Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2013 13:07:02 -0500 From: Joe Moog <joemoog@ebureau.com> To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Intel 4-port ethernet adaptor link aggregation issue Message-ID: <B966242F-A52D-43F7-A001-99942D53339E@ebureau.com>
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We have an iXsystems 1U server (E5) with an Intel 4-port ethernet NIC = installed, model I350-T4 (manufactured May of 2013). We're trying to = bind the 4 ports on this NIC together into a single lagg port, connected = LACP to a distribution switch (Cisco 4900-series). We are able to = successfully bind the 2 on-board ethernet ports to a single lagg, = however the NIC is not so cooperative. At first we thought we had a bad = NIC, but a replacement has not fixed the issue. We are thinking there = may be a driver limitation with these Intel ethernet NICs when = attempting to bind more than 2 ports to a lagg.=20 FreeBSD version: FreeBSD 9.1-PRERELEASE #0 r244125: Wed Dec 12 11:47:47 CST 2012 rc.conf: # LINK AGGREGATION ifconfig_igb2=3D"UP" ifconfig_igb3=3D"UP" ifconfig_igb4=3D"UP" ifconfig_igb5=3D"UP" cloned_interfaces=3D"lagg0" ifconfig_lagg0=3D"laggproto lacp laggport igb2 laggport igb3 laggport = igb4 laggport igb5" ifconfig_lagg0=3D"inet 192.168.1.14 netmask 255.255.255.0" We've confirmed that the lagg module is loaded (clearly, as the pair of = on-board ethernet ports can be bound successfully). Binding various = combinations of ports on the NIC yields odd results, as sometimes the = first one in the list does not negotiate properly, sometimes the last = one in the list fails negotiation. Adding interfaces to lagg = individually versus all at the same time does not seem to make any = difference. At one point we even tried to assign unique and separate IP = addresses to the ethernet ports individually, and only a couple of the = ports would actually come active and respond to any sort of network = activity. Due to this issue with the number of "usable" ports even = beyond the link aggregation failure, this is sort of what leads us to = believe there may be an issue with the drivers for this card. We've searched the 'net/lists fairly extensively, and have seen very few = instances where people have tried to bind more than 2 ports to a lagg = with FreeBSD. Again, 2 ports is no problem, so long as we use the = on-board ports; it's the introduction of the Intel NIC and 2 more ports = that has us stuck.=20 Has anybody had any success with such a setup?=20 Joe
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