I'm running pfSense 2.0.3-RELEASE (i386) on a Dell 2650 rack-mount server. I'm
using the built-in Broadcom gigabit ethernet NICs for WAN and LAN:
bge0: Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Controller, ASIC rev. 0x000105 mem
0xfca1-0xfca1 irq 28 at device 6.0 on pci4
miibus0: MII bus on bge0
brgphy0: BCM5701 10/100/1000baseTX PHY PHY 1 on miibus0
brgphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT,
1000baseT-FDX, auto
bge0: [ITHREAD]
bge1: Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Controller, ASIC rev. 0x000105 mem
0xfca0-0xfca0 irq 29 at device 8.0 on pci4
miibus1: MII bus on bge1
brgphy1: BCM5701 10/100/1000baseTX PHY PHY 1 on miibus1
brgphy1: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT,
1000baseT-FDX, auto
bge1: [ITHREAD]
bge0@pci0:4:6:0:class=0x02 card=0x01211028 chip=0x164514e4 rev=0x15
hdr=0x00
class = network
subclass = ethernet
cap 07[40] = PCI-X 64-bit supports 133MHz, 512 burst read, 1 split
transaction
cap 01[48] = powerspec 2 supports D0 D3 current D0
cap 03[50] = VPD
cap 05[58] = MSI supports 8 messages, 64 bit
bge1@pci0:4:8:0:class=0x02 card=0x01211028 chip=0x164514e4 rev=0x15
hdr=0x00
class = network
subclass = ethernet
cap 07[40] = PCI-X 64-bit supports 133MHz, 512 burst read, 1 split
transaction
cap 01[48] = powerspec 2 supports D0 D3 current D0
cap 03[50] = VPD
cap 05[58] = MSI supports 8 messages, 64 bit
I am having severe problems with these NICs---particularly the WAN side (bge0).
Under traffic (not necessarily high load), I will lose connectivity for some
time until the NIC appears to be reset via a watchdog. It is typical to see
this repeated in dmesg:
bge0: watchdog timeout -- resetting
bge0: link state changed to DOWN
bge0: link state changed to UP
bge0: watchdog timeout -- resetting
bge0: link state changed to DOWN
bge0: link state changed to UP
bge0: watchdog timeout -- resetting
bge0: link state changed to DOWN
bge0: link state changed to UP
bge0: watchdog timeout -- resetting
bge0: link state changed to DOWN
bge0: link state changed to UP
In System - Advanced - Networking, I have disabled hardware checksum offload;
hardware TCP segmentation offload; and hardware large receive offload, but this
hasn't seemed to help. I have seen on Google references to problems with
Broadcom 57XX-based NICs under FreeBSD, and there are indications some work has
been done in FreeBSD 9-STABLE to improve matters, which is obviously not
helpful for pfSense running 8.1-RELEASE-p13.
I have checked the state table usage when this problem occurs and it is low
(with ample free state entries available).
I have heard that disabling MSI can sometimes be helpful, but the bge driver
does not appear to use it:
sysctl -a | grep msi
hw.bce.msi_enable: 1
hw.cxgb.msi_allowed: 2
hw.em.enable_msix: 1
hw.igb.enable_msix: 1
hw.malo.pci.msi_disable: 0
hw.pci.honor_msi_blacklist: 1
hw.pci.enable_msix: 1
hw.pci.enable_msi: 1
Has anyone run into this problem? Can anyone offer a possible solution or
workaround?
I have a dual-NIC expansion card in the same machine that supports fxp NICs,
and, right now, I am tempted to switch to those, believing it is probably
better to have stable 100BaseT than flaky 1000BaseT. But, I'm hoping something
can be done to make the bge ports be stable. Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Paul.
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