- Version: be2net-2.102.486.0
- VMware ESX Versions: 4.0 and 4.1
- ISO: esx-4.0.0-GA-be2net-2.102.486.0.iso
- Release: Beta
- Verdict: STABLE
- Obtained: Our Networking Admin got it emailed from Emlex Systems Engineer
- Version: be2net-2.102.474.1
- VMware ESX Versions: 4.0 and 4.1
- ISO: esx-4.0.0-GA-be2net-2.102.474.1.iso
- Release: Beta
- Verdict: STABLE
- Obtained: Our Networking Admin got it emailed from Emlex Systems Engineer
- Obtained on: 9/20/2010
Showing posts with label Emulex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emulex. Show all posts
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Emulex 10 Gb CNA Crash - VMware and Windows Update 1
Following up a previous post of mine on our Emulex 10 Gb CNA problems and crashes. I figured I'd take a minute and update the list of working driver builds we've used for VMware ESX hosts.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Emulex 10 Gb CNA Crash - VMware and Windows
Update 1 - 04-08-2011 - VMware and Emulex now has a stable driver so theres no need in the beta driver.
We recently purchased Emulex 10 Gb CNA Cards for our new and existing VMware ESX Hosts and other large bandwidth servers. However we have seen nothing but problems with them crashing. After going round and round with VMWare, Cisco and Emulex we seem to have a stable build using a beta driver build we received from Emulex. This driver is only for the Ethernet controller on the card; in other words the be2net driver.
The problem seems to be with any version of the driver that has TCP Offload enabled. On the windows drivers we were able to configure the driver to disable this "Feature" which made the cards stable. On Vmware the drivers at current time only go up to VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x Driver CD for ServerEngines BladeEngine 10Gb Version "2.102.440.0" released on 2010/09/16. Problems you'll notice with this driver is if you change VLAN ID’s on a Network the ESX host will crash with a purple screen. Other problems will arise like hosts would lose the ability to talk to each other intermittently. However the switching the VLAN ID case was used to case the crash on demand for testing.
Our network guy pushed and we were able to get a beta release of the be2net driver. The build is version be2net-2.102.474.1 and from what we read in it the notes we got. This build allows you to enabled and disable vlan offloading with the default being disabled. Like the Windows driver we worked with on windows 2008 R2 that appears to be all that’s needed to make the driver stable.
Below is the screen shot of the ESX with the beta unsigned driver running an ESX Host that’s been stable for last 2 weeks and pasted every test we could think of to try.
We also tested a QLogic 10 Gb CNA since we considered switching to it however it had the same issue with crashing with TCP offload. We wonder if they are both using the same chip.
No fix of yet would allow us to enable this feature.
Update 1: Newer Beta Drivers Listed
We recently purchased Emulex 10 Gb CNA Cards for our new and existing VMware ESX Hosts and other large bandwidth servers. However we have seen nothing but problems with them crashing. After going round and round with VMWare, Cisco and Emulex we seem to have a stable build using a beta driver build we received from Emulex. This driver is only for the Ethernet controller on the card; in other words the be2net driver.
The problem seems to be with any version of the driver that has TCP Offload enabled. On the windows drivers we were able to configure the driver to disable this "Feature" which made the cards stable. On Vmware the drivers at current time only go up to VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x Driver CD for ServerEngines BladeEngine 10Gb Version "2.102.440.0" released on 2010/09/16. Problems you'll notice with this driver is if you change VLAN ID’s on a Network the ESX host will crash with a purple screen. Other problems will arise like hosts would lose the ability to talk to each other intermittently. However the switching the VLAN ID case was used to case the crash on demand for testing.
Our network guy pushed and we were able to get a beta release of the be2net driver. The build is version be2net-2.102.474.1 and from what we read in it the notes we got. This build allows you to enabled and disable vlan offloading with the default being disabled. Like the Windows driver we worked with on windows 2008 R2 that appears to be all that’s needed to make the driver stable.
Below is the screen shot of the ESX with the beta unsigned driver running an ESX Host that’s been stable for last 2 weeks and pasted every test we could think of to try.
We also tested a QLogic 10 Gb CNA since we considered switching to it however it had the same issue with crashing with TCP offload. We wonder if they are both using the same chip.
No fix of yet would allow us to enable this feature.
Update 1: Newer Beta Drivers Listed
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