From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 2 15:59:13 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C029816A403; Sat, 2 Dec 2006 15:59:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lists@jnielsen.net) Received: from ns1.jnielsen.net (ns1.jnielsen.net [69.55.238.237]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B54D743CB6; Sat, 2 Dec 2006 15:58:49 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from lists@jnielsen.net) Received: from insp.local (jn@c-68-59-28-54.hsd1.sc.comcast.net [68.59.28.54]) (authenticated bits=0) by ns1.jnielsen.net (8.12.9p2/8.12.9) with ESMTP id kB2Fx92R024715; Sat, 2 Dec 2006 07:59:10 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from lists@jnielsen.net) From: John Nielsen To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 10:59:04 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.4 References: <827DB520-91DD-46E3-8CE7-1F9CCAF7756F@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <827DB520-91DD-46E3-8CE7-1F9CCAF7756F@freebsd.org> X-Face: #X5#Y*q>F:]zT!DegL3z5Xo'^MN[$8k\[4^3rN~wm=s=Uw(sW}R?3b^*f1Wu*.<=?utf-8?q?of=5F4NrS=0A=09P*M/9CpxDo!D6?=)IY1w<9B1jB; tBQf[RU-R<,I)e"$q7N7 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200612021059.05567.lists@jnielsen.net> X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV version 0.88.4, clamav-milter version 0.88.4 on ns1.jnielsen.net X-Virus-Status: Clean Cc: Jim Pirzyk Subject: Re: Gigabit Ethernet NIC with Jumbo Frame Support X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:59:13 -0000 On Friday 01 December 2006 21:11, Jim Pirzyk wrote: > I am looking for a recommendation for a card purchase of a Gigabit > Ethernet NIC that supports jumbo frames. Looking at the kernel, > the following drivers support jumbo frames; bce, bge, em, ixgb, > lge, nge, sk stge, and vge. What is perceived as the most stable, > best performing card and driver for FreeBSD RELENG_6 line? I have > multi TBs to back up from a SAN (via 2Gb Qlogic FC card) to a TSM > Server. We currently have the Broadcom BCM5750, but that chipset > does not support Jumbo Frames. The card itself needs to be PCI- > Express. At home I use an SMC card and an onboard Marvell chip on either end of a gig link with jumbo frames (mtu 9000) enabled. I've been quite happy with it; for random I/O intensive tasks I can't tell a difference between using an NFS mount and local storage. Both use the sk(4) driver. Watch out for newer Marvell chipsets that require the non-finished msk(4) driver. At work I use an em(4) Intel card, but don't have jumbo frames enabled. It performs well even so. Only some of the chipsets supported by the driver support jumbo frames. See the manpage for details. Unfortunately I'm not sure what's available as a PCI-e card. I expect you'll get additional responses, though. HTH, JN