Dell Poweredge 1650/2650 + OpenBSD4.2 + PF -> Maximum PPS

[Falk Brockerhoff]

Hello,

I'm running two Dell Poweredge 2650 Servers with dual Xeon 2,2 GHz und 5 
Gig Ram as a redundant firewall cluster, using Broadcom and Intel 
Gigabit Cards (bge and em Drivers).

Last weekend I got a Denial of Service Attack on my network which brings 
the firewall to its limits. As some people sometimes asks for the 
maximum packets per seconds to handle with OpenBSD, here is my feedback: 
everything works fine up to roundabout 100-120k pps.

A Dell Poweredge 1650 Dual P3 1,4 GHz with 2 Gigs of Ram and Intel 
Gigabit Cards (em Driver) handles up to 30-40k pps.

Hope this value may help you for finding the matching hardware for your 
needs.

Regards,

Falk