The old instructions for setting up FreeBSD-3.4.TMF have been moved.

Setting up FreeBSD-4.3 for use with Polygraph

This page describes how to install and setup a FreeBSD system that you can use for testing with Polygraph. We have some customized FreeBSD distributions with special tweaks applied. You can choose from one of two installation methods:

• CDROM
• FTP

CDROM

Download our ISO image file and burn it on to your own blank CD. If you don't have your own CDROM burner, we can make one for you and mail it to you.

Download FreeBSD-4.3-TMF.iso (144 MB). You can also get it from our FTP site.

To request a CDROM via postal mail, write to info at this domain and tell us your mailing address.

The CDROM should be bootable. Insert it into your drive and reboot your computer. After some time, you should see the FreeBSD installation menu. If you can't boot the CDROM, you can make boot floppies as described below. After booting from the floppies you can probably install FreeBSD from the CDROM.

FTP

To start, you'll need two blank floppy disks. You also need to download the two floppy disk image files kern.flp and mfsroot.flp. After downloading, put these files on the floppies. If you're using Unix, you do it like this:

dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/fd0

fdimage kern.flp a:

Insert the kern floppy in your computer and boot. When prompted, insert the mfsroot floppy and continue.

During the install process, you'll get a window titled ``Choose Installation Media''. From here, select FTP and enter the URL for our server:

ftp://ftp.measurement-factory.com/pub/FreeBSD/

Kernel Config File

With FreeBSD-4.3-TMF you do not need to generate a new kernel. We have already made the necessary changes for you. However, it is a good idea to double-check all the settings as described below.

You can view a copy of our kernel config file, and a diff of the changes from the GENERIC kernel. This file will be installed on your system as /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/TMF.

What did we change?

• added some hashing code to support large numbers of IP addresses/aliases
• changed internal clock rate to 1000 Hz for faster Dummynet processing
• disabled TCP delayed ACKs
• increased max open files to 16k
• increased max mbuf clusters to 32k
• increased user port range to 40,000
• increased TCP SOMAXCONN to 1024
• decreased TCP MSL to 3 seconds

Check Your Work

After you reboot the new kernel, run these commands to make sure the settings are correct.

Are TCP delayed ACKs disabled?

% sysctl net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack
net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack: 0

Is the user port range high enough?

% sysctl net.inet.ip.portrange.last
net.inet.ip.portrange.last: 40000

Is SOMAXCONN high enough?

% sysctl kern.ipc.somaxconn
kern.ipc.somaxconn: 1024

Got enough MBUF clusters?

% sysctl kern.ipc.nmbclusters
kern.ipc.nmbclusters: 32768

Got enough file descriptor table space?

% sysctl kern.maxfiles
kern.maxfiles: 16384
% sysctl kern.maxfilesperproc
kern.maxfilesperproc: 16384

Is the IP address hash patch enabled?

% dmesg | grep ip_addr_hash
ip_addr_hash_reset: starting (old: capacity: 0)
ip_addr_hash_reset: done (1 entries, 20 bytes)

Internal clock running often enough?

% sysctl kern.clockrate
kern.clockrate: { hz = 1000, tick = 1000, tickadj = 1, profhz = 1024, stathz = 128 }

You can also use this shell script to test the for the required settings.