From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 21 13:34:27 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 463D316A403 for ; Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:34:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from f.bonnet@esiee.fr) Received: from mail.esiee.fr (mail.esiee.fr [147.215.1.3]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 59E7E43D82 for ; Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:34:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from f.bonnet@esiee.fr) Received: from mail.esiee.fr (localhost.esiee.fr [127.0.0.1]) by mail.esiee.fr (Postfix) with SMTP id 77A1F3658DC; Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:34:23 +0100 (CET) Received: from secure.esiee.fr (secure.esiee.fr [147.215.1.19]) by mail.esiee.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 47C503658B9; Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:34:23 +0100 (CET) Received: from [147.215.1.21] (lisa.esiee.fr [147.215.1.21]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: bonnetf) by secure.esiee.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F5C3398CF; Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:27:40 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <4563005E.7010807@esiee.fr> Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:34:22 +0100 From: Frank Bonnet User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (X11/20060828) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Nathan Vidican References: <4562CF3D.1070203@esiee.fr> <4562FD87.1080105@wmptl.com> In-Reply-To: <4562FD87.1080105@wmptl.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: NIC driver question X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:34:27 -0000 Nathan Vidican wrote: > Frank Bonnet wrote: >> Hello >> >> I will receive in few days my new mail server the machine will >> be an IBM X3650 bi xeon. >> >> I wonder what would be the "best" network interface to >> plug in (if necessary) as I don't know for now what is >> the builtin interfaces in this machine. >> >> To be clear I'm asking gurus on what is the "best FreeBSD supported" >> NIC driver to avoid eventual perfomances problems. >> >> Thanks a lot. > As for 100mbit cards: > > Hands-down, Intel 'fxp'-driven cards... rock solid in terms of > performance and stability; never had a single unit go bad, used hundreds > of them, including dual and quad-port cards. > > On the gigabit side: > > I've had great luck with broadcom cards using the 'bge' driver, and a > few intel cards utilizing the 'em', but nothing real extensive or > saturated enough to authoratively say they work under extreme pressure > or anything. I've got a couple of dual-opteron servers here with dual > on-board broadcom gigabit cards that have ben running flawlessly for > over 2 years now, (uptime 378 days on one, the others were rebooted > several weeks ago to be relocated to a different rack). Knock-on-wood, > no panics or mysterious network outages as of yet - so I'd say they're > fairly stable - but again, never end up near saturated over here to give > you an answer on performance. > > Anyhow, just my two cents - if you don't need gigabit, ya can't go wrong > with Intel 'fxp'-driven cards :) > OK thank you Nathan I'll need the gigabit X 2 as we extensively use the imap protocol ( 500 , 600 imap processes during work hours ) thanks for your feedback -- Cordialement Frank Bonnet