may as well test it.
Steve
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@stephenw10 heres the Nvidia support site for the mellanox card ( which is now owned by Nvidia )
I mean worse case and scenario I can always bump it down to 25Gbps and use active failover from my pfsense box to my main switch.
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That card appears to be supported:
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=mlx5en&sektion=4&apropos=0&manpath=FreeBSD+12.3-stable#HARDWARE
I've just never seen anyone attempt to use it with pfSense directly. -
@stephenw10 well... here goes nothing lol
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