Realtek NIC not working with VLAN

[boujid]

hi
we have 2 ols appliances with 2 NIC and 2 empty PCI slot each (beg0 and bge1), (PCI express, PCI-X)
we decided to use them as Pfsense Firewalls
we bought 4 NICs :
2 Intel PRO/1000 Dual port
2 Realtek 8111 Dual port Gb

after installation, the 6 interfaces were listed (beg0/1, em0/1, re0/1)
first, we had some weird behavior, but after changing IRQ assignment in the BIOS for the PCI devices, all went well
we assigned IP for each interface, and we wera able to ping them simultaneously from a PC

for our configuration we need at leat 2 NIC with VLANs
as the bge0/1 NIC are part of the motherboard, we chose them for LAN and WAN
we chose re0 (realtek) and em0 (intel) for VLANs

once VLANs configured (2 VLANs per NIC), the em0 NIC work fine, but for the re0 NIC, there is no communication at all

we have added a permit rule with any protocol for each interface including the VLANs ones

so for em0, the 2 sub interfaces are working well and responding to ping
so for re0, the 2 sub interfaces are not responding to ping

we dont want to use em0/1 both for VLANs as they are one NIC (the NIC is Dual port)

is there any hint ? what we can do ? how to troubleshoot ? is there a solution ?

we use the 2.2.4 release of pfsense

installation went well, i am not sure that is a hardware problem, so i am posting it in general discussion

[2.2.4-RELEASE][root@FW1]/root: dmesg | grep re0
re0: <realtek 8111="" 8168="" b="" c="" cp="" d="" dp="" e="" f="" g="" pcie="" gigabit="" ethernet="">port 0xec00-0xecff mem 0xe81ff000-0xe81fffff,0xe81f8000-0xe81fbfff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci3
re0: Using 1 MSI-X message
re0: Chip rev. 0x2c800000
re0: MAC rev. 0x00100000
miibus0: <mii bus="">on re0
re0: Ethernet address: 00:e0:31:54:14:22
re0: link state changed to UP
re0_vlan401: link state changed to UP
re0_vlan402: link state changed to UP
re0: link state changed to DOWN
re0_vlan401: link state changed to DOWN
re0_vlan402: link state changed to DOWN
re0: link state changed to UP
re0_vlan401: link state changed to UP
re0_vlan402: link state changed to UP
re0: link state changed to DOWN
re0_vlan401: link state changed to DOWN
re0_vlan402: link state changed to DOWN
re0: link state changed to UP
re0_vlan401: link state changed to UP
re0_vlan402: link state changed to UP

[2.2.4-RELEASE][root@FW1]/root: dmesg | grep em0
em0: <intel(r) 1000="" pro="" legacy="" network="" connection="" 1.0.6="">port 0xccc0-0xccff mem 0xfe5e0000-0xfe5fffff,0xfe580000-0xfe5bffff irq 35 at device 2.0 on pci7
em0: Ethernet address: 00:11:0a:23:ce:14
em0: link state changed to UP
em0_vlan403: link state changed to UP
em0_vlan404: link state changed to UP
em0: link state changed to DOWN
em0_vlan403: link state changed to DOWN
em0_vlan404: link state changed to DOWN
em0: link state changed to UP
em0_vlan403: link state changed to UP
em0_vlan404: link state changed to UP
em0: link state changed to DOWN
em0_vlan403: link state changed to DOWN
em0_vlan404: link state changed to DOWN
em0: link state changed to UP
em0_vlan403: link state changed to UP
em0_vlan404: link state changed to UP
em0: link state changed to DOWN
em0_vlan403: link state changed to DOWN
em0_vlan404: link state changed to DOWN
em0: link state changed to UP
em0_vlan403: link state changed to UP
em0_vlan404: link state changed to UP
[2.2.4-RELEASE][root@FW1]/root:</intel(r)></mii></realtek>

Thanks

[gratis.obake]

I have a stupid question…
does the realtek card support VLAN?

for me, if its using VLAN and anything special, I'll use Intel for that, less headaches.

[boujid]

yes it does !

as i said, i dont want to use VLANs on both ports of one Intel dual port GbE NIC

so for "security"reasons,  i want to use VLANs on 2 different physical NIC

a way for advanced troubleshooting ?

[doktornotor]

I keep wondering why you thought mixing Intel with the Realtek garbage would be a good idea.

[boujid]

well, when we decided to bought  dual port GbE NICs for the empty slots, it wasnt an easy thing as the NICs are no more sold by their manufacturers
for the PCI-X, we've found the Intel one (the HP, 3com ones where no more available)
for the PCIe, we've only found te realtek one

so it wasnt really a choice buying the realtek "garbage" ….

the realtek NIC came with a CD drivers, the readme file display :
FreeBSD 7.x and 8.0 - Version 1.83

is there a way to display the exact version of the driver actually used by PfSense ?
is there a way to install the driver in the CD even if the PfSense is using the version 10 of FreeBSD ?

Thanks

[Derelict]

Buy Intel NICs. Realteks are crap (or at least the drivers are crap). Not just pfSense. I think VMware pulled Realtek drivers from ESXi for the same reasons.