Supermicro SuperServer E302-9D Review: A Fanless 10G pfSense Powerhouse
by Ganesh T S on July 28, 2020 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Networking
- Intel
- Supermicro
- 10GBase-T
- Xeon-D
- SFP+
- 10GbE
- ASpeed
- Skylake-D
Packet Processing Benchmarks with pkt-gen
The pkt-gen benchmarks were processed using the Conductor python package infrastructure in a similar manner to the iPerf3 benchmarks presented in the previous section. Commands are executed on the source, sink, and DUT using the Conductor python package described in the testing methodology section. The setup steps on the DUT for each mode were described in a previous section. Only the source and sink [Run] phases are described here.
On the sink side, receivers are spawned for the two interfaces serially first. Simultaneous execution is then performed after the required wait time in order to monitor both interfaces. The spawn and timeout refer to keywords specified by the Conductor package.
spawn0:sh pkt.gen.recv.sh 1 ix0 [tested-mode]-pg-rx-1c.0.txt
timeout200:sleep 185
step1:killall pkt-gen
spawn1:sh pkt.gen.recv.sh 3 ix2 [tested-mode]-pg-rx-1c.1.txt
timeout201:sleep 185
step2:killall pkt-gen
timeout30:sleep 30
spawn2:sh pkt.gen.recv.sh 1 ix0 [tested-mode]-pg-rx-2c.0.txt
spawn3:sh pkt.gen.recv.sh 3 ix2 [tested-mode]-pg-rx-2c.1.txt
timeout202:sleep 185
step3:killall pkt-gen
The pkt.gen.recv.sh script handles the reception of the packets sent via the firewall on the appropriate interface and dumps out the statistics to the specified file.
On the source side, the first link is evaluated for 30s with each packet size, followed by the second link. In the third iteration, the tests are spawned off for both links simultaneously.
spawn0:sh pkt.gen.sweep.sh ixl2 172.16.0.2:53 172.16.10.2:53 [ixl2 mac] 1 [tested-mode]-pg-tx-1c.0.txt
timeout200:sleep 185
step1:killall pkt-gen
spawn1:sh pkt.gen.sweep.sh ixl3 172.16.1.2:53 172.16.11.2:53 [ixl3 mac] 3 [tested-mode]-pg-tx-1c.1.txt
timeout201:sleep 185
step2:killall pkt-gen
timeout30:sleep 30
spawn2:sh pkt.gen.sweep.sh ixl2 172.16.0.2:53 172.16.10.2:53 [ixl2 mac] 1 [tested-mode]-pg-tx-2c.0.txt
spawn3:sh pkt.gen.sweep.sh ixl3 172.16.1.2:53 172.16.11.2:53 [ixl3 mac] 3 [tested-mode]-pg-tx-2c.1.txt
timeout202:sleep 185
step3:killall pkt-gen
Here, the pkt.gen.sweep.sh script resident in the source's file system is a wrapper for calling pkt-gen multiple times with varying packet sizes in series. The appropriate CPU core allocation and output file specifications are also passed on to this shell script.
Two sets of metrics - the packet rate and the bandwidth - are gleaned from the log files and graphed below. Note that the bandwidth numbers reported by pkt-gen sometimes exceeds the line-rate - particularly when it misses a couple of samples in the previous timestamps. Despite that obvious discrepancy, we get an idea of the average bandwidth and packet rates for each packet size, as the source tries to saturate the links.
| pkt-gen Benchmark (Packet Rates in Kpps) | |||
The pfSense installation running on the E302-9D seems to have a best-case packt forwarding rate of 0.6 Mpps per interface, and this goes down to around 0.35 Mpps in the worst case with a large number of rules and NAT being enabled.
| pkt-gen Benchmark (Bandwidth in Mbps) | |||
On the bandwidth front, we see a best-case throughput of around 6.5 Gbps. This goes down as packet processing steps start getting enabled, as shown in the above graphs.
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eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
Thanks, interesting review! Might be (partially) my ignorance of the design process, but wouldn't it be better from a thermal perspective to use the case, especially the top part of the housing directly as heat sink? The current setup transfers the heat to the inside space of the unit and then relies on passive convection or radiation to dispose of the heat. Not surprised that it gets really toasty in there.
DanNeely - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
From a thermal standpoint yes - if everything is assembled perfectly. With that design though, you'd need to screw attach the heat sink to the CPU via screws from below, and remove/reattach it from the CPU every time you open the case up. This setup allows the heatsink to be semi-permanently attached to the CPU like in a conventional install.You're also mistaken about it relying on passive heat transfer, the top of the case has some large thermal pads that will make contact with the tops of the heat sinks. (They're the white stuff on the inside of the lid in the first gallery photo; made slightly confusing by the lid being rotated 180 from the mobo.) Because of the larger contact area and lower peak heat concentration levels thermal pads are much less finicy about being pulled apart and slapped together than the TIM between a chip and the heatsink base.
Lindegren - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
Could be Solved by having the CPU on the opposite side og the boardclose - Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - link
Lower power designs do that quite often. The MoBo is flipped so it faces down, the CPU is on the back side of the MoBo (top side of the system) covered by a thick, finned panel to serve as passive radiator. They probably wanted to save on designing a MoBo with the CPU on the other side.eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
Appreciate the comment on the rotated case; those thermal pads looked oddly out of place. But, as Lindegren's comment pointed out, having the CPU on the opposite site of this, after all, custom MB, one could have the main heat source (SoC/CPU) facing "up", and all others facing "down".For maybe irrational reasons, I just don't like VRMs, SSDs and similar getting so toasty in an always-on piece of networking equipment.
YB1064 - Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - link
Crazy expensive price!Valantar - Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - link
I think you got tricked by the use of a shot of the motherboard with a standard server heatsink. Look at the teardown shots; this version of the motherboard is paired with a passive heat transfer block with heat pipes which connects directly to the top chassis. No convection involved inside of the chassis. Should be reasonably efficient, though of course the top of the chassis doesn't have that many or that large fins. A layer of heat pipes running across it on the inside would probably have helped.herozeros - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
Neat review! I was hoping you could offer an opinion on why they elected to not include a SKU without quickassist? So many great router scenarios with some juicy 10G ports, but bottlenecks if you’re trafficing in resource intensive IPSec connections, no? Thanks!herozeros - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
Me English are bad, should read “a SKU without Quickassist”GreenReaper - Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - link
The MSRP of the D-2123IT is $213. All D-2100 CPUs with QAT are >$500:https://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-d-2100-ser...
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/produc...
And the cheapest of those has a lower all-core turbo, which might bite for consistency.
It's also the only one with just four cores. Thanks to this it's the only one that hits a 60W TDP.
Bear in mind internals are already pushing 90C, in what is presumably a reasonably cool location.
The closest (at 235% the cost) is the 8-core D-2145NT (65W, 1.9Ghz base, 2.5Ghz all-core turbo).
Sure, it *could* do more processing, but for most use-cases it won't be better and may be worse. To be sure it wasn't slower, you'd want to step up to D-2146NT; but now it's 80W (and 301% the cost). And the memory is *still* slower in that case (2133 vs 2400). Basically you're looking at rack-mount, or at the very least some kind of active cooling solution - or something that's not running on Intel.
Power is a big deal here. I use a quad-core D-1521 as a CPU for a relatively large DB-driven site, and it hits ~40W of its 45W TDP. For that you get 2.7Ghz all-core, although it's theoretically 2.4-2.7Ghz. The D-1541 with twice the cores only gets ~60% of the performance, because it's _actually_ limited by power. So I don't doubt TDP scaling indicates a real difference in usage.
A lower CPU price also gives SuperMicro significant latitude for profit - or for a big bulk discount.