[Bro] Linux Kernel dropping a lot of packets

Randolph Reitz rreitz at fnal.gov
Tue Mar 13 12:23:59 PDT 2007


[snip]
At this point, I remembered Jason Lee's advice to tune the Linux  
kernel.  He suggested this link
http://www.net.t-labs.tu-berlin.de/research/bpcs/

So I did ...

[root at rhyolite bro-1.2.1]# cat /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default
110592
[root at rhyolite bro-1.2.1]# echo 33554432 > /proc/sys/net/core/ 
rmem_default
[root at rhyolite bro-1.2.1]# echo 33554432 > /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max
[root at rhyolite bro-1.2.1]# echo 10000 > /proc/sys/net/core/ 
netdev_max_backlog
[root at rhyolite bro-1.2.1]# /sbin/sysctl net.core.rmem_max
net.core.rmem_max = 33554432

OK, this looks like progress.  I tried the same tcpdump as above.   
Now I see ...

121 packets captured
149216 packets received by filter
121673 packets dropped by kernel

Before the 'tune', the kernel was dropping 99.8%.  After the tune,  
it's dropping 81.5%.  Not much better.  No fair to suggest I drop  
Linux for FreeBSD!

-=-=-=-

Please ignore the previous email with this subject.

The kernel 'tuning' above seems to be working.  Bro is now running  
and the logs are filling up.  Bro is consuming 100% of one CPU.

Thanks,
Randy Reitz
Computer Security Team





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