Re: Performance Intel Pro 1000 MT (PWLA8490MT)

From: Michael DeMan (michael_at_staff.openaccess.org)
Date: 04/19/05

  • Next message: Julian Elischer: "Re: virtual switching" 
    Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 13:44:23 -0700
To: Eivind Hestnes <eivind.hestnes@stabbursmoen.no>

    The rule of thumb I have seen on Intel/UNIX based routers is that you
    want 1GHz of CPU for every gigabit of throughput.

    Also, on gigabit NICs, make sure you have a 64-bit PCI bus on the
    motherboard.

    Michael F. DeMan
    Director of Technology
    OpenAccess Network Services
    Bellingham, WA 98225
    michael@staff.openaccess.org
    360-647-0785
    On Apr 19, 2005, at 1:40 PM, Eivind Hestnes wrote:

    > Thanks for the advice. Didn't do any difference, though.. Perhaps I
    > should try to increase the polling frequency..
    >
    > Jerald Von Dipple wrote:
    >
    >> Hey man
    >>
    >> You need to bump
    >>
    >> kern.polling.burst: 150
    >>
    >> Upto at least 150000
    >>
    >> Regards,
    >> Jerald Von D.
    >>
    >> On 4/19/05, Eivind Hestnes <eivind@stabbursmoen.no> wrote:
    >>
    >>> Hi,
    >>>
    >>> I have an Intel Pro 1000 MT (PWLA8490MT) NIC (em(4) driver 1.7.35)
    >>> installed
    >>> in a Pentium III 500 Mhz with 512 MB RAM (100 Mhz) running FreeBSD
    >>> 5.4-RC3.
    >>> The machine is routing traffic between multiple VLANs. Recently I
    >>> did a
    >>> benchmark with/without device polling enabled. Without device
    >>> polling I was
    >>> able to transfer roughly 180 Mbit/s. The router however was
    >>> suffering when
    >>> doing this benchmark. Interrupt load was peaking 100% - overall the
    >>> system
    >>> itself was quite unusable (_very_ high system load). With device
    >>> polling
    >>> enabled the interrupt kept stable around 40-50% and max transfer
    >>> rate was
    >>> nearly 70 Mbit/s. Not very scientific tests, but it gave me a pin
    >>> point.
    >>>
    >>> However, a Pentium III in combination with a good NIC should in my
    >>> opinion
    >>> be a respectful router.. but I'm not satisfied with the results. The
    >>> pf
    >>> ruleset is like nothing, and the kernel is stripped and customized
    >>> for best
    >>> performance.
    >>>
    >>> Any tweaking tips for making my router perform better?
    >>>
    >>> Debug information:
    >>> eivind@core-gw:~$ sysctl -a | grep kern.polling
    >>> kern.polling.burst: 150
    >>> kern.polling.each_burst: 5
    >>> kern.polling.burst_max: 150
    >>> kern.polling.idle_poll: 0
    >>> kern.polling.poll_in_trap: 0
    >>> kern.polling.user_frac: 50
    >>> kern.polling.reg_frac: 20
    >>> kern.polling.short_ticks: 1411
    >>> kern.polling.lost_polls: 720
    >>> kern.polling.pending_polls: 0
    >>> kern.polling.residual_burst: 0
    >>> kern.polling.handlers: 0
    >>> kern.polling.enable: 1
    >>> kern.polling.phase: 0
    >>> kern.polling.suspect: 186
    >>> kern.polling.stalled: 0
    >>> kern.polling.idlepoll_sleeping: 1
    >>>
    >>> eivind@core-gw:~$ cat /etc/sysctl.conf
    >>> net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
    >>> net.inet.ip.fastforwarding=1
    >>> net.inet.carp.preempt=1
    >>> kern.polling.enable=1
    >>>
    >>> HZ set to 1000 as recommended in README for the em(4) driver. Driver
    >>> is of
    >>> cource compiled into kernel.
    >>>
    >>> Regards,
    >>> Eivind Hestnes
    >>>
    >>> _______________________________________________
    >>> freebsd-performance@freebsd.org mailing list
    >>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-performance
    >>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to
    >>> "freebsd-performance-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
    >>>
    >>>
    >
    > _______________________________________________
    > freebsd-net@freebsd.org mailing list
    > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net
    > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
    >

    _______________________________________________
    freebsd-net@freebsd.org mailing list
    http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net
    To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"

  • Next message: Julian Elischer: "Re: virtual switching"