Re: experience with supermicro based Network Devices for 1Gb/s Ipsec throughput

> doing a project for a large client and I would like to know if anyone has
> any issues running.
> supermicro with SOC CPUS models

> SYS-5018A-FTN4

If you have any of these, replace them. They have known buggy CPUs
and will randomly fail without warning. We replaced about a dozen
of them after >50% failed within the first year of installation.

Note this isn't an OpenBSD problem -- the 5018As are just bad hardware.
(They also have APIC interrupt issues, most likely due to a buggy ACPI
implementation.)

We replaced all our SYS-5018A-FTN4s with SYS-5018D-FN8Ts.

I can't speak to the other models you mentioned.

As for network throughput, we did test a pair of 5018As with 10-gig
NIC cards. They were able to sustain a bit over 750 MB/s throughput
on ttcp tests, so this class of Supermicro will certainly shovel the
packets across the network. I don't know how much of a hit you will
take with IPsec, but we ran our TLS-terminating load balancers on the
5018As before replacing them, and they had no trouble keeping up with
a saturated 1-gig NIC worth of TLS connections. The replacement 5018Ds
just loaf along.

[ All the above gear was/is running the at-the-time current 'release'
version of OpenBSD. ]

--lyndon