Broadcom NetXtremeII Packet Loss/PE1950

[Brian A. Seklecki]

Check ethtool(8) man page:

       ethtool -K--offload ethX [rx on|off] [tx on|off] [sg on|off] [tso
on|off] [ufo on|off] [gso on|off]

      -k --show-offload
              queries the specified ethernet device for offload
information.

~BAS


On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 11:30 -0500, Matt Saladna wrote:
> Patrick,
> 	I removed the TOE key from one of the problematic servers last week,
> but there was no change.  That should automatically disable TOE support
> from within the BIOS.  It is a production server, so I would like to
> avoid taking it down again to check in the BIOS to verify that TOE has
> been disabled.  Is there another way to check or can someone confirm
> whether just removing the TOE key disables TOE on the NIC?
> 
> - Matt
> 
> Patrick Schreurs wrote:
> > Hi Matt,
> > 
> > Is TOE enabled in the BIOS? I've seen improvements by removing the TOE key.
> > 
> > Good luck,
> > 
> > Patrick Schreurs
> > 
> > Matt Saladna wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>     Has anyone noticed sporadic packet loss with the BCM5708 NICs on
> >> Linux?
> >>  I have been attempting to track down the root cause, but everything is
> >> turning up empty.
> >>
> >> The symptoms are once every few hundred HTTP requests or so, there will
> >> be a timeout; same goes for DNS resolution.  It looks like any TCP or
> >> UDP request has a 1 in 30 or so chance of abruptly timing out on this
> >> card.  I have been testing by running a lookup query to 4.2.2.1 and
> >> averaging out trip times with the following script:
> >>
> >> ( set -o pipefail ; let COUNT=0 ; RET=0 ; until [ $RET -ne 0 -o $COUNT
> >> -gt 1000 ] ; do dig +short +trace @4.2.2.1 google.com | grep 'from
> >> server' | awk '{print $7}' ; RET=$? ; ((COUNT++)) ; done ) | awk '{ SUM
> >> += $1; COUNT += 1; } END { print SUM/COUNT, COUNT }' ; clock
> >>
> >> Three of the servers running CentOS 4 with the BCM5708 chipset die
> >> within the first 30 queries:
> >>
> >> dig: couldn't get address for 'H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET': not found
> >> 722.948 77
> >>
> >> Two of the three servers are running the official 2.6.22.1 kernel, while
> >> another is running on 2.6.24-rc6.  There is a fourth server, a PE SC1435
> >> with the Broadcom BCM5721 chipset, which performs the lookups
> >> flawlessly.  All four servers are on the same switch in the facility
> >> effectively ruling out network issues on the uplink.  I removed the TOE
> >> from one of the troubled PE1950s last weekend, but that hasn't affected
> >> packet loss.  Packet loss occurs independent of any offload settings
> >> made via ethtool.  I have turned all of the parameters off and on with
> >> no success.
> >>
> >> Finally, just for kicks, I decided to run the DNS lookup test on a
> >> development machine with a mirror image of the filesystem.  I'm running
> >> 2.6.22.2 with Via's VT6102 (Rhine-II) embedded NIC.  This works without
> >> a problem either.
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >>    Matt Saladna
> >>    Apis Networks
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Linux-PowerEdge mailing list
> >> Linux-PowerEdge at dell.com
> >> http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge
> >> Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Brian A. Seklecki <bseklecki at collaborativefusion.com>
Collaborative Fusion, Inc.




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