Bug#892105: i40e

[Mikhail Krylatykh]

> We have the same problem here with the newest Stretch 4.9 kernel. When using 
> a secondary IP address the i40e driver starts to randomly ignore ARP requests 
> and makes the system unreachable for the rest of the network.
> Upgrading to a backport kernel (4.19) with newer 4.19 driver fixes the 
> problem.


Hi,
We've faced the same issue with Debian Stretch. i40e driver with version 1.6.16 
silently dropped ARP packets while not `promisc on` enabled on target 
interface. Update to linux-image-4.19 from backports (i40e driver comes with 
version 2.3.2) repository fixed this issue.

Thanks for comments and suggested workaround.

---
WBR, 
Mikhail

Bug#892105: i40e

[Salvatore Bonaccorso]

Hi,

On Fri, May 03, 2019 at 10:38:16AM +, Dominik Dausch wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Jun 2018 09:33:56 +0200 "=?utf-8?q?J=C3=B6rg?= Kost" 
>  wrote: 
> > Run into a similar issues with i40e. I found out that the i40e driver 
> > included in linux-image-4.9.0-6-amd64 drops ARP requests randomly if the 
> > interface is not configured into promiscuous mode (e.g. tcpdump 
> > running). Therefore if the switch / router expires or invalidates its 
> > arp cache, the system may not be reachable until the next ARP request 
> > will get randomly accepted & answered. 
> 
> We have the same problem here with the newest Stretch 4.9 kernel.
> When using a secondary IP address the i40e driver starts to randomly
> ignore ARP requests and makes the system unreachable for the rest of
> the network.
> Upgrading to a backport kernel (4.19) with newer 4.19 driver fixes
> the problem.
> 
> Is there a change to backport a fix into 4.9 stable? I40e is a very
> widely used driver for Intel NICs.

Can anyone of the affected users -- if feasible -- try to help on
isolating the issue?

https://kernel-team.pages.debian.net/kernel-handbook/ch-bugs.html#s9.1.5
and
https://kernel-team.pages.debian.net/kernel-handbook/ch-bugs.html#s9.2.1
can give some help to isolate the fixing change.

Regards,
Salvatore

Bug#892105: i40e

[Dominik Dausch]

On Fri, 29 Jun 2018 09:33:56 +0200 "=?utf-8?q?J=C3=B6rg?= Kost" 
 wrote: 
> Run into a similar issues with i40e. I found out that the i40e driver 
> included in linux-image-4.9.0-6-amd64 drops ARP requests randomly if the 
> interface is not configured into promiscuous mode (e.g. tcpdump 
> running). Therefore if the switch / router expires or invalidates its 
> arp cache, the system may not be reachable until the next ARP request 
> will get randomly accepted & answered. 

We have the same problem here with the newest Stretch 4.9 kernel. When using a 
secondary IP address the i40e driver starts to randomly ignore ARP requests and 
makes the system unreachable for the rest of the network.
Upgrading to a backport kernel (4.19) with newer 4.19 driver fixes the problem.

Is there a change to backport a fix into 4.9 stable? I40e is a very widely used 
driver for Intel NICs.

Greetings,
Dominik

Bug#892105: i40e

[Jörg Kost]

Run into a similar issues with i40e. I found out that the i40e driver 
included in linux-image-4.9.0-6-amd64 drops ARP requests randomly if the 
interface is not configured into promiscuous mode (e.g. tcpdump 
running). Therefore if the switch / router expires or invalidates its 
arp cache, the system may not be reachable until the next ARP request 
will get randomly accepted & answered.


Workaround:
- Set up a static arp entry on the switch / router

Solution:
- Compile the current i40e driver from the Intel website, where the 
issue does not occur, in my case: 2.4.10


I did not test stretch-backports so far.