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Testmy Download test causing major firewall CPU spikes?


elvis2k

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Hi,

I've been using the testmy download test (the 2mb flavor) to test my office's network performance. My tech administrator has asked me to stop as he claims the test is causing the firewall cpu utilization to spike (from 7% to 95% or so).

Does this sound true/plausible?

If so, can someone recommend a speed test that would not spike the firewall.

Thanks for any help or insight.

ok, ep

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hi elvis2k and welcome to the testmy.net forum team

this is a very intresting problem

it could be that the firewall is having to analyze massive amounts of traffic and therefore its spyking it

to be honest with you i am not an expert and a firewall could be doing many things

any one any other opinion?

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More info (if it helps):

Here's what my tech is telling me:

The way these performace tests work is to saturate our local segment with traffic and then determine which packets were either dropped or lost along the way.  The number lost packets then help determine the available bandwidth.  Usually, our firewall processor utilization averages 5%.  As you can see during your performance test the utilization jumps to 90% or higher.  This has an adverse affect on network performance during the day and we would like you to refrain from conducting any further tests.

The firewall is of the "Sonicwall" variety, not sure what model.

Thanks for any help, ep

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Would it "increase utilization" more than any other 3mb download? An image, zip file, etc. for example?

Is there something inherent with this dl test that might cause a spike?

If so, is there a more firewall CPU friendly way of testing my speed?

Thanks

I would naturally assume processing data such as a file download would increase utilization significantly...

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Would it "increase utilization" more than any other 3mb download? An image, zip file, etc. for example?

Is there something inherent with this dl test that might cause a spike?

If so, is there a more firewall CPU friendly way of testing my speed?

Thanks

It might increase utilization more because it's highly compressed data... but so is a zip file...

This dl test shouldn't be much different than downloading a file...

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