2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
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Linux Base Driver for 10 Gigabit Intel(R) Network Connection
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=============================================================
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2005-04-16 16:20:36 -06:00
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2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
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October 9, 2007
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2005-04-16 16:20:36 -06:00
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Contents
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========
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- In This Release
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- Identifying Your Adapter
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- Building and Installation
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- Command Line Parameters
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- Improving Performance
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- Additional Configurations
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- Known Issues/Troubleshooting
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- Support
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2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
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2005-04-16 16:20:36 -06:00
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In This Release
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===============
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2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
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This file describes the ixgb Linux Base Driver for the 10 Gigabit Intel(R)
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Network Connection. This driver includes support for Itanium(R)2-based
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systems.
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For questions related to hardware requirements, refer to the documentation
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supplied with your 10 Gigabit adapter. All hardware requirements listed apply
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to use with Linux.
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The following features are available in this kernel:
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- Native VLANs
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- Channel Bonding (teaming)
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- SNMP
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Channel Bonding documentation can be found in the Linux kernel source:
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/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt
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The driver information previously displayed in the /proc filesystem is not
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supported in this release. Alternatively, you can use ethtool (version 1.6
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or later), lspci, and ifconfig to obtain the same information.
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Instructions on updating ethtool can be found in the section "Additional
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Configurations" later in this document.
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Identifying Your Adapter
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========================
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2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
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The following Intel network adapters are compatible with the drivers in this
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release:
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Controller Adapter Name Physical Layer
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---------- ------------ --------------
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82597EX Intel(R) PRO/10GbE LR/SR/CX4 10G Base-LR (1310 nm optical fiber)
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Server Adapters 10G Base-SR (850 nm optical fiber)
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10G Base-CX4(twin-axial copper cabling)
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For more information on how to identify your adapter, go to the Adapter &
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Driver ID Guide at:
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http://support.intel.com/support/network/sb/CS-012904.htm
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Building and Installation
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=========================
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select m for "Intel(R) PRO/10GbE support" located at:
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Location:
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-> Device Drivers
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-> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
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-> Ethernet (10000 Mbit) (NETDEV_10000 [=y])
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1. make modules && make modules_install
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2. Load the module:
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    modprobe ixgb <parameter>=<value>
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The insmod command can be used if the full
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path to the driver module is specified. For example:
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insmod /lib/modules/<KERNEL VERSION>/kernel/drivers/net/ixgb/ixgb.ko
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With 2.6 based kernels also make sure that older ixgb drivers are
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removed from the kernel, before loading the new module:
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rmmod ixgb; modprobe ixgb
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3. Assign an IP address to the interface by entering the following, where
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x is the interface number:
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ifconfig ethx <IP_address>
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4. Verify that the interface works. Enter the following, where <IP_address>
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is the IP address for another machine on the same subnet as the interface
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that is being tested:
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ping <IP_address>
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Command Line Parameters
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=======================
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If the driver is built as a module, the following optional parameters are
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used by entering them on the command line with the modprobe command using
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this syntax:
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modprobe ixgb [<option>=<VAL1>,<VAL2>,...]
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For example, with two 10GbE PCI adapters, entering:
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modprobe ixgb TxDescriptors=80,128
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loads the ixgb driver with 80 TX resources for the first adapter and 128 TX
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resources for the second adapter.
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The default value for each parameter is generally the recommended setting,
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unless otherwise noted.
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FlowControl
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Valid Range: 0-3 (0=none, 1=Rx only, 2=Tx only, 3=Rx&Tx)
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Default: Read from the EEPROM
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If EEPROM is not detected, default is 1
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This parameter controls the automatic generation(Tx) and response(Rx) to
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Ethernet PAUSE frames. There are hardware bugs associated with enabling
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Tx flow control so beware.
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RxDescriptors
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Valid Range: 64-512
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Default Value: 512
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This value is the number of receive descriptors allocated by the driver.
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Increasing this value allows the driver to buffer more incoming packets.
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Each descriptor is 16 bytes. A receive buffer is also allocated for
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each descriptor and can be either 2048, 4056, 8192, or 16384 bytes,
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depending on the MTU setting. When the MTU size is 1500 or less, the
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receive buffer size is 2048 bytes. When the MTU is greater than 1500 the
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receive buffer size will be either 4056, 8192, or 16384 bytes. The
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maximum MTU size is 16114.
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RxIntDelay
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Valid Range: 0-65535 (0=off)
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Default Value: 72
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This value delays the generation of receive interrupts in units of
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0.8192 microseconds. Receive interrupt reduction can improve CPU
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efficiency if properly tuned for specific network traffic. Increasing
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this value adds extra latency to frame reception and can end up
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decreasing the throughput of TCP traffic. If the system is reporting
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dropped receives, this value may be set too high, causing the driver to
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run out of available receive descriptors.
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TxDescriptors
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Valid Range: 64-4096
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Default Value: 256
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This value is the number of transmit descriptors allocated by the driver.
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Increasing this value allows the driver to queue more transmits. Each
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descriptor is 16 bytes.
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XsumRX
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Valid Range: 0-1
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Default Value: 1
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A value of '1' indicates that the driver should enable IP checksum
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offload for received packets (both UDP and TCP) to the adapter hardware.
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Improving Performance
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=====================
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2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
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With the 10 Gigabit server adapters, the default Linux configuration will
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very likely limit the total available throughput artificially. There is a set
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of configuration changes that, when applied together, will increase the ability
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of Linux to transmit and receive data. The following enhancements were
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originally acquired from settings published at http://www.spec.org/web99/ for
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various submitted results using Linux.
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2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
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NOTE: These changes are only suggestions, and serve as a starting point for
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tuning your network performance.
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The changes are made in three major ways, listed in order of greatest effect:
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- Use ifconfig to modify the mtu (maximum transmission unit) and the txqueuelen
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parameter.
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- Use sysctl to modify /proc parameters (essentially kernel tuning)
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- Use setpci to modify the MMRBC field in PCI-X configuration space to increase
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transmit burst lengths on the bus.
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NOTE: setpci modifies the adapter's configuration registers to allow it to read
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up to 4k bytes at a time (for transmits). However, for some systems the
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behavior after modifying this register may be undefined (possibly errors of
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some kind). A power-cycle, hard reset or explicitly setting the e6 register
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back to 22 (setpci -d 8086:1a48 e6.b=22) may be required to get back to a
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stable configuration.
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- COPY these lines and paste them into ixgb_perf.sh:
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#!/bin/bash
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echo "configuring network performance , edit this file to change the interface
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or device ID of 10GbE card"
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# set mmrbc to 4k reads, modify only Intel 10GbE device IDs
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# replace 1a48 with appropriate 10GbE device's ID installed on the system,
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# if needed.
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setpci -d 8086:1a48 e6.b=2e
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# set the MTU (max transmission unit) - it requires your switch and clients
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# to change as well.
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# set the txqueuelen
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# your ixgb adapter should be loaded as eth1 for this to work, change if needed
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ifconfig eth1 mtu 9000 txqueuelen 1000 up
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# call the sysctl utility to modify /proc/sys entries
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sysctl -p ./sysctl_ixgb.conf
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- END ixgb_perf.sh
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- COPY these lines and paste them into sysctl_ixgb.conf:
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# some of the defaults may be different for your kernel
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# call this file with sysctl -p <this file>
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# these are just suggested values that worked well to increase throughput in
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# several network benchmark tests, your mileage may vary
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### IPV4 specific settings
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# turn TCP timestamp support off, default 1, reduces CPU use
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net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 0
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# turn SACK support off, default on
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# on systems with a VERY fast bus -> memory interface this is the big gainer
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net.ipv4.tcp_sack = 0
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# set min/default/max TCP read buffer, default 4096 87380 174760
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net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 10000000 10000000 10000000
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# set min/pressure/max TCP write buffer, default 4096 16384 131072
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net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 10000000 10000000 10000000
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# set min/pressure/max TCP buffer space, default 31744 32256 32768
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net.ipv4.tcp_mem = 10000000 10000000 10000000
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### CORE settings (mostly for socket and UDP effect)
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# set maximum receive socket buffer size, default 131071
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net.core.rmem_max = 524287
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# set maximum send socket buffer size, default 131071
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net.core.wmem_max = 524287
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# set default receive socket buffer size, default 65535
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net.core.rmem_default = 524287
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# set default send socket buffer size, default 65535
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net.core.wmem_default = 524287
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# set maximum amount of option memory buffers, default 10240
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net.core.optmem_max = 524287
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# set number of unprocessed input packets before kernel starts dropping them; default 300
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net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 300000
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- END sysctl_ixgb.conf
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Edit the ixgb_perf.sh script if necessary to change eth1 to whatever interface
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your ixgb driver is using and/or replace '1a48' with appropriate 10GbE device's
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ID installed on the system.
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NOTE: Unless these scripts are added to the boot process, these changes will
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only last only until the next system reboot.
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Resolving Slow UDP Traffic
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--------------------------
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If your server does not seem to be able to receive UDP traffic as fast as it
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can receive TCP traffic, it could be because Linux, by default, does not set
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the network stack buffers as large as they need to be to support high UDP
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transfer rates. One way to alleviate this problem is to allow more memory to
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be used by the IP stack to store incoming data.
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For instance, use the commands:
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sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=262143
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and
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sysctl -w net.core.rmem_default=262143
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to increase the read buffer memory max and default to 262143 (256k - 1) from
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defaults of max=131071 (128k - 1) and default=65535 (64k - 1). These variables
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will increase the amount of memory used by the network stack for receives, and
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can be increased significantly more if necessary for your application.
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Additional Configurations
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=========================
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Configuring the Driver on Different Distributions
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-------------------------------------------------
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Configuring a network driver to load properly when the system is started is
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distribution dependent. Typically, the configuration process involves adding
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an alias line to /etc/modprobe.conf as well as editing other system startup
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scripts and/or configuration files. Many popular Linux distributions ship
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with tools to make these changes for you. To learn the proper way to
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configure a network device for your system, refer to your distribution
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documentation. If during this process you are asked for the driver or module
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|
name, the name for the Linux Base Driver for the Intel 10GbE Family of
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|
Adapters is ixgb.
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Viewing Link Messages
|
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|
|
---------------------
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|
Link messages will not be displayed to the console if the distribution is
|
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|
|
restricting system messages. In order to see network driver link messages on
|
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|
your console, set dmesg to eight by entering the following:
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|
dmesg -n 8
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NOTE: This setting is not saved across reboots.
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|
Jumbo Frames
|
|
|
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|
------------
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|
The driver supports Jumbo Frames for all adapters. Jumbo Frames support is
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|
enabled by changing the MTU to a value larger than the default of 1500.
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The maximum value for the MTU is 16114. Use the ifconfig command to
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|
|
increase the MTU size. For example:
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|
ifconfig ethx mtu 9000 up
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The maximum MTU setting for Jumbo Frames is 16114. This value coincides
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|
with the maximum Jumbo Frames size of 16128.
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|
Ethtool
|
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|
|
-------
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|
The driver utilizes the ethtool interface for driver configuration and
|
2010-12-17 05:14:34 -07:00
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|
diagnostics, as well as displaying statistical information. The ethtool
|
2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
|
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|
version 1.6 or later is required for this functionality.
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|
The latest release of ethtool can be found from
|
2010-12-17 05:14:34 -07:00
|
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|
|
http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/software/network/ethtool/
|
2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
|
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|
|
2010-12-17 05:14:34 -07:00
|
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|
NOTE: The ethtool version 1.6 only supports a limited set of ethtool options.
|
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|
|
Support for a more complete ethtool feature set can be enabled by
|
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|
|
upgrading to the latest version.
|
2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
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|
NAPI
|
|
|
|
|
----
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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|
|
NAPI (Rx polling mode) is supported in the ixgb driver. NAPI is enabled
|
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|
|
or disabled based on the configuration of the kernel. see CONFIG_IXGB_NAPI
|
|
|
|
|
|
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|
|
See www.cyberus.ca/~hadi/usenix-paper.tgz for more information on NAPI.
|
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|
|
Known Issues/Troubleshooting
|
|
|
|
|
============================
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NOTE: After installing the driver, if your Intel Network Connection is not
|
|
|
|
|
working, verify in the "In This Release" section of the readme that you have
|
|
|
|
|
installed the correct driver.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Intel(R) PRO/10GbE CX4 Server Adapter Cable Interoperability Issue with
|
|
|
|
|
Fujitsu XENPAK Module in SmartBits Chassis
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Excessive CRC errors may be observed if the Intel(R) PRO/10GbE CX4
|
|
|
|
|
Server adapter is connected to a Fujitsu XENPAK CX4 module in a SmartBits
|
|
|
|
|
chassis using 15 m/24AWG cable assemblies manufactured by Fujitsu or Leoni.
|
|
|
|
|
The CRC errors may be received either by the Intel(R) PRO/10GbE CX4
|
|
|
|
|
Server adapter or the SmartBits. If this situation occurs using a different
|
|
|
|
|
cable assembly may resolve the issue.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CX4 Server Adapter Cable Interoperability Issues with HP Procurve 3400cl
|
|
|
|
|
Switch Port
|
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Excessive CRC errors may be observed if the Intel(R) PRO/10GbE CX4 Server
|
|
|
|
|
adapter is connected to an HP Procurve 3400cl switch port using short cables
|
|
|
|
|
(1 m or shorter). If this situation occurs, using a longer cable may resolve
|
|
|
|
|
the issue.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Excessive CRC errors may be observed using Fujitsu 24AWG cable assemblies that
|
|
|
|
|
Are 10 m or longer or where using a Leoni 15 m/24AWG cable assembly. The CRC
|
|
|
|
|
errors may be received either by the CX4 Server adapter or at the switch. If
|
|
|
|
|
this situation occurs, using a different cable assembly may resolve the issue.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jumbo Frames System Requirement
|
|
|
|
|
-------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Memory allocation failures have been observed on Linux systems with 64 MB
|
|
|
|
|
of RAM or less that are running Jumbo Frames. If you are using Jumbo
|
|
|
|
|
Frames, your system may require more than the advertised minimum
|
|
|
|
|
requirement of 64 MB of system memory.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Performance Degradation with Jumbo Frames
|
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Degradation in throughput performance may be observed in some Jumbo frames
|
|
|
|
|
environments. If this is observed, increasing the application's socket buffer
|
|
|
|
|
size and/or increasing the /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_*mem entry values may help.
|
|
|
|
|
See the specific application manual and /usr/src/linux*/Documentation/
|
|
|
|
|
networking/ip-sysctl.txt for more details.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Allocating Rx Buffers when Using Jumbo Frames
|
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Allocating Rx buffers when using Jumbo Frames on 2.6.x kernels may fail if
|
|
|
|
|
the available memory is heavily fragmented. This issue may be seen with PCI-X
|
|
|
|
|
adapters or with packet split disabled. This can be reduced or eliminated
|
|
|
|
|
by changing the amount of available memory for receive buffer allocation, by
|
|
|
|
|
increasing /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Multiple Interfaces on Same Ethernet Broadcast Network
|
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Due to the default ARP behavior on Linux, it is not possible to have
|
|
|
|
|
one system on two IP networks in the same Ethernet broadcast domain
|
|
|
|
|
(non-partitioned switch) behave as expected. All Ethernet interfaces
|
|
|
|
|
will respond to IP traffic for any IP address assigned to the system.
|
|
|
|
|
This results in unbalanced receive traffic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you have multiple interfaces in a server, do either of the following:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Turn on ARP filtering by entering:
|
|
|
|
|
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/arp_filter
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Install the interfaces in separate broadcast domains - either in
|
|
|
|
|
different switches or in a switch partitioned to VLANs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
UDP Stress Test Dropped Packet Issue
|
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Under small packets UDP stress test with 10GbE driver, the Linux system
|
|
|
|
|
may drop UDP packets due to the fullness of socket buffers. You may want
|
|
|
|
|
to change the driver's Flow Control variables to the minimum value for
|
|
|
|
|
controlling packet reception.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tx Hangs Possible Under Stress
|
|
|
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
Under stress conditions, if TX hangs occur, turning off TSO
|
|
|
|
|
"ethtool -K eth0 tso off" may resolve the problem.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2005-04-16 16:20:36 -06:00
|
|
|
|
Support
|
|
|
|
|
=======
|
|
|
|
|
|
2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
|
|
|
|
For general information, go to the Intel support website at:
|
2005-04-16 16:20:36 -06:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
http://support.intel.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
|
|
|
|
or the Intel Wired Networking project hosted by Sourceforge at:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000
|
|
|
|
|
|
2005-04-16 16:20:36 -06:00
|
|
|
|
If an issue is identified with the released source code on the supported
|
2008-07-08 16:51:57 -06:00
|
|
|
|
kernel with a supported adapter, email the specific information related
|
|
|
|
|
to the issue to e1000-devel@lists.sf.net
|