FreeBSD-6.1/amd64 bge(4) driver performance problems

[Vladimir Terziev]

	The cable and the switch port, both were one and the same in the test with Broadcom NIC and in the test with D-Link NIC. So, the reason is not in them for sure.

	I didn't mention in my initial e-mail, that since the swtich is 100Mbps, the Broadcom NIC was forced to work on 100mbit, full-duplex. For some reason, when using autodect, the Broadcom NIC negotiates 100mbit, half-duplex.

		Vladimir

On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 07:09:33 -0600
Josh Paetzel <josh at tcbug.org> wrote:

> On Tuesday 28 November 2006 12:47, Vladimir Terziev wrote:
> > 	Hi,
> >
> > 	i have a machine with Pentium 4-D processor utilizing
> > FreeBSD-6.1-RELEASE-p10/amd64.
> >
> > 	The machine is running SMP kernel.
> >
> > 	The machine has 2 on-board Broadcom BCM5721 NICs, which are
> > handeled by the bge(4) driver and 4 D-Link DL10050 NICs, which are
> > handeled by the ste(4) driver. Machine is targeted for a
> > gateway/firewall and will handle a big amount of network traffic.
> >
> > 	It seems the bge(4) driver has severe performance problems (may be
> > especially in my configuration). I tried test scp(1) to a remote
> > machine, using one of the BCM5721 NICs. The average speed which has
> > been reached was 200kBps.
> >
> > 	Just for comparison, when i tryed the same test scp(1), to the
> > same remote machine, but using one of the D-Link DL10050 NICs, the
> > average speed which has been reached was 10MBps.
> >
> > 	Could someone point me to a good performance tuning document for
> > bge(4) handeled NICs, under SMP kernel or at all?
> >
> > 	Thanks in advance!
> >
> > 		Vladimir
> 
> So you have 2 gig-E and 4 100tx interfaces on the same PCI bus?  If so 
> you're going to run into bus saturation long before you're able to 
> max out the throughput on the NICs.
> 
> Which isn't to say that 200 kBps isn't a problem, but perhaps you are 
> dealing with a bad cable or switchport.
> 
> -- 
> Thanks,
> 
> Josh Paetzel