pfSense2.4.3(FreeBSD11.1) support the intel 82599EB 10-Gigabit ?

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kujinke

Member
Jun 19, 2015
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Hi,

So I have a spare server I wanna use with pfsense to create route between vlans for a large network traffic, therefore i'm gonna need to use a high bandwidth network adapter for the job, The server has a Mellanox connectx-5 network card but the operating system does not recognize it(FreeBSD 11.1 - pfSense 2.4.3). I guess it is a driver related issue, so I tried to compile the drivers in another FreeBSD 11.1 VM and copy the modules to the pfsense server but it does not work(getting errors when trying to load the modules after copying it to /boot/kernel).

I have some intel 82599EB 10-Gigabit cards laying around that I can replace with this Mellanox card. The question is, does anyone have experience with this card and can assure that pfSense(latest 2.4.3) recognizes the intel card ?
 
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RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
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82599 is AFAIK the controller used for the Intel X520 (which ark.intel.com verifies, but does not show the exact version of 82599), which should be supported by the latest version of pfsense.

I will say there is a strong possibility that it will work just fine, but I can not guarantee that you will not have any issues whatsoever.
 

JSchuricht

Active Member
Apr 4, 2011
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I can vouch for the X520 Intel adapter working in 2.4.3. No changes were needed, worked out with the drivers included.
 

kujinke

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Jun 19, 2015
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Thanks Guys!
Anyway, ive managed to get the Mellanox drivers to work with latest pfsense(had a missing module + some tweaking needed).
 

epicurean

Active Member
Sep 29, 2014
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Thanks Guys!
Anyway, ive managed to get the Mellanox drivers to work with latest pfsense(had a missing module + some tweaking needed).
Could you detail how did this?
I would very much prefer to use the Mellanox card than the Chelsio as the latter is considerably warmer
 

kujinke

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Jun 19, 2015
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Could you detail how did this?
I would very much prefer to use the Mellanox card than the Chelsio as the latter is considerably warmer
Sure,

First of all pfsense is based on FreeBSD 11.1, but NETGATE discards some of the drivers that come basically with FreeBSD 11.1, which is funny to me.
Therefore, it is required to set up FreeBSD 11.1 machine by downloading the full ISO file (can be fetch from their main repo, better use the DVD version).

The base driver is supposed to work with Mellanox Connect-x 4/5 cards because they use the same driver, but if you have a different model card, you should install its drivers on the machine you set up.

So follow the steps bellow:
1. Setup a new VM (use your favorite hypervisor, in my case I use VMware Workstation, but Virtualbox should be ok).
2. Mount the FreeBSD 11.1 ISO and install the OS.
3. Log into the OS via SSH, and go to /boot/kernel/
4. Using SCP, Copy the following modules to your local machine: linuxkpi.ko, mlx.ko, mlx5.ko, mlx5en.ko.
NOTE: Those Modules should work with connect-x 4/5, if you have a different model, you will have to install the drivers and copy the modules accordingly.
5. SCP the modules to the pfsense box, use the same path /boot/kernel/. Do not forget to use the same permissions/attributes/owner rights to the files that you copied, just like the files that already exist there.
6. edit the file "/boot/loader.conf" and add the following line: mlx5en_load="YES".
This is done so pfsense will automatically load the modules as startup every time you reboot the os.
7. Reboot pfsense.
8. Nic should be available on pfsense, you can also ssh pfsense and use "pciconf -lcv | grep 15b3" to list the nics, you should get an output similar to this: mlx5_core0@pci0:11:0:0: class="0x020000" card=0x000315b3 chip=0x101615b3 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00"
if its not recognized output should look like this: "none2@pci0:19:0:0: class="0x020000" card=0x000315b3 chip=0x101615b3 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00"

Thats it, my issue was that i forgot to copy the linuxkpi module which was needed for the mlx5en module to work properly.
 
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