pfSense on Proxmox - 500mbps on 1G line

[bits]

Hi,

I'm new to proxmox, but am a long time pfSense user on a small bare metal Atom server. Since getting gigabit home service (via ATT), I've chosen to run pfSense on Proxmox, and have migrated to a Dell R210 ii (Xeon). The goal was to achieve full 1gbps speed and also to open up a playground of VMs for other projects.

I followed the netgate guide exactly (cant link, am a new user), and aside from a couple small hiccups (en1 vs eth1), things are working. The only issue that I have is that I'm not able to max out my 1g connection. I've seen as high as ~700 down and ~500 up, but usually see ~550 each way. When under load, the CPU is at ~30-40% utilization, so I am confident it is not a CPU bottleneck issue. From the speedtest on the ATT Box, I have only seen >~900 in each direction. I'm wondering if others have run into this issue and have suggestions before I give this a test on bare metal to see what happens. My config is exactly as is prescribed in the netgate guide (virtio, kvm64), with 4 Xeon cores allotted to pfSense, and 8GB RAM.

Apologies if I've missed a thread on this topic, I assure you it is not for lack of trying.

Thanks!

 

[udo]

Hi,
you can try, if it's looks different with an open-v-switch bridge instead of an normal linux brigde:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Open_vSwitch

Do you have an normal MTU (1500) when you reach 900 mbit/s?

Udo

 

[bits]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give open-v-switch a go. I did confirm that the MTU is 1500 on the ATT router/modem.

Thanks again!

 

[Rhinox]

Not sure if this is relevant, but unlike Linux, BSD-based OS use 1 core/cpu for routing.
Check this throughput-test: on the same hardware IPFire (Linux) si always faster, than pfSense (BSD)...

 

[mir]

Performance is always dependent on hardware so if your nics are not quality hardware you will never be able to saturate a Gb uplink. Quality hardware does not include Realtek.