LACP with TL-SG3216, FreeNAS 8.3.1, Intel Pro1000/ PT Quad Port

[noogai93]

Hello,

I'm having issues with setting up LACP with my freenas box.

So, I have had a search through the forums and this guy seems to be having the same problem as me, or around the same: http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?6243-Issue-with-LACP

My switch just throws this:

1 2013-05-22 23:47:36 LAG level_6
Added new Link Aggregation Group 1, members: Port 9-12.

2 2013-05-22 23:47:33 LAG level_6
Canceled Link Aggregation Group 1, members: Port 9-12.

Constantly until freenas times out.

I believe everything is setup accordingly on freenas and on my switch,

specs:
freenas 8.3.1 p2 x64
nas - intel pro 1000 pt quad port nic
switch - tp link tl-sg3216 @ latest firmware

anyone have an idea ?

thanks,

 

[noogai93]

So you posted that in another thread and opened this one? Cross posting is not allowed in this forum.

If you look at the time stamps i opened this thread first, then posted in that one, i am using a different switch so they are NOT
the same.

sorry for any confusion this may have caused you.

 

[ssgoku129]

Hmm same switch, same problems, you figure it out buddy?

 

[noogai93]

Yep, Flashed the new firmware for the switch. Also running freenas 9.2.1 and have lacp working no problems

 

[noogai93]

I used the onboard nic to connect to freenas to setup the lacp group. I did read somewhere that it wont work if you connect using the nic you want to put in a lacp group

 

[ssgoku129]

K I just flashed to the new firmware for the switch but it's still not working, could you possibly send some screenshots?

The only way I can get it to work is if I set a static LAG on the switch:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qo65bvcuhlqarjv/Screenshot 2014-03-30 17.46.00.png

and LACP in FreeNAS but the link is only about 20Mbps which is slower than a single NIC

how do you have it configured in FreeNAS and did you use the LACP Config on your switch?

 

[ssgoku129]

Just an update, got LACP working but the link is still slower than a single NIC, only getting about 40Mbps on 3xIntel ProNICs, I get 80Mbps from a single NIC.

Here's a screenshot of a transfer on the lagg IP, my switch setup, and FreeNAS config:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p6vzinzmsw0k5n6/Screenshot 2014-03-31 18.48.07.png

My 'Media State' says Unknown, does yours as well?:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ebyviinl6gzu7d8/Screenshot 2014-03-31 18.50.26.png

Apparently me and you are the only ones with this setup as I can't find anyone else with this config working...

Thanks a lot for the help.

 

[cyberjock]

While LACP shouldn't appreciably affect performance unless your short on some other resource in your FreeNAS box, you shouldn't necessarily expect performance to increase for a single client file copy such as your first screenshot is.

As for the cause of the LACP slowdown, I have no recommendations. You made no mention of your configuration, but if this is a home network LACP is overkill, adds unnecessary complexity, and more often than not introduces new problems that you aren't going to be able to solve easily, if at all.

I'm not sure if you are experienced with LACP, but putting 3 channels on LACP doesn't mean you have a 3Gb link to your FreeNAS box. If you want more than 1Gb link you'll need to look at 10Gb hardware. LACP doesn't work as an alternative to higher speed networking hardware except in very very specific situations. Most newbies see LACP, drool all over it and think it's going to be amazing,then realize after many hours or days lost that they are wasting their time on a technology that doesn't do what they think it does.

 

[ssgoku129]

Thanks for the advise, I agree... a good friend of mine has an Extreme Summit, and with his 3 links, he gets a good 200Mbps+, he streams to family and friends and that's pretty much my intent as well...

I am not experienced with LACP but I was hoping to get some with FreeNAS

My setup is:

MSI FM2A75MAE35 Mobo
TP Link TL-SG3216
RAIDZ5 - 5 3TB Reds with a 32gb SSD L2Cache (which I've also learned is overkill)
Intel Pro1000 PCI-Ex X1 2.5GT/s
Intel Pro/1000 PT EXP1940PT Dual PCIe
8GB SSD for OS
iSCSI enabled for ESXi 5.5 running 4 VMs (with GUIs)

But I guess your saying that it doesn't matter, I can't obtain a higher speed? Or my switch doesn't cut it? Should I keep both NICs in the setup?

Sorry, I'm new to most of this... I can post some screenshots of the FreeNAS console and switch log tomorrow if it'll help.

Thanks

Oh and I'm just confused that when I enabled LACP, the transfer speed cuts in half, that just leads me to believe I don't have it properly configured...

 

[cyberjock]

Well, if your hardware(both the NICs and your network switch) then you will have problems. Frankly, if you don't have LACP experience this isn't the place to learn how to use it. You won't be able to effectively test it and understand it with home hardware.

 

[ssgoku129]

"Well, if your hardware(both the NICs and your network switch) then you will have problems."
What?

err don't know where you got the idea this is home hardware, I mean that's a managed switch and I did not say this was a residential setup, how did you make that connection? irregardless... I just asked two simple questions, if I should keep the NICs in the box? and why my speed was cut in half on a transfer with LACP enabled? Thanks anyway for the advise but I highly disagree, any experience is experience and I know you want to shut me down and tell me to stop trying to fix my problem instead of trying to actually help me fix the problem, but maybe you should take a different attitude with other people dude, sounds like you're having a bad day...

I'm sure you don't care but I managed to get it working, just needed to set the lagg interface to DHCP, the static address was causing issues, once I set DHCP, I had to connect to the box manually and reset the network config (because I got kicked out of the webGUI even though I was using a different NIC), it took about 1-3 mins to actually obtain the IP, but my transfers are going at regular speed, once again, I'm pretty sure you ignored me when I said this but I wasn't looking for a speed to go higher than a 1Gb link (I definitely could buy an SFP PCI Card if I wanted to), I was just using the screenshot as a reference to the fact my link seemed 'saturated', technically speaking, my switch kept losing packets with the static address configured.

Sorry if all this confused you, hope you have a better day