Categories
FreeBSD

ZFS Trim

I noticed today that the FreeBSD ZFS pool that I created on my laptop SSD was not configured for TRIM. TRIM enables the SSD to recover space from previously written to blocks that have since had files deleted. This can help maintain performance of the SSD as it fills with data.

My pool is called zroot, so the command to check the value of the TRIM setting is:

$ zpool get autotrim zroot

The command to switch on automatic TRIM is:

$ zpool set autotrim=on zroot

 

Categories
FreeBSD Hardware

D-Link DFE-570TX and Broadcom BCM5821

I have just acquired a used 4-port D-Link fast ethernet PCI board from a seller on eBay. I have been looking for one of these for my ‘new’ firewall for ages and was about to give up.

The firewall is an old crate of a Dell GX240 with PCI slots but it still has plenty of grunt to do what I need without consuming too much power. It’s one of the old Dells that I bought years ago for peanuts that has been upgraded with a 2.6Ghz Celeron.

I have been experienting with a Broadcom crypto accelerator in pfSense and I was about to give up on the GX240 and move up to a newer old machine with PCI-X slots.

The BCM5821 already delivers 24x performance improvent on 2048 bit RSA in the 33Mhz PCI bus and I am intrigued to find out how fast it will go in a 64 bit, 66Mhz slot. Now that I have the D-Link, I will crack on with the original plan and save the PCI-X upgrade for later.

More to follow…