From owner-freebsd-pf@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 27 21:44:15 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-pf@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F20531065670; Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:44:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jfvogel@gmail.com) Received: from mail-gx0-f182.google.com (mail-gx0-f182.google.com [209.85.161.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9555C8FC14; Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:44:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gxk8 with SMTP id 8so866560gxk.13 for ; Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:44:14 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date :message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=v9F2tGocRlB8Nz3Py3RzDC7SNAJqwFYdvTlJ3U5vm8Q=; b=W+hZEEFw3vdqULowdQindVfqPVNpxLVT/3JeRCH1WxAaA3VnG6xnyq2+vJTTigqEYf vy9sqb4XP+4Yz6C6DmAlu7ye9ohNidR/6TNToIKgGkgVs/c/vieCOFxWgH4fz7S8C0Ud 1oiG/CDiYDNXrm6URcUsY+vHDn9C5gOUXILSI= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=dXwWKi6/Ec7oq2H4Zmm7fwK+Ov6y9e1uuG1Osyqtr/GpvQIBB7op5WPNt18rV6BpRm b+4pHERg9pDST3Rc3NQC3QsYpnpO2v+SHFz/MWqoQngPxvCZSJ/qXBBEXH3yRkVlxIK8 wdjPdowJPRbg5roD8HLeOHljSKzQuMjovwJp0= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.151.46.10 with SMTP id y10mr3432226ybj.22.1296164654437; Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:44:14 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.147.171.17 with HTTP; Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:44:14 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20110127205845.GA41537@icarus.home.lan> References: <4D41417A.20904@my.gd> <1DB50624F8348F48840F2E2CF6040A9D014BEB8833@orsmsx508.amr.corp.intel.com> <4D41B197.6070308@my.gd> <201101280146.57028.wmn@siberianet.ru> <4D41C9FC.10503@my.gd> <20110127195741.GA40449@icarus.home.lan> <4D41D7BE.3030208@my.gd> <20110127205845.GA41537@icarus.home.lan> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:44:14 -0800 Message-ID: From: Jack Vogel To: Jeremy Chadwick Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Sergey Lobanov , "freebsd-stable@freebsd.org" , "freebsd-pf@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: High interrupt rate on a PF box + performance X-BeenThere: freebsd-pf@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Technical discussion and general questions about packet filter \(pf\)" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:44:16 -0000 On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Jeremy Chadwick wrote: > > On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 09:38:22PM +0100, Damien Fleuriot wrote: > > On 1/27/11 8:57 PM, Jeremy Chadwick wrote: > > > > <...snipping out stuff...> > > > We're also considering moving to faster machines but I don't think that > > will help much with our problem. > > > > I suppose additional CPU cores will be of no help at all, considering > > the kernel is single threaded and runs on cpu0 only ? > > Kernel folks should be able to talk about this in detail, but my > understanding is that the kernel itself supports multiple threads, but > the question is whether or not the drivers or relevant "pieces" (e.g. > igb(4) driver, pf, TCP stack, etc.) support SMP (multi-core/threading) > or not. I think this is referred to as something being "MPSAFE" or not. > > The 8.X kernel is NOT single-threaded. Anything but. And the stack has also been improved, I believe there are still bottlenecks but its far better than the old days. The igb driver in 8.2 creates up to 8 queues on the right hardware, they are each auto-bound to a particular CPU. The older version you are running had issues and hence multiqueue was not enabled. So, do upgrade once 8.2 is finalized :) Cheers, Jack