Tuning Considerations ===================== Settings to check for optimal performance. max-pending-packets: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This setting controls the number simultaneous packets that the engine can handle. Setting this higher generally keeps the threads more busy, but setting it too high will lead to degradation. Suggested setting: 10000 or higher. Max is ~65000. This setting is per thread. The memory is set up at start and the usage is as follows: :: number_of.threads X max-pending-packets X (default-packet-size + ~750 bytes) mpm-algo: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Controls the pattern matcher algorithm. AC (``Aho–Corasick``) is the default. On supported platforms, :doc:`hyperscan` is the best option. On commodity hardware if Hyperscan is not available the suggested setting is ``mpm-algo: ac-ks`` (``Aho–Corasick`` Ken Steele variant) as it performs better than ``mpm-algo: ac`` detect.profile: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The detection engine tries to split out separate signatures into groups so that a packet is only inspected against signatures that can actually match. As in large rule set this would result in way too many groups and memory usage similar groups are merged together. The profile setting controls how aggressive this merging is done. The default setting of ``high`` usually is good enough. The "custom" setting allows modification of the group sizes: :: custom-values: toclient-groups: 100 toserver-groups: 100 In general, increasing will improve performance. It will lead to minimal increase in memory usage. The default value for ``toclient-groups`` and ``toserver-groups`` with ``detect.profile: high`` is 75. detect.sgh-mpm-context: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The multi pattern matcher can have it's context per signature group (full) or globally (single). Auto selects between single and full based on the **mpm-algo** selected. ac, ac-bs, ac-ks, hs default to "single". Setting this to "full" with ``mpm-algo: ac`` or ``mpm-algo: ac-ks`` offers better performance. Setting this to "full" with ``mpm-algo: hs`` is not recommended as it leads to much higher startup time. Instead with Hyperscan either ``detect.profile: high`` or bigger custom group size settings can be used as explained above which offers better performance than ``ac`` and ``ac-ks`` even with ``detect.sgh-mpm-context: full``. af-packet ~~~~~~~~~ If using ``af-packet`` (default on Linux) it is recommended that af-packet v3 is used for IDS/NSM deployments. For IPS it is recommended af-packet v2. To make sure af-packet v3 is used it can specifically be enforced it in the ``af-packet`` config section of suricata.yaml like so: :: af-packet: - interface: eth0 .... .... .... use-mmap: yes tpacket-v3: yes ring-size ~~~~~~~~~ Ring-size is another ``af-packet`` variable that can be considered for tuning and performance benefits. It basically means the buffer size for packets per thread. So if the setting is ``ring-size: 100000`` like below: :: af-packet: - interface: eth0 threads: 5 ring-size: 100000 it means there will be 100,000 packets allowed in each buffer of the 5 threads. If any of the buffers gets filled (for example packet processing can not keep up) that will result in packet ``drop`` counters increasing in the stats logs. The memory used for those is set up and dedicated at start and is calculated as follows: :: af-packet.threads X af-packet.ring-size X (default-packet-size + ~750 bytes) where ``af-packet.threads``, ``af-packet.ring-size``, ``default-packet-size`` are the values set in suricata.yaml. Config values for example for af-packet could be quickly displayed with on the command line as well with ``suricata --dump-config |grep af-packet``. stream.bypass ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another option that can be used to improve performance is ``stream.bypass``. In the example below: :: stream: memcap: 64mb checksum-validation: yes # reject wrong csums inline: auto # auto will use inline mode in IPS mode, yes or no set it statically bypass: yes reassembly: memcap: 256mb depth: 1mb # reassemble 1mb into a stream toserver-chunk-size: 2560 toclient-chunk-size: 2560 randomize-chunk-size: yes Inspection will be skipped when ``stream.reassembly.depth`` of 1mb is reached for a particular flow.