I have an IBM System x3650 with 2 quad-core CPUs running amd64-7.1_STABLE.
It has lately started becoming sluggish. The culprit is the system
process service thread for the "bnx0" interface (the one in use).
Partial output of 'top -nt':
$ top -nt
load averages: 2.30, 1.36, 1.40; up 0+16:39:03 15:36:48
121 threads: 33 idle, 1 runnable, 78 sleeping, 9 on CPU
CPU states: 0.0% user, 0.0% nice, 15.7% system, 12.2% interrupt, 71.9% idle
Memory: 27G Act, 13G Inact, 16M Wired, 9800K Exec, 41G File, 229M Free
Swap: 48G Total, 48G Free
PID LID USERNAME PRI STATE TIME WCPU CPU NAME COMMAND
0 60 root 25 CPU/3 4:55 99.17% 99.17% bnx0 [system]
0 3 root 222 CPU/0 1:20 26.22% 26.22% softnet/0 [system]
0 98 root 124 syncer/4 52:12 15.67% 15.67% ioflush [system]
34 1 sysop 83 select/5 1:09 11.47% 11.47% - sshd
423 5 root 85 nfsd/6 0:21 7.03% 7.03% slave nfsd
0 59 root 96 ipmicm/5 0:40 3.66% 3.66% ipmi [system]
0 32 root 220 IDLE/3 0:11 3.12% 3.12% softclk/3 [system]
[...]
Ordinarily, the bnx0 service thread never shows up, or is significantly
down the list, even when operating as a semi-diskless system.
It may run for weeks with no problem, but it has recently done this
twice in as many days.
So far, the only way to restore normal operation is to reboot the machine.
Bouncing the interface with "ifconfig bnx0 down ; ifconfig bnx0 up" has
no discernable effect.
Driver issue? Hardware failing? I could switch to its second interface,
"bnx1" and see if it does the same thing.
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