FreeBSD polling mode - count 'lost' packets?

[Don Bowman]

From: Karl Pielorz [mailto:kpielorz at tdx.co.uk]
> Hi All,
> 
> We've been running a number of FreeBSD boxes with high packet 
> throughputs 
> using polling mode.
> 
> This seems to work great (gets rid of 90k odd interrupts a second).
> 
> Is there any easy way of finding out how many packets are 
> being 'dropped' 
> in this system? (We use em Intel Pro 1000TX cards) - as 
> obviously, there is 
> a finite limit to the number of packets the system can push - 
> is there any 
> mechanism, or flag, or anything that will warn you if by the time the 
> drivers get to poll the card, it's overflowed/lost packets?
> 
> Thanks,

netstat -i will tell you these things, look for ifInErrors, ifOutErrors.
sysctl kern.polling will indicate if you can't poll fast enough.