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Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

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Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#11

Post by Youden »

I have 25Gbps from Init7 at home. My "router" is a Minisforum MS-01 with a second-hand Mellanox ConnectX-5, running VyOS.

My main home server is a Supermicro SYS-510D-4C-FN6P. It has dual 25Gbps ports onboard but also an Intel E810-XXVDA4T with another 4x25Gbps ports.

Both of them are perfectly capable of saturating their ports using stock forwarding on Linux, no DPDK, VPP, anything, without breaking a sweat. Both of them were substantially cheaper than the machine in the article.

Is there something I'm missing? Why does this workstation need a ~$1000 motherboard and a ~$1000 Xeon CPU? Those two components alone cost more than either of my computers and seem like severe overkill.

Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#12

Post by FireBeyond »

Youden wrote: post #11

I have 25Gbps from Init7 at home. My "router" is a Minisforum MS-01 with a second-hand Mellanox ConnectX-5, running VyOS. My main home server is a Supermicro SYS-510D-4C-FN6P. It has dual 25Gbps ports onboard but also an Intel E810-XXVDA4T with another 4x25Gbps ports. Both of them are perfectly capable of saturating their ports using stock forwarding on Linux, no DPDK, VPP, anything, without breaking a sweat. Both of…

My understanding is that the setup needs to allow them to work on packet routing at those speeds, not just send/receive, to simulate SCION.

Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#13

Post by wmf »

Youden wrote: post #11

I have 25Gbps from Init7 at home. My "router" is a Minisforum MS-01 with a second-hand Mellanox ConnectX-5, running VyOS. My main home server is a Supermicro SYS-510D-4C-FN6P. It has dual 25Gbps ports onboard but also an Intel E810-XXVDA4T with another 4x25Gbps ports. Both of them are perfectly capable of saturating their ports using stock forwarding on Linux, no DPDK, VPP, anything, without breaking a sweat. Both of…

SCION is much slower than normal IP.

Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#14

Post by Melatonic »

jeffrallen wrote: post #10
Melatonic wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally was always a fan of just going with the largest fans possible - surprised we don't see more cases designed around 140mm and larger. 200mm is much less common but has a more pleasing noise profile

Oxide Computer has entered the chat...

Link?

Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#15

Post by Youden »

FireBeyond wrote: post #12
Youden wrote: post #11

I have 25Gbps from Init7 at home. My "router" is a Minisforum MS-01 with a second-hand Mellanox ConnectX-5, running VyOS. My main home server is a Supermicro SYS-510D-4C-FN6P. It has dual 25Gbps ports onboard but also an Intel E810-XXVDA4T with another 4x25Gbps ports. Both of them are perfectly capable of saturating their ports using stock forwarding on Linux, no DPDK, VPP, anything, without breaking a sweat. Both of…

My understanding is that the setup needs to allow them to work on packet routing at those speeds, not just send/receive, to simulate SCION.

Ah, so they need to hold giant routing tables in memory and do lookups in them or something like that?

Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#16

Post by immibis »

auspiv wrote: post #4

Wow, 249 CHF for 8x fans is insane. The grip Noctua has on people! Nice workstation.

Noctua makes really good fans, I'm told. Want to get on their level and make a similar amount of money? In a world of slop, quality engineering is valuable.

Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#17

Post by cpach »

wmf wrote: post #13
Youden wrote: post #11

I have 25Gbps from Init7 at home. My "router" is a Minisforum MS-01 with a second-hand Mellanox ConnectX-5, running VyOS. My main home server is a Supermicro SYS-510D-4C-FN6P. It has dual 25Gbps ports onboard but also an Intel E810-XXVDA4T with another 4x25Gbps ports. Both of them are perfectly capable of saturating their ports using stock forwarding on Linux, no DPDK, VPP, anything, without breaking a sweat. Both of…

SCION is much slower than normal IP.

Huh?

Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#18

Post by wmf »

cpach wrote: post #17
wmf wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SCION is much slower than normal IP.

Huh?

"SCION OSS border router performance reached a ceiling of around 400k-500k packets per second, which is roughly equivalent to 5-6 Gbit/s at a 1500-byte MTU." vs. 1.4 M PPS for IP (on an older CPU) https://toonk.io/linux-kernel-and-measuring-network-throughp...

Re: Building a 25 Gbit/s workstation for the SCION Association

#20

Post by Gracana »

Melatonic wrote: post #9
Palomides wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they aren't cheap, but noctua's latest 120mm fans are arguably as good as it gets, in quantifiable ways: https://www.hwcooling.net/en/noctua-nf-a12x25-g2-pwm-the-kin...

Personally was always a fan of just going with the largest fans possible - surprised we don't see more cases designed around 140mm and larger. 200mm is much less common but has a more pleasing noise profile

I'm also a fan of that sort of setup. A Fractal Meshify 2 XL will fit a bunch of 140mm fans, or you can get the Torrent which is smaller but has 2x 180mm fans up front. I have both and would recommend them, though the Torrent is a tight fit for a big board, and the shield on the back of the Asus W790 motherboards interferes with the cable routing grommets on the motherboard tray, so you have to remove them.
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