RealTek NICs

General Discussion
1

Im upgrading my home lab to a 2.5Gbe Storage Network

  • ProxMox Cluster - 2.5Gbe USB NIC (2 x 1 litre Desktops - no PCIe)
  • TrueNAS - TPLInk TX201
  • Debian 12.10 Home built desktop ASUS MB with 2.5Gbe + TP Link TX201
    - All of the above use Debian as their basis starting point.
  • Ubiquiti 5 port 2.5Gbe Switch

Status

  1. The 2 ProxMox and Desktop all get 2+ Gbs with files transfers and iperf3 results between all 3 machines (in both directions)
  2. Copies and iperf3 from TrueNAS get over 2 Gbs
  3. Writes and iperf3 TO TrueNAS are 500 Mbs - 1 Gbs
  4. I have installed Debian on the box TrueNAS box (export ZFS discs and overwrite the TrueNAS OS with Debian) and the performance is 2+ Gbs

TrueNAS has a lot of reported problems with newer NICs (eg 2.5Gbe) but looks like TrueNAS is using very old versions of drivers and firmware (see output below)

nas0125:~$ sudo ethtool --driver enp2s0
driver: r8169
version: 6.12.15-production+truenas
firmware-version: rtl8125b-2_0.0.2 07/13/20
expansion-rom-version:
bus-info: 0000:02:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: no
supports-eeprom-access: no
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

I have done a fresh install of TrueNAS Scale 25.04.0. I have been running TrueNAS Scale 24.04.X versions and then installed a 2.5GB TP-Link NIC. I was having performance problems (ie 1Gb speeds) so upgraded to 24.10 and then to 25.04.

Both Intel and RealTeK NIC have had a lot of reported problems initially, but later updates to driver / firmware (and in some cases HW) have addressed these issues

Understanding that TrueNAS is an appliance, there is no way to upgrade to upgrade to current drivers and firmware that I have been able to find.

Any suggestions on improving network traffic to TrueNAS Scale?

Is there any way to install a current RealTek driver on a TrueNAS Scale machine?

Thanks

2

Have done a lot more testing over the weekend.

Debian (home built r8125) to Debian (microserver r8125) using TX201 in both servers works in both directions over 2Gbps

Debian (home built r8125) to TrueNAS (microserver r8169) using TX201 in both servers gives 2Gbps to TrueNAS but around 500Mbps from TrueNAS.

Both Proxmox servers are fine in both above instances.

Moving a USB 2.5Gbps to the home built server r8152 yes 52) solves the problem.

Summary both the tx201 nic connecting at full speed if one is using the r8169 drivers.

Will either buy another USB 2.5 or try and find an Intel chipset nic.

3

For what it’s worth, I have always had a very easy time with Intel NICs on Debian (and Debian derivatives). I cannot say the same for Realtek NICs outside of using Realtek drivers in Windows environments, but my experiences aren’t everyone else’s of course.

As a piece of “ancedata”, I am currently running an Aquantia (Marvell) AQC107 NIC under SCALE 24.10.2 (following the conservative release cadence) and it’s working perfectly connected to a Ubiquiti 8-port 2.5G PoE switch.