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

From: Jack Vogel <jfvogel_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 8 May 2010 11:21:43 -0700
The cable, its a simple thing but make SURE you try that, a slightly
damaged one can do weird things and its quick to check, don't overlook
it.

Jack


On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 10:22 AM, joe <joe_at_hostedcontent.com> wrote:

> 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.
>
Received on Sat May 08 2010 - 16:21:50 UTC

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