Jails on separate NIC?

[rmccullough]

I have 4 x GBe ports on my server. I am currently only using one port that is configured via DHCP w/ a static IP from my pfSense router. What I would like to know is if there would be performance advantages to activating additional NIC ports and use them for jails? Whereas the current port would remain for system services and shares and such.

I went to go configure a 2nd port, but it threw an error saying Only one interface can be used for DHCP.

I suppose I could configure this w/ a static IP in TrueNAS, but it would be nice to just have it use DHCP and pull a static IP from my DHCP server.

Am I overthinking this? Is this not worth messing with trying to add a separate NIC to segregate the traffic? It would be plugged into a 24 port GBe switch. It's not a high-end one, just a cheapy TendNET "Green" one. If I were to upgrade the switch, would this then become more worthwhile? I have been kicking around adding a switch that has SFP+ cages and looking at adding fiber or 10GBe between my crawlspace (where router and TrueNAS is) and my office.

 

[sretalla]

This post explains (fairly comprehensively) how to do that... including the bit about VLANS (which you might elect to ignore).

possible network bug

Hi all, I have a problem that seems to be replicating every time. Version: TrueNAS-13.0-U3.1 I have 2 interfaces: em0 - connected to a non vlan switch port and em1 connected to a vlan port. Every time I need to move a jail from one network to another the jail fails to get dhcp and the interface...

www.truenas.com

 

[rmccullough]

Thanks @sretalla. One thing I didn't see is if there are performance advantages to this. It seems like using multiple NICs would allow me to leverage the backplane of my switch, but is this kind of foolish?

 

[sretalla]

It seems like using multiple NICs would allow me to leverage the backplane of my switch, but is this kind of foolish?

It depends on what your jails are really doing as to whether you can really push more than one jail to max out a NIC at the same time.

If you can, maybe you will notice a difference.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Am I overthinking this? Is this not worth messing with trying to add a separate NIC to segregate the traffic?

My view is that if 1 GBit/s is not enough, an upgrade to 10 GBit/s makes a lot more sense than fiddling around with multiple NICs. The latter often does not work as people expect, and it certainly increases the complexity of the network.

 

[rmccullough]

You are probably right. I was just looking for a way to utilize the existing NICs in my server rather than upgrading network hardware and infrastructure.