[Ntop-misc] PF_RING DNA Testing: Throttling? or Tweaking

[Charles H. Leggett]

PF_RING'ers,

I am testing PF_RING with both the "pf_ring aware in transparent_mode=2" and the unlicensed DNA ixgbe driver.

With pfcount, I am seeing very different results (see "tests" below).

In a nutshell while not losing any packets, I am losing 86% of the throughput.

I figure that either the testing driver is throttling in addition to limiting captures to 5 mins (I don't believe this is the case) or, I have to do some serious tweaking to get it to use more cores, etc.

I have included info from /proc on pf_ring at the bottom of test 2.

Please have a look and see if you can point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

Tests:

1) "pf_ring aware in transparent_mode=2" ixgbe:

[chl at sensor1 ~]$ sudo pfcount -i p6p1
Using PF_RING v.5.3.0
Capturing from p6p1 [90:E2:BA:07:B9:68]
# Device RX channels: 16
# Polling threads:    1
=========================
Absolute Stats: [125770 pkts rcvd][0 pkts dropped]
Total Pkts=125770/Dropped=0.0 %
125'770 pkts - 87'542'885 bytes
=========================

=========================
Absolute Stats: [417424 pkts rcvd][0 pkts dropped]
Total Pkts=417424/Dropped=0.0 %
417'424 pkts - 328'852'997 bytes [417'375.16 pkt/sec - 2'630.51 Mbit/sec]
=========================
Actual Stats: 291654 pkts [1'000.11 ms][291'619.88 pps/1.93 Gbps]
=========================

2) unlicensed DNA ixgbe:

[chl at sensor1 ~]$ sudo pfcount -i dna0
###################################################
# ERROR: You do not seem to have a valid DNA license for dna0 [Intel 10 Gbit ixgbe 82599-based].
# ERROR: Please get one at http://shop.ntop.org/.
###################################################
# We're now working in demo mode with packet capture
# and transmission limited to 5 minutes
###################################################
Using PF_RING v.5.3.0
Capturing from dna0 [90:E2:BA:07:B9:68]
# Device RX channels: 64
# Polling threads:    1
=========================
Absolute Stats: [20012 pkts rcvd][0 pkts dropped]
Total Pkts=20012/Dropped=0.0 %
20'012 pkts - 16'791'945 bytes
=========================

=========================
Absolute Stats: [38783 pkts rcvd][0 pkts dropped]
Total Pkts=38783/Dropped=0.0 %
38'783 pkts - 31'467'381 bytes [38'770.32 pkt/sec - 251.66 Mbit/sec]
=========================
Actual Stats: 18771 pkts [1'000.32 ms][18'764.88 pps/0.12 Gbps]
=========================

[chl at sensor1 src]$ cat /proc/net/pf_ring/info 
PF_RING Version     : 5.3.0 ($Revision: exported$)
Ring slots          : 4096
Slot version        : 13
Capture TX          : Yes [RX+TX]
IP Defragment       : No
Socket Mode         : Standard
Transparent mode    : No (mode 2)
Total rings         : 0
Total plugins       : 0

[chl at sensor1 src]$ cat /proc/net/pf_ring/dev/dna0/info 
Name:              dna0
Index:             18
Address:           90:E2:BA:07:B9:68
Polling Mode:      DNA
Type:              Ethernet
Family:            Intel ixgbe 82599
Max # TX Queues:   64
# Used RX Queues:  64

--
Charles H. Leggett
Information Security Architect
chl at uga.edu