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60719
October 8th, 2014 09:00
Flowcontrol and DCB
Can anyone advise on the correct setting on Broadcom 10GbE NICs in relation to flow-control when DCB is configured.
I understand fully that proprietary flow control and DCB don't mix.
However should flow-control in the advanced settings be disabled, auto, or (unlikely) TX/RX on? Or doesn't it matter because if the NIC detected DCBx it ignores the flowcontrol setting.
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dell-richard g
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October 9th, 2014 15:00
Austin, per offline email chat, here is a quick recap:
- DCB will not operate on the 57810 from the NDIS interface. Must be in iSOE mode
- Make sure Broadcom 57810 has DCB enable (if disabled, enable it via the NIC option rom settings)
- 57810 NIC must be set to iSOE mode (enable via BACs)
- There is no DCB configuration done on the NIC or EQL. These devices are in "willing mode"
- They inherit all DCB properties from the DCB enabled/configured switch
- 57810 NIC (BACs) GUI will show DCB properties that it has inherited from the switch
- EQL GUI (network dcb details section) will show DCB properties that it has inherited from the switch
- Use a VLANID (Tag) of 2 or greater for the NIC, EQL, and switchports
- NIC IP, MTU, VLANID must be configured from the BACs iSOE interface (not via NDIS interface)
- Once configured, use the 57810 BACs Diagnostic tab to ping EQL. (do not ping from the Windows CLI)
- Do not modify any settings on the NIC. You can disable link level flow control on the switchports if necessary, which will in turn disable any link level flow control. Priority flow control will be the primary flow control method once DCB is enabled.
Overall, once DCB is enabled and configured on the switch, view the NIC GUI and EQL GUI network properties, and these will show you the DCB settings that were inherited from the switch and if all is setup correctly. (i.e. ETS, Priority Group/ID, lossless..etc)
Switch Configuration Guides are located at:
en.community.dell.com/.../4250.switch-configuration-guides-for-equallogic-or-compellent-sans
dell-richard g
605 Posts
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October 8th, 2014 10:00
Hello. You should not have to worry about the NIC settings if you define settings on the switch. Since you are using DCB, priority flow control (pfc) should be the primary source of flowcontrol, as opposed to link level flow control (llfc). On your switch, you can just disable llfc for those ports that are taking part in the DCB network. This way, you don't have to worry about changing settings on all your NICs. -- too time consuming.
For example, on a Cisco switch port, you can do a "flowcontrol send off", "flowcontrol rec off", then enable pfc via the "priority-flow-control mode auto".
austin-t
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October 9th, 2014 02:00
Hi Don, I would never like to doubt your knowledge, but I have this configuration working at lots of locations in NDIS (Windows ) mode. BACS shows that is has learned the DCB configuration from the switch. Are you saying these sites are all incorrectly configured? i.e. NDIS should be disabled and iSOE mode should be used.
austin-t
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October 9th, 2014 02:00
Hi Richard,
The Flowcontrol setting in question is at NIC level not on the switch.
austin-t
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October 9th, 2014 07:00
Hi Don,
en.community.dell.com/.../download.aspx
This guide from the Rapid Deployment Portal doesn't mention using disabling NDIS. So I am confused.
ciscen
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December 3rd, 2014 17:00
Hi,
I've used bp1063_dcb_win-eqlconfig.pdf as a reference doc for m620,f10 mxl and ps 6510 deployment. NPAR is enabled and one of the function on each port is configured with “isoe enabled ndis disabled” in order to implement "independent hardware initiator with ISOE" (section 3 on the doc). This config however didn't work well with MPIO (isoe hbas/interfaces are selected as local adapter inside the iscsi initator config).
On the other hand, If both “isoe and ndis enabled” then it seems working well with MPIO(default (assuming MS software initator is the default one) is selected as local adapter inside the iscsi initator config). With this option, network settings –ip etc… configured through windows network connection> NICx not through the BASC.
As the first option doesn’t work, I can go with the second option however I’m a little confused with DCB and isoe benefit. Please correct me if I’m wrong; if the iscsi layer is being handled with MS software initator (or operating system) should I still need to enable isoe on the npar partition ?
Thanks,