Seeking assistance with GAV settings
I had a problem with my Spectrum-provided internet early this morning.
Their canned recording did not indicate any outage in my area, so I waited on the phone until a CSR picked up.
As part of the diagnostics, I had to disconnect my SonicWall TZ270W and plug my computer directly into the cable modem.
The tech asked me to run a speedtest, and while I am not thrilled about the amount I have to pay for 300 Mbps, at least the reading came back with 322.
After physically restarting the modem and getting assurances they would address any problems on their network, I ended the call.
I then hooked up the firewall and re-ran the speedtest, and my jaw dropped because I got 89.
I turned off GAV and ran it again, but this time, I got 306.
I turned on GAV and re-ran it and got 88.
After all this time, I had absolutely NO idea that GAV took up SO MUCH bandwidth to process downloads.
So, before I waste any time creating a tech support case, can anyone offer some "hints and tips" as to how to allow GAV to operate efficiently, but be less of a miser about downloads?
Thanks!
Answers
The specs are here - these are best case scenarios, its no BW that's the issue Id suspect its processing power that being chewed up
SonicWall TZ Series (Gen 7)
For 300 MB I would spec at least use a 570 or higher - connections speeds are just going to go up.
@MarkD - I obtained the TZ270W as a SecureFirst NFR offering. And while I guess I could opt to obtain a more robust device, the fact that a TZ570W costs three times more (and 11 times more than the annual license) is a budget consideration. I'll double-check with my partner representative before the security license comes up for renewal in January.
Still looking for any GAV settings that may tone down that processing…
@Larry my rule of thumb always was to have the specsheet values divided by the number of CPU cores, that is what I'am expecting for single flow. If your speedtest is checked with DPI-SSL the calculation would be 300 Mbps / 4.
You might doing your speedtest on multiple endpoints to see if the aggregated speed sums up?
—Michael@BWC
If you have TCP Streams enabled in GAV settings, try disabling that. I've seen that hose speed tests before.
With TCP Streams disabled there is a 10% improvement.
And yes, the Management Plane jumps - and stays at - 100% during the test.
Guess I'll be upgrading as soon as I can reconfigure my budget for January….
Are you hitting flood protection thresholds and the device is doing what its told (aka dropping traffic considered to be a flood)?