Impact of Rack Server Placement on Palo Alto Networks Firewall Performance

[leoarthur]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently setting up a new data center and am wondering about the impact that rack server placement might have on the performance of our Palo Alto Networks firewalls. We’re using a mix of physical and virtual firewalls, and I want to ensure that we’re optimizing their performance as much as possible.

Specifically, I’m curious about the following:

1. Rack Placement and Performance: The placement within the rack itself (top vs. bottom) usually doesn’t have a direct impact on performance in terms of latency or throughput. However, you’ll want to consider cabling lengths and proximity to your core network equipment to minimize any potential latency.
2. Best Practices: Keep your network gear, including firewalls, as close to the core switches as possible to reduce latency. Also, ensure that your firewalls are in well-ventilated parts of the rack to prevent overheating, which can degrade performance.
3. Cooling Considerations: Make sure that your racks are arranged in a hot aisle/cold aisle configuration to optimize cooling. This will help maintain stable operating temperatures for your firewalls, reducing the risk of thermal throttling.

I’d appreciate any insights or experiences you all could share!

[reaper]

hi @leoarthur !

in my experience placement in the rack is only important in relation to what other devices are in the rack in regards to heat management. these are 'real life' experiences:

- some of the palo alto chassis use side to side ventilation, so make sure you look that up before you get started so you can make sure you provide sufficient airflow (so intake and outlet are not blocked)

- placing a firewall on top a very bulky server may cause it to get cooked off by the server, so put it somewhere cooler/leave some space (max operational temperatures are usually 32°F to 122°F (0°C to 50°C))

- in most cases cable length will not be an issue, use fiber for low latency and longer distances or high quality cat6/cat8

the best practices you list seem like solid guidelines

[Adrian_Jensen]

Cable length is a non-issue within a rack, and only potentially becomes something to worry about across massive datacenters (if you have extremely low latency requirements). Signal propagation speed in CAT5/6 is approximately 70% the speed of light, or 400ns per 100m (0.0004ms per 330ft). With fiber that drops to around 350ns per 100m. Not something you will be able to measure with commodity network hardware.

As Reaper said, airflow and placement should be top concern. Keep in mind how you may want to add/remove/change components in the future and where cabling needs to go to make that as easy as possible.