System Requirements

VM or physical server

  • For VMs, NIC passthrough is required for optimal throughput and latency (XDP vs generic XDP). Using Virtio / bridging is much slower than NIC passthrough. Virtio / bridging should not be used for large amounts of traffic.

CPU

  • 2 or more CPU cores

  • A CPU with solid single-thread performance within your budget. Queuing is very CPU-intensive, and requires high single-thread performance.

Single-thread CPU performance will determine the max throughput of a single HTB (cpu core), and in turn, what max speed plan you can offer customers.

Customer Max Plan

Passmark Single-Thread

100 Mbps

1000

250 Mbps

1500

500 Mbps

2000

1 Gbps

2500

2 Gbps

3000

Below is a table of approximate aggregate throughput capacity, assuming a a CPU with a single thread performance of 2700 or greater:

Aggregate Throughput

CPU Cores

500 Mbps

2

1 Gbps

4

5 Gbps

6

10 Gbps

8

20 Gbps

16

50 Gbps*

32

(* Estimated)

So for example, an ISP delivering 1Gbps service plans with 10Gbps aggregate throughput would choose a CPU with a 2500+ single-thread score and 8 cores, such as the Intel Xeon E-2388G @ 3.20GHz.

Memory

  • Minimum RAM = 2 + (0.002 x Subscriber Count) GB

  • Recommended RAM:

Subscribers

RAM

100

4 GB

1,000

8 GB

5,000

16 GB

10,000*

18 GB

50,000*

24 GB

(* Estimated)

Server Recommendations

It is most cost-effective to buy a used server with specifications matching your unique requirements, as laid out in the System Requirements section below. For those who do not have the time to do that, here are some off-the-shelf options to consider:

The AsRock 1U4LW-B6502L2T can be a great lower-cost option as well.