Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-11 Thread Lamar Owen
On Sunday, July 10, 2011 07:05:16 AM Giles Coochey wrote:
 I guess what I was trying to say is that for fiber connections duplex 
 has no meaning, was there ever a fiber 'hub' where multiple point to 
 point connections 'shared' a medium? (in a virtual sense)

You can make/get passive fiber hubs that act like old thinnet.  They aren't 
common, and I don't recall if any GigE ones exist.

You can actually make these if you have a fusion splicer with enough manual 
controllability.

So, yes, you can have a true CSMA/CD fiber hub, where the hub is a totally 
passive fiber device.
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-11 Thread John R Pierce
On 07/11/11 10:17 AM, Lamar Owen wrote:
 On Sunday, July 10, 2011 07:05:16 AM Giles Coochey wrote:
 I guess what I was trying to say is that for fiber connections duplex
 has no meaning, was there ever a fiber 'hub' where multiple point to
 point connections 'shared' a medium? (in a virtual sense)
 You can make/get passive fiber hubs that act like old thinnet.  They aren't 
 common, and I don't recall if any GigE ones exist.

 You can actually make these if you have a fusion splicer with enough manual 
 controllability.

 So, yes, you can have a true CSMA/CD fiber hub, where the hub is a totally 
 passive fiber device.

it was my understanding that 'hubs' were only supported on 10baseT and 
100baseT ethernets, and of course, have to be half duplex, and all 
devices have to be the same speed.   the so-called dual speed 10/100 
hubs were really a 10baseT hub and a 100baseT hub with a switch between 
them (and were really really awful).GigE mandates switching and full 
duplex.   Anyone using fiber for 10 or 100baseF is stuck in the last 
century.

-- 
john r pierceN 37, W 122
santa cruz ca mid-left coast

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-11 Thread Lamar Owen
On Monday, July 11, 2011 01:47:09 PM John R Pierce wrote:
 it was my understanding that 'hubs' were only supported on 10baseT and 
 100baseT ethernets, 

  GigE mandates switching and full 
 duplex.   Anyone using fiber for 10 or 100baseF is stuck in the last 
 century.

Or stuck with 550m multimode fiber links (we have a few of those; longest is 
over 1km, and only multimode ran to that location).

The 10Mb/s standard is (heading from IEEE 802.3-2008):
16. Fiber optic passive star and medium attachment unit, type 10BASE-FP

802.3-2008 clause 41 provides for a half-duplex 1000Mb/s repeater, but it is 
noted that no maintenance changes are being accepted since May 2007 for that 
clause.

And then, of course, there are EPON and GPON, but that's passive full duplex 
using WDM technologies with the passive splitters and combiners (typical fiber 
to the premises gear).  GBIC's and SFP's are available for media converters and 
switches; if a GigE NIC has an SFP slot it might be possible to support those 
technologies at the workstation or server.

No, switching isn't mandated; while the 802.3 standard is pretty dense, it is 
now freely available from IEEE for anyone to download and look at.
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-11 Thread Lamar Owen
On Friday, July 08, 2011 07:06:06 PM Les Mikesell wrote:
And the 
 gigabit spec requires auto-negotiation.

According to clause 37.1.4.4 User Configuration with Auto-Negotiation of IEEE 
802.3-2008, auto-negotiation with 1000Base-X is optional, but encouraged.

In contrast, for 1000Base-T, we find the following information in clause 40.5.1:
40.5.1 Support for Auto-Negotiation
All 1000BASE-T PHYs shall provide support for Auto-Negotiation (Clause 28) and 
shall be capable of operating as MASTER or SLAVE.

'Shall' being legal language for 'absolutely without a doubt must' in this 
case.  Overwise the PHY wouldn't be able to determine which PHY is the clock 
MASTER.

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-10 Thread Charles Polisher
Giles Coochey wrote:
 On 09/07/2011 01:06, Les Mikesell wrote:
 Turning off negotiation pretty much guarantees problems if
 anything changes at the other end or you use an unmanaged switch.
 And the gigabit spec requires auto-negotiation.
 
 Let me make it clear - auto-negotiation only works if
 auto-negotiation is configured on both sides. It does not work if
 one side hard codes the speed and duplex. Both sides have to be set
 for it to negotiate. Agreeing on speed and duplex ensures that it
 will work.
 
 If something is going to change on the remote end without you
 knowing, or your provider is using an unmanaged switch then it's
 time to change provider :-) - they obviously are cheapskates and
 don't have any change management control on their systems.
 
 Gigabit is different.

My reading of the spec is that when a port is configured for 1GbE 
over 1000BASE-T (copper), disabling auto-negotiation disables the
advertising of the auto-negotiation for 10BASE-T and 100BASE-T, but 
auto-negotiation is still advertised and operational for 1GbE.
Auto-negotiation cannot be disabled for 1000BASE-X (optical fiber).

Deviation from the spec would mean such kit is Ethernet-like.
An ability to set auto-negotiation one way in the user interface 
while leaving the hardware in a different - standards conforming - 
state is possible.

-- 
Charles Polisher

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-10 Thread Giles Coochey

On 10/07/2011 10:22, Charles Polisher wrote:

Gigabit is different.
My reading of the spec is that when a port is configured for 1GbE
over 1000BASE-T (copper), disabling auto-negotiation disables the
advertising of the auto-negotiation for 10BASE-T and 100BASE-T, but
auto-negotiation is still advertised and operational for 1GbE.
Auto-negotiation cannot be disabled for 1000BASE-X (optical fiber).

Deviation from the spec would mean such kit is Ethernet-like.
An ability to set auto-negotiation one way in the user interface
while leaving the hardware in a different - standards conforming -
state is possible.

Fiber is not a CSMA/CD medium, it's a Point to Point medium - Duplex is 
meaningless.


I've been referring to the Spec of 10/100 ports. For Gigabit ports 
1000Base-T, auto-negotiation is mandatory.


Quoting from Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonegotiation]


   Interoperability problems

The first version of the autonegotiation specification, IEEE 802.3u, was 
open to different interpretations. Although most manufacturers 
implemented this standard in one way, some others, including network 
giant Cisco, implemented it in a different way. Autonegotiation between 
devices that implemented it differently failed. This led many network 
administrators to not depend on autonegotiation and instead manually set 
the speed and duplex mode of each network interface card. Even Cisco 
recommended its customers not to use autonegotiation. However, the use 
of manually set configuration often led to duplex mismatches, in 
particular when two connected devices are:


 * One manually set to half duplex and one manually set to full duplex
 * One set to autonegotiation and one manually set to full duplex
 * Both sides manually set to full duplex where one side still expects
   an autonegotiating link partner and the other side has
   autonegotiation completely disabled (the side that expects an
   autonegotiating link partner will fall back to half duplex because
   it does not detect a partner capable of full duplex)^[/citation
   needed/]

Duplex mismatch problems are difficult to diagnose because the network 
is apparently working, and simple programs used for network tests such 
as ping report a valid connection; however, the network is much slower 
than expected.


The debatable portions of the autonegotiation specifications were 
eliminated by the 1998 release of 802.3. This was later followed by the 
release of IEEE 802.3ab in 1999. The new standard specified that gigabit 
Ethernet over copper wiring requires autonegotiation. Currently, all 
network equipment manufacturers—including Cisco^[3] —recommend to use 
autonegotiation on all access ports. Cisco also recommends that you 
check back with them yearly for any potential changes in their 
recommendation as this has caused much confusion over the years. ^[4]


In some large installations that have had to deal with negotiation 
issues, network staff may believe that autonegotiation doesn't work, 
and consider turning it off a best-practice. This should be avoided - 
once autonegotiation is turned off, it will not work by definition, 
creating a self-enforcing problem.




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Giles Coochey
NetSecSpec Ltd
NL T-Systems Mobile: +31 681 265 086
NL Mobile: +31 626 508 131
GIB Mobile: +350 5401 6693
Business Email: giles.cooc...@netsecspec.co.uk
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-10 Thread John R Pierce
On 07/10/11 1:46 AM, Giles Coochey wrote:
 Fiber is not a CSMA/CD medium, it's a Point to Point medium - Duplex 
 is meaningless. 

so is twisted pair.


-- 
john r pierceN 37, W 122
santa cruz ca mid-left coast

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-10 Thread Giles Coochey

On 10/07/2011 12:57, John R Pierce wrote:

On 07/10/11 1:46 AM, Giles Coochey wrote:

Fiber is not a CSMA/CD medium, it's a Point to Point medium - Duplex
is meaningless.

so is twisted pair.




ha... ha... of course, interesting.

I guess what I was trying to say is that for fiber connections duplex 
has no meaning, was there ever a fiber 'hub' where multiple point to 
point connections 'shared' a medium? (in a virtual sense)






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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-10 Thread Les Mikesell
On 7/9/11 12:18 PM, Giles Coochey wrote:
 On 09/07/2011 01:06, Les Mikesell wrote:
 Turning off negotiation pretty much guarantees problems if anything changes 
 at
 the other end or you use an unmanaged switch. And the gigabit spec requires
 auto-negotiation.

 Let me make it clear - auto-negotiation only works if auto-negotiation is
 configured on both sides.

Errr, auto-negotiation is normally the default.  So it to be more clear, it 
works unless you break it by changing it only on one side.

  It does not work if one side hard codes the speed and
 duplex. Both sides have to be set for it to negotiate. Agreeing on speed and
 duplex ensures that it will work.

That means both sides have to know about each other, whereas one side is 
networking equipment and the other is often host equipment, managed by 
different 
sets of people.  And there is no need for them to agree/disagree or waste time 
thinking about it at all.  The defaults should work.

 If something is going to change on the remote end without you knowing, or your
 provider is using an unmanaged switch then it's time to change provider :-) -
 they obviously are cheapskates and don't have any change management control on
 their systems.

I'm not talking about 'providers', I'm talking about the people who set up 
network equipment vs. people who manage hosts.  If the people managing the 
network equipment say negotiation needs to be off they are wrong, even if they 
claim to be the authority in the debate.

 Gigabit is different.

No, the default of auto-negotiating  works there too.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
lesmikes...@gmail.com
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-10 Thread Ian Forde
On Sun, 2011-07-10 at 22:08 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
 On 7/9/11 12:18 PM, Giles Coochey wrote:
  Gigabit is different.
 
 No, the default of auto-negotiating  works there too.
 

In 1000BASE-T, autonegotiation is required, according to 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit_Ethernet#1000BASE-T

Which, in turn, refers to (click through without username required)
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.3-2008_section2.pdf
that states (in section 28D.5, part a) that Auto-negotiation in
1000BASE-T is required...

-I

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-09 Thread Les Mikesell
On 7/8/2011 5:50 PM, Giles Coochey wrote:
 On 07/07/2011 17:30, Les Mikesell wrote:
 Old Cisco switches - and Cisco's advice about how to work around their
 problems - are just the main reason that anyone would ever have turned
 off auto-negotiate. And it is a big problem if you only turn if off at
 one end which is what you end up with as you start to change
 equipment, because the other end will always get it wrong. These days,
 if a device doesn't negotiate properly you should probably just
 replace it.

 The problem is not the auto-negotiation iteself, but the fact that if
 one side hard codes its speed to 100-Full Duplex then the other side
 cannot auto-negotiate to 100-Full Duplex. It also needs to be hard-coded
 to 100-Full duplex - The auto-negotiation is not a I'll do what you're
 set to type protocol, but a let's see what's best for us protocol.

 There was actually never any problem with auto-negotiation itself - it
 did exactly what it said on the box, just that it didn't work if either
 end turned it off and hard coded it's speed.

Yes, if it hurts, don't do it.

 Having seen my fair share of performance problems, if you don't have
 console access to both interfaces then agree on the speed and duplex and
 hard code it - saves a lot of faffing about and almost always works a
 treat.

Turning off negotiation pretty much guarantees problems if anything 
changes at the other end or you use an unmanaged switch.  And the 
gigabit spec requires auto-negotiation.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
lesmikes...@gmail.com

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-09 Thread Giles Coochey

On 09/07/2011 01:06, Les Mikesell wrote:
Turning off negotiation pretty much guarantees problems if anything 
changes at the other end or you use an unmanaged switch. And the 
gigabit spec requires auto-negotiation. 


Let me make it clear - auto-negotiation only works if auto-negotiation 
is configured on both sides. It does not work if one side hard codes the 
speed and duplex. Both sides have to be set for it to negotiate. 
Agreeing on speed and duplex ensures that it will work.


If something is going to change on the remote end without you knowing, 
or your provider is using an unmanaged switch then it's time to change 
provider :-) - they obviously are cheapskates and don't have any change 
management control on their systems.


Gigabit is different.

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Giles Coochey
NetSecSpec Ltd
NL T-Systems Mobile: +31 681 265 086
NL Mobile: +31 626 508 131
GIB Mobile: +350 5401 6693
Business Email: giles.cooc...@netsecspec.co.uk
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-08 Thread R - elists
 

 -Original Message-
 From: centos-boun...@centos.org 
 [mailto:centos-boun...@centos.org] On Behalf Of Les Mikesell
 Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 7:37 AM
 To: centos@centos.org
 Subject: Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?
 
 On 7/7/2011 9:24 AM, R - elists wrote:
 
  A minor detail - I think you *must* have autoneg set first - it 
  applies them one after the other, in my experience.
 
  ETHTOOL_OPTS=autoneg off speed 100 duplex full
 
mark
 
 
  in this case though, it is gigE so dont use 100
 
  it was used cause cisco typically should be hard set for speed and 
  duplex so you never have to guess or worry
 
 Errr, perhaps you mean because old cisco stuff didn't 
 negotiate reliably?  You always have to worry when you have 
 hard set options because it won't work when someone changes 
 the equipment at the other end.
 
 -- 
Les Mikesell

exactly,

this is in the datacenters though, so we didnt care...

we always hard set old cisco gear and whatever is connected to it for our
internal needs...

for clients, some like auto, mainly cause they are using a BSD flavor or
whatever equipment or dont care

 - rh 

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-08 Thread Giles Coochey

On 07/07/2011 17:30, Les Mikesell wrote:
Old Cisco switches - and Cisco's advice about how to work around their 
problems - are just the main reason that anyone would ever have turned 
off auto-negotiate. And it is a big problem if you only turn if off at 
one end which is what you end up with as you start to change 
equipment, because the other end will always get it wrong. These days, 
if a device doesn't negotiate properly you should probably just 
replace it. 


The problem is not the auto-negotiation iteself, but the fact that if 
one side hard codes its speed to 100-Full Duplex then the other side 
cannot auto-negotiate to 100-Full Duplex. It also needs to be hard-coded 
to 100-Full duplex - The auto-negotiation is not a I'll do what you're 
set to type protocol, but a let's see what's best for us protocol.


There was actually never any problem with auto-negotiation itself - it 
did exactly what it said on the box, just that it didn't work if either 
end turned it off and hard coded it's speed.


Having seen my fair share of performance problems, if you don't have 
console access to both interfaces then agree on the speed and duplex and 
hard code it - saves a lot of faffing about and almost always works a treat.


--
Best Regards,

Giles Coochey
NetSecSpec Ltd
NL T-Systems Mobile: +31 681 265 086
NL Mobile: +31 626 508 131
GIB Mobile: +350 5401 6693
Business Email: giles.cooc...@netsecspec.co.uk
Email/MSN/Live Messenger: gi...@coochey.net
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread Digimer
On 07/07/2011 07:46 AM, Rudi Ahlers wrote:
 Hi,

 I have an interesting situation with one of our switches. It's a
 D-Link DGS-3100, 24 port 10/100/1000 Layer 2 Managed switch with some
 CentOS servers connected to it. On many of the servers I need to
 disable Flow Control on the switch's ports otherwise the CentOS
 server's doesn't connect to the switch. i.e. the Switch indicates that
 the LAN cable is unplugged and CentOS can simply not connect to any
 host on the LAN.

 As soon as I disable Flow Control, CentOS breaks.

 Does anyone know why this would happen, or how / if I can enable Flow
 Control in CentOS as well?

I've got many CentOS machines connected to a few DGS-3100 (24 and 48 
port versions) and I've not seen this problem before. I can't suggest 
what might be the problem, but I am going to guess that it's server side.

-- 
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread Rudi Ahlers
On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 2:31 PM, Digimer li...@alteeve.com wrote:
 On 07/07/2011 07:46 AM, Rudi Ahlers wrote:
 Hi,

 I have an interesting situation with one of our switches. It's a
 D-Link DGS-3100, 24 port 10/100/1000 Layer 2 Managed switch with some
 CentOS servers connected to it. On many of the servers I need to
 disable Flow Control on the switch's ports otherwise the CentOS
 server's doesn't connect to the switch. i.e. the Switch indicates that
 the LAN cable is unplugged and CentOS can simply not connect to any
 host on the LAN.

 As soon as I disable Flow Control, CentOS breaks.

 Does anyone know why this would happen, or how / if I can enable Flow
 Control in CentOS as well?

 I've got many CentOS machines connected to a few DGS-3100 (24 and 48
 port versions) and I've not seen this problem before. I can't suggest
 what might be the problem, but I am going to guess that it's server side.




Yes, I figured that much, but I don't know what to look for.

Some of the servers are Intel and other are SuperMicro, all using
onboard NIC's. The Dell Windows servers connected to the same switch
doesn't have this issue though





-- 
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Rudi Ahlers
SoftDux

Website: http://www.SoftDux.com
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread R - elists
rudi

when migrating some rackmount HP servers running Centos4 from hard coded 100
meg fdx to auto gigE that we had to

1) remove this from our ifcfg-ethX files

ETHTOOL_OPTS=speed 100 duplex full autoneg off

2) proper CAT6 wiring

3) plug into the copper gigE switchport

4) reboot

using Cisco though...

did not find a decent plug n play solution

i.e., did not waste a lot of time looking for solutions other than the
obvious cisco and centos config or network down and up interface commands

 - rh

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread Rudi Ahlers
On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 3:22 PM, R - elists list...@abbacomm.net wrote:
 rudi

 when migrating some rackmount HP servers running Centos4 from hard coded 100
 meg fdx to auto gigE that we had to

 1) remove this from our ifcfg-ethX files

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=speed 100 duplex full autoneg off

I don't see those options listed:

root@zaxen01:[~]$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
# Intel Corporation 82566DC Gigabit Network Connection
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
HWADDR=00:1c:c0:75:19:ee
TYPE=Ethernet
IPADDR=196.34.x.x
NETMASK=255.255.255.224
GATEWAY=196.34.x.x






 2) proper CAT6 wiring

already done :)


 3) plug into the copper gigE switchport

already done :)



 4) reboot

tried that already


 using Cisco though...

I can't change a switch just for this. The other (Dell + Windows)
servers on the exact same switch doesn't give me this problem.


 did not find a decent plug n play solution

 i.e., did not waste a lot of time looking for solutions other than the
 obvious cisco and centos config or network down and up interface commands

  - rh

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
Rudi Ahlers wrote:
 On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 3:22 PM, R - elistslist...@abbacomm.net  wrote:
 rudi

 when migrating some rackmount HP servers running Centos4 from hard coded 100
 meg fdx to auto gigE that we had to

 1) remove this from our ifcfg-ethX files

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=speed 100 duplex full autoneg off

 I don't see those options listed:

 root@zaxen01:[~]$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

you're not looking in the right place, look in TFM:
/usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread Rudi Ahlers
On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 3:43 PM, Nicolas Thierry-Mieg
nicolas.thierry-m...@imag.fr wrote:
 Rudi Ahlers wrote:
 On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 3:22 PM, R - elistslist...@abbacomm.net  wrote:
 rudi

 when migrating some rackmount HP servers running Centos4 from hard coded 100
 meg fdx to auto gigE that we had to

 1) remove this from our ifcfg-ethX files

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=speed 100 duplex full autoneg off

 I don't see those options listed:

 root@zaxen01:[~]$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

 you're not looking in the right place, look in TFM:
 /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
 ___



Interesting. It *almost* looks like a plain text (i.e. instructions /
manual) file to me and there's 2 lines with the option you specified:

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=...
  Any device-specific options supported by ethtool. For example,
  if you wanted to force 100Mb full duplex:
ETHTOOL_OPTS=speed 100 duplex full autoneg off



The NIC is connected @ 1GB, as per the switch interface, but I can't
seem to verify it on CentOS directly, and I would prefer not to change
this file since it shows as 100MB (if that 2nd line with ETHTOOL_OPTS
is an actual configuration option, and not just comment) but there's
no mention of Flow Control in that file. I don't know what impact this
could have, if any at all.


-- 
Kind Regards
Rudi Ahlers
SoftDux

Website: http://www.SoftDux.com
Technical Blog: http://Blog.SoftDux.com
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Cell: 082 554 7532
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread m . roth
Rudi Ahlers wrote:
 On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 3:22 PM, R - elists list...@abbacomm.net wrote:
 rudi

 when migrating some rackmount HP servers running Centos4 from hard coded
 100
 meg fdx to auto gigE that we had to

 1) remove this from our ifcfg-ethX files

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=speed 100 duplex full autoneg off
snip
A minor detail - I think you *must* have autoneg set first - it applies
them one after the other, in my experience.

ETHTOOL_OPTS=autoneg off speed 100 duplex full

 mark

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread R - elists

 A minor detail - I think you *must* have autoneg set first - 
 it applies them one after the other, in my experience.
 
 ETHTOOL_OPTS=autoneg off speed 100 duplex full
 
  mark
 

in this case though, it is gigE so dont use 100

it was used cause cisco typically should be hard set for speed and duplex so
you never have to guess or worry

realistically speed auto duplex auto

gigE is supposed to be smarter

rudi,

you can play with ethtool without having stuff in the ifcfg file

it isnt absolutely necessary to have that stuff in an ifcfg- interface file

those things in the line above are for boot time or when up'n the
interface and wanting it always the same

 - rh

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread Emmanuel Noobadmin
On 7/7/11, Rudi Ahlers r...@softdux.com wrote:
 Yes, I figured that much, but I don't know what to look for.

 Some of the servers are Intel and other are SuperMicro, all using
 onboard NIC's. The Dell Windows servers connected to the same switch
 doesn't have this issue though

I had a similar experience but on Windows machines. Connecting to a
DLink DES or DGS 1024, on two of the machines, having autoneg =
similar sympton as if the network cable is broken. Setting the NICs to
100Mbps only fixed the problem. The common thing here seems to be
DLink switch and some other factor that effectively causes autoneg to
fail without fallback.
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread m . roth
R - elists wrote:

 A minor detail - I think you *must* have autoneg set first -
 it applies them one after the other, in my experience.

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=autoneg off speed 100 duplex full

 in this case though, it is gigE so dont use 100
snip
Right, but the point I was making is that when I started playing with
ethtool last year, I found that the paramenter autoneg [on|off] *had* to
be the first parameter, otherwise it gagged trying to set other options.
Clearly, it's a dumb program, that just reads the list, and performs them
one at a time, in order of appearance (read, perform, pop parm, repeat)

  mark

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread m . roth
Emmanuel Noobadmin wrote:
 On 7/7/11, Rudi Ahlers r...@softdux.com wrote:
 Yes, I figured that much, but I don't know what to look for.

 Some of the servers are Intel and other are SuperMicro, all using
 onboard NIC's. The Dell Windows servers connected to the same switch
 doesn't have this issue though

 I had a similar experience but on Windows machines. Connecting to a
 DLink DES or DGS 1024, on two of the machines, having autoneg =
 similar sympton as if the network cable is broken. Setting the NICs to
 100Mbps only fixed the problem. The common thing here seems to be
 DLink switch and some other factor that effectively causes autoneg to
 fail without fallback.

Another quirky thing we ran into was having to change some cables. The
newer cables allowed gigabit, and the older ones did not.

  mark

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread Les Mikesell
On 7/7/2011 9:24 AM, R - elists wrote:

 A minor detail - I think you *must* have autoneg set first -
 it applies them one after the other, in my experience.

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=autoneg off speed 100 duplex full

   mark


 in this case though, it is gigE so dont use 100

 it was used cause cisco typically should be hard set for speed and duplex so
 you never have to guess or worry

Errr, perhaps you mean because old cisco stuff didn't negotiate 
reliably?  You always have to worry when you have hard set options 
because it won't work when someone changes the equipment at the other end.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
lesmikes...@gmail.com
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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread m . roth
Les Mikesell wrote:
 On 7/7/2011 9:24 AM, R - elists wrote:

 A minor detail - I think you *must* have autoneg set first -
 it applies them one after the other, in my experience.

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=autoneg off speed 100 duplex full

 in this case though, it is gigE so dont use 100

 it was used cause cisco typically should be hard set for speed and
 duplex so
 you never have to guess or worry

 Errr, perhaps you mean because old cisco stuff didn't negotiate
 reliably?  You always have to worry when you have hard set options
 because it won't work when someone changes the equipment at the other end.

I thought we were talking about NIC's and the use of ethtool, not Cisco
switches. And don't get me started on the networking turkey, er, team
here.

mark

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Re: [CentOS] how to enable Flow Control on CentOS?

2011-07-07 Thread Les Mikesell
On 7/7/2011 10:15 AM, m.r...@5-cent.us wrote:


 A minor detail - I think you *must* have autoneg set first -
 it applies them one after the other, in my experience.

 ETHTOOL_OPTS=autoneg off speed 100 duplex full

 in this case though, it is gigE so dont use 100

 it was used cause cisco typically should be hard set for speed and
 duplex so
 you never have to guess or worry

 Errr, perhaps you mean because old cisco stuff didn't negotiate
 reliably?  You always have to worry when you have hard set options
 because it won't work when someone changes the equipment at the other end.

 I thought we were talking about NIC's and the use of ethtool, not Cisco
 switches. And don't get me started on the networking turkey, er, team
 here.

Old Cisco switches - and Cisco's advice about how to work around their 
problems - are just the main reason that anyone would ever have turned 
off auto-negotiate.  And it is a big problem if you only turn if off at 
one end which is what you end up with as you start to change equipment, 
because the other end will always get it wrong.  These days, if a device 
doesn't negotiate properly you should probably just replace it.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
lesmikes...@gmail.com
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