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    Mixing different NIC Speeds (1Gb & 10Gb) Performance Problem Question

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    • N
      ngr2001 @stephenw10
      last edited by ngr2001

      @stephenw10

      I did not, but I just corrected that. I reset the states, waited a few mins and so far there may be a small boost in performance. I seem to be averaging now 700Mpbs instead of 500Mbps on fast.com, however if I switch ports we get the full 900+. So better but not perfect.

      64251468-6ed7-46ed-8090-ba5a1bd08939-image.png

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      • N
        ngr2001 @lnguyen
        last edited by

        @lnguyen

        1/2/8 - My 10Gb uplink to PF LAN Nic.
        689ff83c-9756-4b10-8dcf-72af121c1c0e-image.png

        I just noticed that 2 of my main clients currently at 1Gb on the switch have a lot of dropped packets. However right now I am running speedtests and I am not seeing the dropped packet counter increasing, so who know under which setup all these packets were dropped.

        1Gb Win 11 Client
        f5181091-f64a-483e-9e0a-69214260fd35-image.png

        1Gb Win 11 Client
        2ffd20e3-6932-412c-9007-0460e4980f0d-image.png

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        • N
          ngr2001 @lnguyen
          last edited by

          @lnguyen

          Should I disable flow control on my WAN NIC as a long term production setup being I am on Cable Internet ?

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          • L
            lnguyen @ngr2001
            last edited by lnguyen

            @ngr2001 I am not sure you are catching what I have said a few times across the two threads. Ethernet Flow Control is done on L2, which is what you have been configuring. TCP Flow Control is done at L4 which seems to not function when pfSense WAN is connected to DOCSIS cable modem. If you want to use Ethernet Flow control, which IMO is ugly, then you should leave it enabled.

            With my setup, I don't use ethernet flow control.

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Mmm, try with the MTU at the default 1500 so it matches the switch and client.

              200k input errors is pretty significant though.

              N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • N
                ngr2001 @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10

                Just tried, same diff, speeds quickly taper down to 5-600Mbps.

                I clear my stats on switch, right now at least the dropped packet count is not increasing.

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  Just to be clear you are running the switch at layer2 only right?

                  It's hard to see how adding the switch, or just changing the port speed, can have any effect on the tcp dircetly. It could be that is some how broken upstream such that when introducing some lower lever issue it's very badly effected though. 🤔

                  N 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • N
                    ngr2001 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10

                    I am not using any layer 3 features that I am aware of right now, thus I guess it should be in layer 2. I do have flow control enabled on the switch though.

                    SSH@romulus#show run
                    Current configuration:
                    !
                    ver 08.0.95pT213
                    !
                    stack unit 1
                    module 1 icx7250-48-port-management-module
                    module 2 icx7250-sfp-plus-8port-80g-module
                    stack-port 1/2/1
                    stack-port 1/2/3
                    !

                    vlan 1 name DEFAULT-VLAN by port
                    router-interface ve 1
                    !
                    !
                    symmetrical-flow-control enable
                    !
                    optical-monitor
                    optical-monitor non-ruckus-optic-enable
                    aaa authentication web-server default local
                    aaa authentication login default local
                    enable aaa console
                    hostname romulus
                    ip dhcp-client disable
                    ip dns server-address 10.0.0.1
                    ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.0.0.1
                    !
                    no telnet server
                    !

                    clock timezone us Eastern
                    !
                    !
                    ntp
                    disable serve
                    server time.cloudflare.com
                    !
                    !
                    no web-management http
                    !
                    manager disable
                    !
                    !
                    manager port-list 987
                    !
                    !
                    interface ethernet 1/1/4
                    flow-control neg-on
                    !
                    interface ethernet 1/1/8
                    flow-control neg-on
                    !
                    interface ethernet 1/1/48
                    flow-control neg-on
                    !
                    interface ethernet 1/2/1
                    flow-control neg-on
                    !
                    interface ethernet 1/2/8
                    flow-control neg-on
                    !
                    interface ve 1
                    ip address 10.0.0.3 255.255.255.0
                    !

                    ip ssh idle-time 120
                    !
                    end
                    SSH@romulus#

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                    • N
                      ngr2001 @stephenw10
                      last edited by ngr2001

                      @stephenw10

                      So I believe I upgraded to the Layer 3 firmware and enabled it from what I recall.

                      HW: Stackable ICX7250-48

                      UNIT 1: SL 1: ICX7250-48 48-port Management Module

                        Software Package: **ICX7250_L3_SOFT_PACKAGE**
                        Current License: l3-prem-8X10G
                        P-ASIC  0: type B344, rev 01  Chip BCM56344_A0
                      
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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Right. As long as it's not actually routing that shouldn't matter.

                        It sure seems like it's failing to negotiate flow control though. What does: ifconfig -vvm ix1 show in pfSense?

                        N 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • N
                          ngr2001 @stephenw10
                          last edited by ngr2001

                          This post is deleted!
                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • N
                            ngr2001 @stephenw10
                            last edited by ngr2001

                            @stephenw10

                            When connected at 10Gb I get this:
                            216eb3fc-702c-4ba6-b3ec-1b0b1e8e953e-image.png

                            When connected at 1Gb I get this:
                            5748e43a-b81b-42b8-8923-d8992d880b61-image.png

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                            • L
                              lnguyen @ngr2001
                              last edited by

                              @ngr2001 Maybe the 10GBASE-T SFP+ module you have is not passing along the 802.3x FC negotiation to the SFP+ port on the Brocade 7250

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Yes I would start to suspect the module. It should negotiate that over base-T but....
                                For other media types it's fixed like:

                                ix1: flags=1008843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1500
                                	description: WAN4
                                	options=4e138bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG>
                                	capabilities=4f53fbb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,NETMAP,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG>
                                	ether 00:08:a2:12:e2:cb
                                	inet6 fe80::208:a2ff:fe12:e2cb%ix1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x6
                                	media: Ethernet autoselect (10Gbase-Twinax <full-duplex,rxpause,txpause>)
                                	status: active
                                	supported media:
                                		media autoselect
                                		media 1000Base-KX
                                		media 10Gbase-Twinax
                                	nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
                                	drivername: ix1
                                	plugged: SFP/SFP+/SFP28 Unknown (Copper pigtail)
                                	vendor: OEM PN: SFP-H10GB-CU5M SN: CSS51F70287 DATE: 2015-07-01
                                

                                There it's just set to 'enabled' in the switch. I would try setting both ends as enabled rather than negotiated.

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                                • N
                                  ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by ngr2001

                                  @stephenw10

                                  I dont see any other options other than negotiate on the brocade side, are you suggesting I tweak the PF Side with a tunable ?

                                  https://docs.commscope.com/bundle/fastiron-08095-managementguide/page/GUID-A5971868-1051-4807-8ED2-D3BC6B10AA3B.html

                                  I also found this in the manual:

                                  66a76d39-c8ba-48de-a453-da9940939b39-image.png

                                  So what the heck does that mean, the manual does not offer any means or clues on if you can manually force flow control on a 10Gb port. To me this simply reads as not supported ?

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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    @ngr2001 said in Mixing different NIC Speeds (1Gb & 10Gb) Performance Problem Question:

                                    https://docs.commscope.com/bundle/fastiron-08095-managementguide/page/GUID-A5971868-1051-4807-8ED2-D3BC6B10AA3B.html

                                    Auto-negotiation of flow control is not supported on 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps ports, fiber ports, and copper or fiber combination ports. 
                                    

                                    So you need to set a 10G port to enabled not neg-enabled.

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      There are multiple options there:

                                      SSH@icx7250(config-if-e10000-1/2/1)#flow-control 
                                        both            Flow Control in PAUSE generation and honoring mode.
                                        generate-only   Flow Control in PAUSE generation only mode.
                                        honor-only      Flow Control in  PAUSE honoring (Default) mode.
                                        neg-on          Enable Flow Control with negotiation enabled
                                        <cr>
                                      

                                      You probably want both

                                      N 4 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • N
                                        ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10

                                        I did just see that too.

                                        I just set it to both, so far not seeing any change on the PF Side. Going to reboot everything and check again.

                                        b1425201-acbf-412f-b4c7-4080c7b5cebd-image.png

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                                        • N
                                          ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10

                                          Set to Both on Brocade Port

                                          No change on PF side after rebooting both PF and Switch.

                                          45310adf-3f02-44e4-98f6-1b673309b8b4-image.png

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                                          • N
                                            ngr2001 @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10

                                            On the transceiver side I am using:

                                            10Gtek 80-Meter, 10GBase-T SFP+ to RJ45 Transceiver
                                            https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094N9YKN9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

                                            L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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