perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Cas D'Angelo <>]

I also have a XL710.  There is a hardware issue with these NICS running at 40G.

I was able to get the XL710-QDA2 installed in a Dell 530R and get the firmware and driver updated:

downloadcenter.intel.com

i40e-1.2.48.tar.gz
NVMUpdatePackage.zip
NVMUpdateTool-Linux_v1.0.pdf

Install driver first (I also removed all QSFP+)
# cd /usr/src/i40e-1.2.48/src
# make install

Then run NVMupdate

# chmod 755 nvmupdate64e
# nvmupdate64e  -l LogFileName.txt

Check using ethtool

$ ethtool -i p3p1
driver: i40e
version: 1.2.48
firmware-version: f4.33.31377 a1.2 n4.42 e1932
bus-info: 0000:05:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: yes

However, I could not get it to work with a Cisco direct attach cable.  I called in to support, who mentioned that the card works well with 10G but that there is a hardware issue with 40G on the card (random CRC errors).  They asked for info from the card and mentioned that they are expecting a new revision toward the end of the calendar year.  I dropped the Cisco cable issue when I heard about the hardware issue. 

I am in the process of deploying a SolarFlare adapter which I also had purchased (also from CDWG).

I called Intel support at 916-377-7000 option 6

Cas


On 08/08/2015 07:03 PM, Brian Tierney wrote:

You might want to try installing the latest NIC driver from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/

On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 1:31 PM, Christopher Alan Rice <> wrote:

Good Afternoon,

We have recently upgraded part of our network and as a result upgraded

our perfSONAR with an Intel XL710 40GB NIC. Unfortunately we run into a 

kernel panic on boot. We have tried reinstalling perfSONAR and received the 

same result. Our best guess at the moment is that the kernel module (i40e) 

needs to be updated or has a bug. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly

appreciated.

Thank you for all your hard work with perfSONAR.

Regards,

Christopher

--

Brian Tierney, http://www.es.net/tierney
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), Berkeley National Lab
http://fasterdata.es.net