Re: igb broken? Unexplained weirdness with intel 82576 nics on a supermicro board.

On 05/08/2010 01:53 PM, Jack Vogel wrote:
> I still am not clear on this system, how many ports are on it, and its
> an 82576?
> Sounds to me like you've proven its not on the box if you can do fine
> when its
> on its own. So change ports in the switch, as I said, change cables, must be
> something in that environment.
>
> Jack
>
>
> On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 10:04 AM, joe <joe_at_hostedcontent.com
> <mailto:joe_at_hostedcontent.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 05/08/2010 01:31 PM, Jack Vogel wrote:
>
>         Looks like something to do with system C, you might isolate it,
>         and try
>         a back
>         to back connection with its NICs, change cables, look at BIOS
>         settings,
>         change
>         the slot the nic is in... All just off the top of my head.
>
>         Jack
>
>
>         On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 9:41 AM, joe <joe_at_hostedcontent.com
>         <mailto:joe_at_hostedcontent.com>
>         <mailto:joe_at_hostedcontent.com <mailto:joe_at_hostedcontent.com>>>
>         wrote:
>
>             On 05/08/2010 11:17 AM, Ian FREISLICH wrote:
>
>                 joe wrote:
>
>                     On 05/08/2010 06:55 AM, Ian FREISLICH wrote:
>
>                         joe wrote:
>
>                                    I have just tried your suggeston and
>         it has
>                             no effect for me ;(
>
>
>                         Do you have another brand of NIC that you can
>         try?  At
>                         least that
>                         will isolate whether it's igb(4) or something else.
>
>
>                     I will grab a new nic today and try...my options are
>         limited
>                     though.
>                     Here are the nics i can get my hands on
>
>                     TP-LINK TL-TG3468, 10/100/1000Mbps PCIe Adapter
>         (supported
>                     by fbsd?)
>
>
>                 Based on the RTL8168B chip.  Should be supported by the
>         re(4)
>                 driver.
>
>                     Intel (EXPI9301CT) Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter (yet
>         another
>                     intel nic)
>
>
>                 i82574L chip.  Should be supported by the em(4) driver.
>           I have had
>                 good performance in the past with this driver and less than
>                 satisfactory performance with the igb(4) driver.
>
>                 That may not be your problem though.  Before you go out
>         and buy,
>                 have a look at the amount of interrupt time your slow
>         machine spends
>                 in 'top' or 'systat -vm'.  systat will also show the
>         interrupt rate
>                 for each driver, perhaps it's not doing interrupt moderation
>                 properly.
>                 This will manifest as more than about a 1000 per second.
>           There are
>                 loader tunables for the driver to increase the number of
>         transfer
>                 descriptors and to tune interrupt moderation.
>
>                 You could try running trafshow (port) on the interface while
>                 performing the transfer.  Perhaps promiscuous mode will
>         turn off
>                 some hardware feature that will improve things.  It may
>         however
>                 break hardware vlanning as it does on my 82575GB 4 port
>         igb card.
>
>                 Ian
>
>                 --
>                 Ian Freislich
>
>
>             I bought those two cards anyways, im in a rush to figure out
>         this
>             problem. That being said i am still encountering the exact same
>             problem regardless on which network card i am running. I am at a
>             complete loss. I am about to try a raid card to see if the
>         problem
>             might lay within the onboard sata ports. I did pull the
>         server and
>             brought it home so that i can test more things quicker.
>
>             I am going to try using a raid card instead of the onboard sata
>             ports and see if i still encounter the same problem. I would
>         love
>             any suggestions you may have on where to go from here to
>         figure out
>             where the problem might be.
>
>             joe
>
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>
>
>     I think it might have something to so with the nics / switch, and
>     their features. I brought the box home, plugged into my gb switch,
>     and i am able to FTP data to the server at around 35MB/sec.
>
>     I dont know what would cause this other than some sort of issue with
>     the the 3 different types of nics and the switch i am using.
>
>     Any suggestions?
>
>

There are two embedded intel 82576 nics on this motherboard. I do 
believe i have proven it is not the box itself as it is capable of high 
incoming throughput. I have other servers on the switch which do 
55MB/sec without issues. I believe it is a combination of this server 
and/or the nics i have and the switch i am using. It's the only logical 
explanation if i get the desired throughput on my home switch but not on 
the switch that is collocated. I will try updating the firmware of the 
switch tonight as well as bringing the switch i use at home with me.