From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mogens Valentin Subject: Re: iptables on multiple CPUs (SMP & Hyperthreading question) Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 19:08:58 +0200 Message-ID: <42A1E02A.1080001@danbbs.dk> References: Reply-To: monz@danbbs.dk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: netfilter-bounces@lists.netfilter.org Errors-To: netfilter-bounces@lists.netfilter.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed" To: netfilter@lists.netfilter.org Michael Buffer wrote: > I'm considering purchasing some firewall machines for my organization, and > I am trying to decide whether a machine with multiple CPUs is worth the > additional expense performance-wise (aside from being able to assign CPUs > to interfaces). I'd also like to know whether there are any stability > issues with iptables & SMP (and/or hyperthreading with multiple CPUs). > Any input would be appreciated. To second the other very good remarks... I've had a Celeron 430 with 128MB ram or so handling 8 interfaces (quad Dlink cards) as a firewall/router, while also running the facility's internal bind and dhcpd, plus acting as a FreeSwan IPsec concentrator for three external departments. On a 2Gbit connection, load was mostly idle. I even had it running seti (priority -19) for a while, just to see how it handled the load. This was for an educational facility with some 200 students and 30+ staff on the central setup, and maybe 40 students +8 teachers at the external depts. Quite a lot of those students didn't know how to activate themselves, so there was -a lot- of browsing, chatting, and downloading taking place. The only times I would've liked more raw power was for my homeoffice ssh connections But I can fully agree to other remarks on setting up clustered solutions with failover. -- Kind regards, Mogens Valentin The dual core chips are dubbed the "brains" of a computer. Although Intel has recently changed that description by describing its dual core processors as having a heart as well. -- fun on theinquirer.net