I've had problems with non-OE Broadcom NICs as well. I just don't trust them anymore. In fact, I've got a stack of Intel PCI-e dual-port Server NICs sitting here waiting to be installed in my servers to replace the last few integrated Broadcom parts I didn't get in my last maintenance cycle.
Kyle @ Hard|OCP just had a similar issue with Broadcom NICs. They were moving the site and forums over to VMWare's ESX and as soon as they turned everything on the NICs buckled under the pressure of thousands of simultaneous connections and the servers took a dive. From what he said, VMWare knows about the issue and is going to have a fix later this year (though I don't know if Broadcom is working on a new driver that will make its way into the Linux kernel or if VMWare is fixing the existing one for their use only). (BTW... If anyone is interested in a quad-port Intel Server NIC, let me know. I've got one and will, with 98% certainty, never use it). Jason Litka | Xoxide, Inc. Manager, IT & Software Development P: (610) 251-1672 x200 F: (610) 251-0263 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Neuschul Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 5:37 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [OF-users] Error message Eugene My OF boxes are deployed in a different context and not with Exchange, so not really relevant to /this/ discussion; however what I was describing were errors on a network in which a Dell 2003/exchange server and various Dell Windows workstations were deployed, using a variety of different Broadcom chipsets directly on the motherboard, and /some/ of these workstations were producing RX packet errors at the switch. Turning off the offload engine solved most of the switch packet loss issues from the affected workstations. I can't reproduce your errors since I don't have a similar setup with OF and because I also don't have spare hardware capacity or time right now. All I was attempting to do was to suggest something you might care to look at what is a known cause of network problems, namely the Broadcom Offload Engine implementation, and eliminate that as a possible cause. If the issue persists with offload disabled then it would seem to point at other issues, possibly having to do with the switch, but also possibly to be resolved as others have said, by replacing with an appropriate Intel NIC. It's my general experience that Intel NICs generally work flawlessly with almost every switch, and with almost every operating system. Not sure I can help you any further. Robert _______________________________________________ Openfiler-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users _______________________________________________ Openfiler-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users
