Performance questions

Networking & Firewalls
1

Hello,

Over 10 year user of pfSense at home.

Have an HP microserver Gen8 running Windows 10 Pro with pfSense 2.7 in a VM in Hyper-V. Move a lot of traffic using Wireguard tunnels.

Have a 1Gb symmetric fiber Internet. Serve a lot of files via a Filezilla FTP server on the same Windows 10 machine. Fastest via pfSense in this layout in a speed test is approx 600 Mbps symmetrical.

Speed test wired direct to Internet using a laptop = approx 900 to 950 symmetrical

Files can be served on the local LAN from the Windows computer via FTP at 1GB

Reduction in speed seems to be within pfSense (or Hyper-V)

Reached a point where I need to increase performance.

Considering options.

  • Move to OpnSense VM - but I feel this will give just the same performance as pfSense
  • Replace Windows 10 with Linux something (Ubuntu?). Run Linux based VM of pfSense with Linux based FTP server (Filezilla again?). Thinking that without Windows various services and background processes, might give me more performance.
  • Leave Windows 10 machine as is. Move pfSense to dedicated hardware. Files still served via FTP server from Windows computer.

Looking for advice from people who have “been there and done that” before changing things and pouring hours in…

THANK YOU

2

In my experience with running pfSense as a VM especially in Hyper-V, I’d recommend moving pfSense to dedicated hardware. Running it in Hyper-V seems okay for a lab environment but wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.

3

I 100% agree with @mattsowders. Virtualization of pfsense can cause unforseen weirdness and hardware is, for me, the best way to go.

1 Like
4

I’d also recommend using Intel NICs

5

Thanks all.

Update…

Moved pfSense to small FF Lenovo desktop I had sitting around with USB 3 Realtek 1GB ethernet adaptor as 2nd network port…

Draws approx 20 watts @ 110V (measured) and hits 950 Mbps in both directions - and works well after setting up CODEL for even bandwidth sharing…

Am happy…

Time will tell if the Realtek USB network adaptor will cause issues but so far, so good…

6

Ive never seen a USB NIC last a year when used 24/7

That said you may be able to get a low profile GBE cards for your Lenovo for cheap

Or grab a small fanless firewall appliance