FreeBSD 7.2 vs Linux in routing performance

[Barney Cordoba]

--- On Fri, 1/15/10, Sebastian Hyrwall <sh at keff.org> wrote:

> From: Sebastian Hyrwall <sh at keff.org>
> Subject: FreeBSD 7.2 vs Linux in routing performance
> To: freebsd-net at freebsd.org
> Date: Friday, January 15, 2010, 5:25 AM
> Hi
> 
> I have to identical x86 routers with the following
> specifications,
> 
> hw.model: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 
> 330   @ 1.60GHz
> hw.physmem: 2132996096
> hw.usermem: 1787252736
> hw.realmem: 2146041856
> 2x re0: <RealTek
> 8168/8168B/8168C/8168CP/8168D/8111B/8111C/8111CP PCIe
> Gigabit Ethernet> port 0xd800-0xd8ff mem
> 0xfeaff000-0xfeafffff,0xfdef0000-0xfdefffff irq 16 at device
> 0.0 on pci2
> 
> I know it's not really the best equipment to use in
> gbit-enviroments but that is irrelevant here.
> 
> One of these runs FreeBSD 7.2 (R-p4) and the other Linux
> 2.6.31.5.
> 
> Without pf/iptables loaded the FreeBSD-server maxes out at
> 35MB/s when it comes to forwarding between the two NICs
> (simple http-transfer used for testing).
> The Linux-server pushes 90-100MB/s between the NICs with
> the same test. Both servers are connected the same way to
> the network (I swap them between the testing).
> 
> Any suggestions on where the gigantic performance loss
> might be and how to fix it?
> 
> I intend to switch FreeBSD 8 in the coming month and maybe
> that will fix the problem but I am hoping it's also fixable
> in 7.2.
> 

The equipment really IS relevant. The FreeBSD realtek driver is
particularly sucky. As with any free OS, some drivers are good, 
and most are not. So try something else. Anything written by
Bill Paul is assembly-line quality by definition.


Barney