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Date:      Thu, 6 Dec 2018 16:48:35 -0700
From:      John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net>
To:        John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        FreeBSD Stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: /dev/crypto not being used in 12-STABLE
Message-ID:  <E00380E2-581C-4BB6-96B4-DEF3445ED4D4@jnielsen.net>
In-Reply-To: <0b3d8b81-4ed2-e900-9f0e-46ac7006a705@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <A418F9A1-7298-4DA7-A185-BD16941BEC46@jnielsen.net> <CAGMYy3vKez_NR6rtcFDGVsWV=qs%2BiaoAwb-D0ed0zT5og9RbOA@mail.gmail.com> <F67BC606-6210-48DD-B924-FF90C26704A1@jnielsen.net> <0b3d8b81-4ed2-e900-9f0e-46ac7006a705@FreeBSD.org>

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> On Dec 6, 2018, at 4:39 PM, John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
>=20
> On 12/6/18 3:24 PM, John Nielsen wrote:
>>> On Dec 6, 2018, at 4:04 PM, Xin LI <delphij@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>=20
>>> On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 11:37 AM John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net> =
wrote:
>>>>=20
>>>> I have upgraded two physical machines from 11-STABLE to 12-STABLE =
recently (one is 12.0-PRERELEASE r341380 and the other is =
12.0-PRERELEASE r341391). I noticed today that neither machine seems to =
be utilizing /dev/crypto. Typically I see at least ssh/sshd have the =
device open plus some programs from ports. But 'fuser' doesn't list any =
processes on either machine:
>>>>=20
>>>> # fuser /dev/crypto
>>>> /dev/crypto:
>>>>=20
>>>> Both machines are running custom kernels that include "device =
crypto" and "device cryptodev". One of them additionally has "device =
aesni".
>>>>=20
>>>> Is anyone else seeing this? Any idea what would cause it?
>>>=20
>>> Your average OpenSSL applications should not use /dev/crypto, if =
your
>>> goal is to utilize AES-NI (which does not require /dev/crypto).  On
>>> capable systems, AES-NI would be used automatically (and it's faster
>>> this way).
>>=20
>> Thanks for the response. Is there a way to verify that AES-NI is =
being used for e.g. ssh? I'm also curious why/when/how the change to not =
use (or support?) /dev/crypto from base openssl was made.
>=20
> I suspect it was something we just didn't test in the flurry of other =
work
> during the OpenSSL upgrade.

I did wonder about that. :)

> However, it is much faster to use the AES-NI
> instructions in userland than to use a system call that copies the =
data
> into a kernel buffer, uses the sames AES-NI instructions, then copies =
the
> data back out again along with the overhead of a pair of user <--> =
kernel
> transitions.  If you have an actual crypto offload device (as in a =
PCI-e
> card or something), then you might be interested in /dev/crypto (and =
we
> should fix that eventually), but AES-NI is just faster software crypto =
and
> is best done directly in userland.

That makes sense and explains some other comments I was just reading. Is =
aesni(4) even required if all you want is userland acceleration?




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