This entry explains some steps I made when I had to reinstall my router due to a problem explained here.
Checking Hard drive performance
Let’s check hard drive performance:
/root: diskinfo -t /dev/ada0s1a /dev/ada0s1a ... TS32GMSA370 # Disk descr. D007501916 # Disk ident. Yes # TRIM/UNMAP support Seek times: Full stroke: 250 iter in 0.025302 sec = 0.101 msec Half stroke: 250 iter in 0.020902 sec = 0.084 msec Quarter stroke: 500 iter in 0.046197 sec = 0.092 msec Short forward: 400 iter in 0.047290 sec = 0.118 msec Short backward: 400 iter in 0.035362 sec = 0.088 msec Seq outer: 2048 iter in 0.144151 sec = 0.070 msec Seq inner: 2048 iter in 0.144160 sec = 0.070 msec Transfer rates: outside: 102400 kbytes in 0.488562 sec = 209595 kbytes/sec middle: 102400 kbytes in 0.243196 sec = 421060 kbytes/sec inside: 102400 kbytes in 0.243685 sec = 420215 kbytes/sec
We get 40MB/sec with our internal drive:
/root: dd if=/dev/zero of=1g.dd bs=1M count=100 100+0 records in 100+0 records out 104857600 bytes transferred in 2.485082 secs (42194824 bytes/sec)
Internal hard drive information:
/root: camcontrol devlist at scbus0 target 0 lun 0 (ada0,pass0
Checking Network performance
To measure network connection speed I’ve installed iperf package:
/root: pkg update && pkg install iperf3 /root: pciconf -lv re0@pci0:1:0:0 re0@pci0:1:0:0: class=0x020000 card=0x012310ec chip=0x816810ec rev=0x06 hdr=0x00 vendor = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.' device = 'RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller' class = network subclass = ethernet
To Enable TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO), if TSO is enabled on the transmission path, the NIC divides larger data chunks into TCP segments. If TSO is disabled, the CPU performs segmentation for TCP/IP. (if you want to know more about TSO check this link out):
/root: ifconfig re0 |grep options options=8209b nd6 options=23 /root: ifconfig re0 tso /root: ifconfig re0 | grep options options=8219b nd6 options=23
If you want to disable it:
/root: ifconfig re0 -tso /root: ifconfig re0 | grep options options=8209b
Running iperf3 with TSO disabled:
# iperf3 -c 192.168.1.180 -p 5201 -w 2M Connecting to host 192.168.1.180, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.1.219 port 14883 connected to 192.168.1.180 port 5201p 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 5.10 MBytes 42.8 Mbits/sec 5 68.1 KBytes 1 [ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 3.55 MBytes 29.8 Mbits/sec 2 86.7 KBytes [ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 3.82 MBytes 32.0 Mbits/sec 2 80.8 KBytes [ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 3.89 MBytes 32.6 Mbits/sec 4 70.8 KBytes [ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 4.04 MBytes 33.9 Mbits/sec 11 / 76.6 KBytes [ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 4.02 MBytes 33.7 Mbits/sec 1 90.9 KBytes [ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 4.04 MBytes 33.9 Mbits/sec 13 58.1 KBytes [ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 4.20 MBytes 35.3 Mbits/sec 7 50.9 KBytes [ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 3.83 MBytes 32.1 Mbits/sec 1 86.7 KBytes [ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 4.13 MBytes 34.6 Mbits/sec 1 80.8 KBytes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 40.6 MBytes 34.1 Mbits/sec 47 sender [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 38.7 MBytes 32.5 Mbits/sec receiver
Let’s run iperf3 with TSO enabled:
# iperf3 -c 192.168.1.180 -p 5201 -w 2M Connecting to host 192.168.1.180, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.1.219 port 13684 connected to 192.168.1.180 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 5.56 MBytes 46.6 Mbits/sec 0 105 KBytes [ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 3.81 MBytes 32.0 Mbits/sec 1 86.5 KBytes [ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 4.06 MBytes 34.0 Mbits/sec 9 78.0 KBytes [ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 4.07 MBytes 34.2 Mbits/sec 0 122 KBytes [ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 4.03 MBytes 33.8 Mbits/sec 23 14.2 KBytes [ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 3.80 MBytes 31.9 Mbits/sec 27 66.7 KBytes [ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 4.21 MBytes 35.4 Mbits/sec 0 117 KBytes [ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 4.01 MBytes 33.6 Mbits/sec 1 104 KBytes [ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 3.86 MBytes 32.3 Mbits/sec 25 85.3 KBytes [ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 4.14 MBytes 34.7 Mbits/sec 7 82.3 KBytes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 41.6 MBytes 34.9 Mbits/sec 93 sender [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 39.6 MBytes 33.2 Mbits/sec receiver
Checking Memory
To check internal memory is needed to install a Perl script:
# fetch -o /usr/local/bin/free http://www.cyberciti.biz/files/scripts/freebsd-memory.pl.txt # chmod +x /usr/local/bin/free
I’ve had to change the first line of this script to point to the proper path to Perl:
# which perl # /usr/local/bin/perl # /usr/local/bin/free SYSTEM MEMORY INFORMATION: mem_wire: 326889472 ( 311MB) [ 7%] Wired: disabled for paging out mem_active: + 37593088 ( 35MB) [ 0%] Active: recently referenced mem_inactive:+ 91910144 ( 87MB) [ 2%] Inactive: recently not referenced mem_cache: + 0 ( 0MB) [ 0%] Cached: almost avail. for allocation mem_free: + 3632758784 ( 3464MB) [ 88%] Free: fully available for allocation mem_gap_vm: + -233472 ( 0MB) [ 0%] Memory gap: UNKNOWN -------------- ------------ ----------- ------ mem_all: = 4088918016 ( 3899MB) [100%] Total real memory managed mem_gap_sys: + 123056128 ( 117MB) Memory gap: Kernel?! -------------- ------------ ----------- mem_phys: = 4211974144 ( 4016MB) Total real memory available mem_gap_hw: + 82993152 ( 79MB) Memory gap: Segment Mappings?! -------------- ------------ ----------- mem_hw: = 4294967296 ( 4096MB) Total real memory installed SYSTEM MEMORY SUMMARY: mem_used: 570298368 ( 543MB) [ 13%] Logically used memory mem_avail: + 3724668928 ( 3552MB) [ 86%] Logically available memory -------------- ------------ ----------- ------ mem_total: = 4294967296 ( 4096MB) [100%] Logically total memory
Adding some useful services
After checking that our hardware meet our expectations we could continue adding some useful services to our pfSense installation like:
- VPN (OpenVPN)
- Network bandwidth traffic monitor (NTopng)
- Squid
- Snort
To install this new features please check the reference links below.
Reference links:
- Karim Elatov installation guide
- https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2055140
- OpenVPN Installation: https://chrislazari.com/pfsense-setting-up-openvpn-on-pfsense-2-4/
- NTopng installation: https://techexpert.tips/pfsense/ntopng-installation-pfsense/
- Squid: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/cache-proxy/setup-squid-as-a-transparent-proxy.html
- Snort: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/ids-ips/setup-snort-package.html
—
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
