Traffic shaper changes [90% completed, please send money to complete bounty]

GoldServe

FYI, The shaper wizard built into 2.1 release will already do this.

This new shaper isn't quite finished yet (after 1.5 weeks I have yet to get a working copy), and I believe it will be released to the public for free in v1.3.

Unless you have multiple WANs or multiple LANs, it doesn't sound like you need this new shaper? I'm just letting you know that you can already do what you like in the current 1.2 release. If you are running 1.2, you probably do not have it configured correctly.

If you use pfSense and appreciate the work of the devs, please donate! These guys work very hard, and pfSense is pretty great! Just from the info you gave, it doesn't sound like you need the new shaper. Your situation, as described, is quite basic.

Regards,
Aaron

I do have mulitple WANs but it seems my problem may be due to other reasons..like PFsense is overloaded in packets or some tcp window size issue as described here: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,8698.0.html

I would still like to donate for all the hard work put into this project and maybe try the new shaper if it can help my problems.

eri--

This new shaper isn't quite finished yet (after 1.5 weeks I have yet to get a working copy), and I believe it will be released to the public for free in v1.3.

Pretty nervous buddy what's wrong?! You think you are at a retal store in here?!

Anyway teh build is running for embedded when it is finished you will find it there.

Please, honor your claims by gathering all this things into a nice tutorial.

mikenl

Found a rather simple writeup of HSFC basics with some nice examples, thought others could benefit from it.
http://calomel.org/pf_hfsc.html

Still trying to find a bit of text explaining why drops happen, and i don't see any borrows,
cause in my understanding right now HFSC is all about scheduling time based more than solely prioritize traffice.

Ermal, if i use the traffic shaping wizard 1 wan multi lan, than in my setup the qLocal queues get assigned a negative bandwidth for some reason and
you'll get errors. No biggie, but i guess i should mention it.

eri--

Yeah i hardcoded a value of 10Mbits in there and i guess i was wrong ::)

What do you mean drop happens and you do not see any borrows?!
With HFSC you will not see any borrows on Status->Queues. That is there only for CBQ scheduler.

You can increase the queue limit somewhat to eliminate the drops.
The default size is 50 slots. If you double it be aware that you might tradeof latency with that.

mikenl

yeah makes perfect sense with the numbers i'm getting.
Ok borrows are for CBQ only.
Then i'm still wondering why i sometimes get 200000+ drops on a queue.
Is the queue not getting enough bandwidth ? or is it thorreteling then ?

ridnhard19

Hi ermal, I hate to bring more bad news, or maybe I dont know how to use your version of the *.img file but it does not work. The file size is almost 4 times the size of a normal embedded image during the RC's and final releases of the normal software. With this said I gave it the benifit of the dought and flashed it; would not boot. I checked to see if it was compressed (part of flashing you decompress and pipe to std in of dd; following instructions) and It was not.

I compressed the file to see if we got something close to the size which is distributed on the website as the standard FINAL release of the last version; it ended up being 380kb. Something does not seem quite right or I dont know how to use your specific IMG file.

If someone pointed me to directions I can try and help roll some of the embedded images and test them before they get pushed out to the masses. This might help eliminate some of the frustration.

Thanks for all your work on this, I have gotten it working, was having trouble with the floating rules but I understand this new version fixes that. Looking forward to seeing it in action again.

@ermal:

This new shaper isn't quite finished yet (after 1.5 weeks I have yet to get a working copy), and I believe it will be released to the public for free in v1.3.

Pretty nervous buddy what's wrong?! You think you are at a retal store in here?!

Anyway teh build is running for embedded when it is finished you will find it there.

Please, honor your claims by gathering all this things into a nice tutorial.

sullrich

Images updated. Try pfSense.img.gz 02-Apr-2008 23:39 24.6M

SlickNetAaron

@sullrich:

Images updated. Try pfSense.img.gz 02-Apr-2008 23:39 24.6M

So we are using the sullrich folder again :)

Thanks so much for fixing the image! I'm booting now at least! Yaay!

Ermal, you can hold me to writing a tutorial/doc for the new shaper. Just one thing I require before doing that: a working shaper ;D

Assuming this build is good to go for the most part, do you foresee any material changes that would affect my doc? Or is this still a work in progress? I would like to work closely with you to make sure my work (and the doc) is correct.

Aaron

SlickNetAaron

Hi ermal,

I just ran the 1 wan, multi LAN wizard. I get the following error at the end:

There were error(s) loading the rules: cannot determine interface bandwidth for vr2, specify an absolute bandwidthaltq not defined on vr2 altq not defined on vr2 /tmp/rules.debug:26: errors in queue definition altq not defined on vr2 /tmp/rules.debug:27: errors in queue definition altq not defined on vr2 /tmp/rules.debug:28: errors in queue definition altq not defined on vr2 /tmp/rules.debug:29: errors in queue definition altq not defined on vr2 /tmp/rules.debug:30: errors in queue definition altq not defined on vr2 /tmp/rules.debug:31: errors in queue definition altq not defined on vr2 /tmp/rules.debug:32: errors in queue definition pfctl: Syntax error in config file: pf rules not loaded - The line in question reads [26]: queue qInternet on vr2 bandwidth 15Mb hfsc ( red , linkshare (15Mb, 100, 15Mb) , upperlimit 15Mb ) { qACK, qOthersDefault, qP2P, qVoIP, qOthersHigh, qOthersLow } …

I'm going to run with the 1 interface and see how she goes.

Aaron

eri--

That is a problem of the vr driver which has been fixed in the latest versions of it.

What you can do after running the wizard is to set the bandwidth of root queue ie "lan, wam,opt1" if it is not set since the driver does not automatically report its link layer speed to altq.
Usually that would be LAN where i do not set the bandwidth explicitly since create the new structure as
–rootqueue
-----qInternet
------------corresponid queues

I actually cannot do much about that for now. And i have not that kind of hardware to really test for all drivers that do not report this. So just a WARNING to users about that, sorry!

The material want change about the shaper.

Only when new queue disciplines come in. In fact they are addition to the docs to descrbie this new discipline.

One thing to get verified for you that are using this update for 1.2 is the generation of the Floating Rules before the other tabs.

You can do that by checking the /tmp/rules.debug and find the comment
#User defined rules and see if rules of the floating tab are before the other specific interface tab rules.
This is just to be sure they are ok and more eyes on it is not harmful.

I hope there are no more issues in this build/update so you can use it on your environments.

Thank you for your patience and sorry for any noise introduced on your environments.

GoldServe

$50 donations sent to paypal@chrisbuechler.com! Thanks!

SlickNetAaron

Embedded Build: Wed Apr 2 23:31:42 EDT 2008

Sorry Ermal, back to the drawing board!

I was trying to do the setup you explain and I am getting error after error, plus silent failures and successes with crazy error messages.

Specific difficulties/bugs I am experiencing:
Adding a child queue - fails silently unless the first queue is set to default. This is counterintuitive because I was just trying to duplicate the existing queue tree for of the primary Internet queue. Thoughts on resolving: a. making a note for adding the first child queue b. error checking when pressing the save button c. not load the config to hfsc/altq until apply button is pressed. This would allow the USER to input queues in any order they please and minimize frustration.

Editing Queue name: fails silently - name does not change on the queue tree. (I added a queue that had more than 15 character queue name - I got the error and tried to shorten the queue name, but it failed. )
Invalid queue name is not able to delete (caused by the error above)

Attempt to delete parent queue to delete the child queue with invalid Queue Name: error:

Warning: copy(/cf/conf/backup/config-1207241932.xml): failed to open stream: Read-only file system in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1794 Warning: fopen(/cf/conf/backup/backup.cache): failed to open stream: Read-only file system in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1801 Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1802 Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1803 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/config.inc:1794) in /usr/local/www/firewall_shaper.php on line 82

Attempt to delete child queue off of LAN interface: Error:


Warning: copy(/cf/conf/backup/config-1207241932.xml): failed to open stream: Read-only file system in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1794 Warning: fopen(/cf/conf/backup/backup.cache): failed to open stream: Read-only file system in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1801 Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1802 Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1803 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/config.inc:1794) in /usr/local/www/firewall_shaper.php on line 82

Added a child queue to qInternet (qAP2Down), then the default child queue (qAP1Default) gives error.

 php: : There were error(s) loading the rules: pfctl: should have one default queue on vr0 pfctl: errors in altq config - The line in question reads [ should have one default queue on vr0 pfctl]:

Added qAP1Ack (child of AP2Down) set priority 7, with no service curve. Error:

php: : There were error(s) loading the rules: pfctl: the sum of the child bandwidth higher than parent "qAP2Down" pfctl: linkshare sc exceeds parent's sc /tmp/rules.debug:33: errors in queue definition pfctl: Syntax error in config file: pf rules not loaded - The line in question reads [ the sum of the child bandwidth higher than parent "qAP2Down" pfctl]:

Why would a blank linkshare say it is greater than it's parent?

Starting over with the shaper…..

Wizard: " numberofconnections: Number of connections you have" Can we please specify if this is for LAN or WAN?
Wizard: "conn0interface:" ????? Who exactly is conn0interface?

At this point, I removed the shaper and started the wizard again. Attempting to create:
LAN
---qInternet
-----qAP1
--------qACK
--------qDefault
--------etc
-----qAP2
--------qack, etc
-----qLocal
--------qack, etc

Deleting existing children of qInternet - happened every time I deleted. However, the shaper GUI does update and appear to delete the queue.


Warning: fopen(/cf/conf/backup/backup.cache): failed to open stream: Read-only file system in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1801 Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1802 Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1803 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/config.inc:1801) in /usr/local/www/firewall_shaper.php on line 82 

Warning: copy(/cf/conf/backup/config-1207246821.xml): failed to open stream: Read-only file system in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1794 Warning: fopen(/cf/conf/backup/backup.cache): failed to open stream: Read-only file system in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1801 Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1802 Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /etc/inc/config.inc on line 1803 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /etc/inc/config.inc:1794) in /usr/local/www/firewall_shaper.php on line 82

How does the LinkShare work inside of a Child queue? If I write 5% linkshare, is that 5% of the direct parent, or the root?

When I get to:
lan
–qInternet
----qP2P default (can't modify or delete!)
----qAP1 default (cannot remove default flag)
-------qAP1CatchAll(Default)

I get the error below. I try to add and delete any possible combinations of Default Flags on the tree of queues. It just won't accept the config. Also, the changes to Default Queue flags seem to save (silent failure), but they revert back and appear to not take effect.


: php: : There were error(s) loading the rules: pfctl: should have one default queue on vr0 pfctl: errors in altq config - The line in question reads [ should have one default queue on vr0 pfctl]:

Attempting to start from scratch: no wizard. My exact actions are as follows:
LAN: bw: 100mb
SAVE, Add New Queue
15mB, qInternet, Priority 6
UpperLimit: 15Mb 30000 8Mb
Save, Apply


Error: php: : There were error(s) loading the rules: pfctl: should have one default queue on vr0 pfctl: errors in altq config - The line in question reads [ should have one default queue on vr0 pfctl]:

Add default Flag to qInternet
Save, Apply, no error
ADD Queue button is not available to add child queue to qInternet???
Delete qInternet to try to start over.
Apply.
Interface with no label appears above lan, Queue not found error box displayed (attachment: shaper-phantom interface.jpg}
)

Clicking on the phanton interface yields the Queue not found error again. The only way to remove it is to use "Remove Shaper" button.

Going to try again without using qInternet parent. (This will NOT work for my setup, but going to see if it is a problem with multiple layers of queues.)
Again, my exact actions:
Click on LAN interface
15MB bandwidth is pre-populated
save & Apply
Add New Queue
Bandwidth 5Mb
qAP1
Default
upperlimit m2= 5mb
save & apply
I want to add a child queue to this, but the Add New Queue button and Delete buttons are gone.

Tell me what I did wrong?! I'm following the steps exactly as one is able to do given the GUI provided. It just feels so much like the end user (a human, NOT a programmer) is being forced to think like a programmer and if we don't do exact steps it fails horribly. Why can't the user get things setup the way they want and let the programming handle the details? That is what a good GUI is all about. I feel like I am constantly having to fight the GUI to get to do what I want… the GUI always wins and I lose and don't end up with a working shaper.

Is it possible to write the darn config manually??? I am pretty sure I know what I need things to look like.

Aaron

![shaper-phantom interface.jpg](/public/imported_attachments/1/shaper-phantom interface.jpg)
![shaper-phantom interface.jpg_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/shaper-phantom interface.jpg_thumb)

eri--

Can i have access to your box.

I didn't understand much of your posting but i am not able to replicate some of your errors here.

Or please after you find the error send me config.xml and rules.debug?!

eri--

Attached just a demonstartion of what the can be done with the new shaper as for queue creation.

crzay_queues.png_thumb

SlickNetAaron

@ermal:

Attached just a demonstartion of what the can be done with the new shaper as for queue creation.

Yup, it's true! I think he took that screen cap from my box ;)

Thanks for the help. I think it's working now! There are some bugs, but it's workable.

Aaron

SlickNetAaron

Now that I am able to configure my queues, Is there a way to get a list of the rules that are generated by the wizard?

I don't mind having to input them manually (I need to anyway for my setup), but it would be helpful to have a detailed list with how they are configured so I can set them up on my network. I just don't know every port, tcp flag and everything else that I need to match rules

Aaron

ridnhard19

I got the new image; thanks for posting! its working now.

I've started working with the new shaper config and I've been unable to get the queues to show traffic relating to the rules the wizard or I define in the floating rules section.

I've done the following to try to get them to work:
-Removed the default accept all traffic rule from the LAN area
-Disabled the webGUI anti-lockout rule
-Added a lan network 2 lan address rule for port 80 to keep access working to the web gui
-Added a lan network 2 lan addres rule for tcp/udp 53 (DNS) to keep access working to the web (in theory, but no rule to * destination on port 80.
-Added basic queues using the wizard but to only include a priority of http traffic (adds rules to the floating rules area)

I go grab a big file from the web and see where my traffic ends up in the queues and it always goes to the default queues.

I've been able to get it to separate in the corresponding queues but I have to put the rules in the specific tab of the interface (LAN in this case) and then it works as we would expect.

Do you have any suggestions based on above as to what I could be doing wrong?

Thanks!

SlickNetAaron

I have a few observations/requests that I think will help everyone.. I just struggled with these things for quite a while. Most of these are cosmetic, but very helpful to the end user. Maybe another dev can help polish up the GUI to make it more consistent with the rest of pfSense?

1. Default queues - Is it possible to have the shaper GUI automatically create Default Queues for each level of child queues? This is driving me nutz! Especially when the error messages do not specify which queue layer is missing a default queue. Also, a note that says you must have exactly 1 default queue for each part of the tree would be helpful.

2. Error checking and notification before Applying rules? For Example, When the child total bandwidth is more than the parent, I have to wait for the rules to apply and reload just to find out that some math or parameter is wrong. Then I have to click thru each queue to figure out what everything adds up to be and where I need to change things. Perhaps a list that auto-add's the current layer's total bandwidth as you are entering it? So you will automatically see you are at 105%

3. Editing a queue name after it has been created is still not functioning

4. Modifying queues flagged as Default: It is good that the "Add new queue" and "delete" buttons are invisible on a default queue, because you must have a default queue. But what happens if there is 2 default queues by accident or I need to delete it for some reason? It is not obvious what a user needs to do to modify that queue. Can there be a label that says "Note: in order to delete or modify this queue, the Default Queue flag must be removed"?

5. I think the tree view is very helpful to give people a visual representation on the queue layers/tree. Is it also possible to have a list view of the queues and their most common parameters like we would see in a Rule list (Also like m0no's Pipes or Queues view)? This would give us a bird's eye view of all of the queues for easy troubleshooting. (Just think about asking people on the forum to list their queues.. it's easy to take a screen cap to find obvious things.) It is a pain in the rear to have to click on each and every queue to verify basic settings when things go wrong.

6. As noted in my PM - creating a queue AND specifying service curve parameters - after pressing SAVE the queue creation fails and fails silently (with no error message). We are only able to add service queue parameters AFTER the queue has been created.

7. When using "Add New Queue" button - a. Perhaps it should say "Add Child Queue" to be more accurate? b. There is no way for the user to know which queue he/she is adding a child to. It would be great to have the tree light up and make placeholder where the queue is going to be placed… but at LEAST a label that says "Add a child queue to xxxx parent" would be very helpful.

8. That's all for now :) That'll keep you busy!

SlickNetAaron

@ridnhard19:

I've started working with the new shaper config and I've been unable to get the queues to show traffic relating to the rules the wizard or I define in the floating rules section.

I had the same problem several times. I think it is due to the queue rules not loading because of a config error. Did you get an error that scrolled across the top of your screen?

Also, Try Reset States.
Aaron

SlickNetAaron

so now that we have a mostly functioning shaper GUI, I need to understand the rules.

I need to understand the floating rules concept more.

My understanding is that we can have rule and "flag" those packets matching the rule… then continue to match rules until the Quick option is found. The concept is great!... The GUI is not.

1. The advanced options section does not even have the parameters labeled. How do we know what to put in these fields? And I think we are missing options necessary for the shaper? ie. Where can I find the TCP flags section and the TOS section? These appear to be missing, unless I am blind? How exactly does the advanced section for flags work? The advanced section tells us what we can do, but not what type of parameter is valid here. What on EARTH is the "Maximum new connections / per second" for, and why does it have a drop-box with numbers of unknown units?

Since I need my network back and fully operational by Friday afternoon, I need to be able to get these rules in place or else go back to 1.2 release. These GUI issues must be addressed. I'm not trying to be harsh, but this shaper was claimed to be "90% completed", but in reality it is still in alpha stage.

ie. Do I just type in "VoIP" for the first unnamed parameter and that is my flag? And then on the network matching rule, do I use "VoIP" in the 2nd (unnamed) field as the flag that is necessary to match with that particular rule? Is it possible to use multiple flags in these parameter fields?

So, in my situation, I need to match the traffic type (ack, VoIP, web, ssh, etc). Then I need to match a Network address to determine which queue to place the packet in. Then how does that queue pass the packets to it's parent queue?

So, for VoIP(Generic low-delay TOS), what exact rules do I need to flag a packet as "VoIP" and continue down the list of rules.

These questions are exactly what end users (like ME) are going to be asking. Why not give the answer before we need to answer 5233 of the same question in the forum?

Thanks for the help.
Aaron