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    PC Engines apu2 experiences

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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @dugeem
      last edited by

      @dugeem Ah, true! That was referring to the original APU, my mistake.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • VeldkornetV
        Veldkornet
        last edited by

        Is anyone using the CoDel / FQ_CoDel Traffic Shaping on the APU2?

        Working well? Any problems?

        cwagzC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • cwagzC
          cwagz @Veldkornet
          last edited by

          @Veldkornet said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

          Is anyone using the CoDel / FQ_CoDel Traffic Shaping on the APU2?

          Working well? Any problems?

          I have an APU2 box at work to provide a separate network for personal devices. It is setup with the FQ_CoDel limiter / floating rules method described towards the end of the Playing with FQ-CoDel Thread. It has been rock solid and seems to provide equal bandwidth sharing for the 30 - 50 devices connected each day and 16 - 20 GB of traffic that is passed on our 150/150 FiOS link.

          Netgate 6100 MAX

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • D
            daemonix @Veldkornet
            last edited by

            @Veldkornet said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

            @qinn SSH into it and install flashrom. No need to boot from USB etc.

            pkg install flashrom

            Upload the firmware to /tmp with scp and run:
            flashrom -w /tmp/apu2_v4.9.0.2.rom -p internal:boardmismatch=force

            Shutdown pfSense, pull the power for 10 seconds, then boot up.

            I still run the original (legacy) bios that came with my apu2c4 almost 2 years ago?! (maybe 1 year I cant remember). I also run the latest stable pfsense.

            Anything I need to do (regarding settings or something else) before flushing from the pfsense itself??
            thanks

            QinnQ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • QinnQ
              Qinn @daemonix
              last edited by Qinn

              @daemonix Nope, just install the flashrom like above, then download the latest Mainline from here

              https://pcengines.github.io/
              

              then flash it and reboot, I have switched from Legacy to Mainline months ago and everything works still fine.

              ...and btw you don't need the force option, this is enough

              flashrom -w /tmp/apu2_v4.9.0.7.rom -p internal
              

              Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
              Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
              Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

              D 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • D
                daemonix @Qinn
                last edited by

                @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                @daemonix Nope, just install the flashrom like above, then download the latest Mainline from here

                https://pcengines.github.io/
                

                then flash it and reboot, I have switched from Legacy to Mainline months ago and everything works still fine.

                ...and btw you don't need the force option, this is enough

                flashrom -w /tmp/apu2_v4.9.0.7.rom -p internal
                

                Thanks a lot for the quick replay!
                Im do it later in the evening and hopefully Ill have internet after the reboot heheheh

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • D
                  daemonix @Qinn
                  last edited by daemonix

                  This post is deleted!
                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • D
                    daemonix @Qinn
                    last edited by

                    @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                    @daemonix Nope, just install the flashrom like above, then download the latest Mainline from here

                    https://pcengines.github.io/
                    

                    then flash it and reboot, I have switched from Legacy to Mainline months ago and everything works still fine.

                    ...and btw you don't need the force option, this is enough

                    flashrom -w /tmp/apu2_v4.9.0.7.rom -p internal
                    

                    Done without a problem!
                    I had a serial link to it so I did it from there so I can see the boot sequence.

                    Now that I have time to experiment a bit.
                    What are the recommended combination of settings that favour performance on a openvpn server nowadays ?

                    BSD crypto ON/OFF? CBC/GBC algo? etc..
                    I get 40mbit on the apu2 hosted server.

                    fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • fireodoF
                      fireodo @daemonix
                      last edited by

                      @daemonix said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                      BSD crypto ON/OFF? CBC/GBC algo? etc..
                      I get 40mbit on the apu2 hosted server.

                      From my knowledge for the APU2-Board the settings should be AES-NI (in CPU).

                      Regards,
                      fireodo

                      Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                      SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                      pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                      Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • QinnQ
                        Qinn
                        last edited by Qinn

                        I agree try AES-NI (in cpu) read this please, especially the reply from "jimp" https://forum.netgate.com/topic/114212/aes-ni-cryptodev-openvpn-help-a-n00b-understand/16

                        The setting is in :

                        System/Advanced/Miscellaneous
                        

                        try it and see how it performs.

                        Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
                        Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
                        Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • D
                          daemonix
                          last edited by

                          fast-io
                          sndbuf 524288
                          rcvbuf 524288

                          added this, changed my PIA client to GCM (my server was already GCM) and I already had just the hardware acceleration only...
                          Gone from 45-sih mbit to 70-70mbit in both PIA and my server!!!

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • K
                            kevindd992002
                            last edited by

                            @Qinn said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                            https://pcengines.github.io/

                            Does this mean that "AES-NI CPU-based acceleration" is better than the "AES-NI and BSD Crypto Device" option? I'm still confused what the difference between those two are.

                            fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • fireodoF
                              fireodo @kevindd992002
                              last edited by

                              @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                              Does this mean that "AES-NI CPU-based acceleration" is better than the "AES-NI and BSD Crypto Device" option? I'm still confused what the difference between those two are.

                              Yes! The Apu2 does not have a dedicated Crypto-Device, the Crypto-Functions are integrated in the CPU (much faster). IMHO

                              Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                              SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                              pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                              Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                              K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • K
                                kevindd992002 @fireodo
                                last edited by

                                @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                Does this mean that "AES-NI CPU-based acceleration" is better than the "AES-NI and BSD Crypto Device" option? I'm still confused what the difference between those two are.

                                Yes! The Apu2 does not have a dedicated Crypto-Device, the Crypto-Functions are integrated in the CPU (much faster). IMHO

                                I see. But won't it use AES-NI anyway if the latter option is selected?

                                Also, in the OpenVPN settings you should chhose None in the Hardware Acceleration field, correct?

                                fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • fireodoF
                                  fireodo @kevindd992002
                                  last edited by

                                  @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                  I see. But won't it use AES-NI anyway if the latter option is selected?

                                  Freebsd will look for the Crypto-Device wich is not existent and will not fallback to AES-NI CPU based.

                                  Also, in the OpenVPN settings you should chhose None in the Hardware Acceleration field, correct?

                                  I admit I dont know. Sorry.

                                  Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                                  SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                                  pfsense 2.8.0 CE
                                  Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                                  D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • D
                                    daemonix @fireodo
                                    last edited by

                                    @fireodo said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                    @kevindd992002 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                    I see. But won't it use AES-NI anyway if the latter option is selected?

                                    Freebsd will look for the Crypto-Device wich is not existent and will not fallback to AES-NI CPU based.

                                    Also, in the OpenVPN settings you should chhose None in the Hardware Acceleration field, correct?

                                    I admit I dont know. Sorry.

                                    Yes this is it. I did all the possible test combinations.
                                    Indeed ONLY AES-NI should be selected

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      Yes, the only thing to avoid here is enabling both aes-ni and bsd crypto. Doing that will cause the aes device to register for crypto acceleration via the framework which adds a load of additional steps. It's much faster to use the available CPU instructions directly. As long as it's enabled in the BIOS openssl, and hence openvpn, should use aes-ni.

                                      Steve

                                      QinnQ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • QinnQ
                                        Qinn @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 said in PC Engines apu2 experiences:

                                        Yes, the only thing to avoid here is enabling both aes-ni and bsd crypto. Doing that will cause the aes device to register for crypto acceleration via the framework which adds a load of additional steps. It's much faster to use the available CPU instructions directly. As long as it's enabled in the BIOS openssl, and hence openvpn, should use aes-ni.

                                        Steve

                                        So you have to select AES-NI in pfSense and not in OpenVPN, then why is this option (Hardware crypto) present in OpenVPN config within pfSense? Could you please clarify this?

                                        Cheers Qinn

                                        Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
                                        Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
                                        Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          I have personally never used that setting. But I have also never had a device with a specifically supported hardware crypto device which is where I would expect it to apply.
                                          In testing I did when we went to OpenVPN 2.4 it was better to leave that set to None in every case.

                                          Steve

                                          QinnQ jahonixJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • QinnQ
                                            Qinn @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 kudos for clearing that one up!

                                            Hardeware: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4125 CPU @ 2.00GHz 102 GB mSATA SSD (ZFS)
                                            Firmware: Latest-stable-pfSense CE (amd64)
                                            Packages: pfBlockerNG devel-beta (beta tester) - Avahi - Notes - Ntopng - PIMD/udpbroadcastrelay - Service Watchdog - System Patches

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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