topic Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Sun, 15 May 2022 14:35:08 GMT

It's a real shame I cannot use the 10G NICs on these sl230s blades and everyone I've asked says there are no drivers anywhere to be found.

Does anyone know where I can find drivers or confirm that these cannot be used on these blades?
Or, is there another model of 10G that can work on these? I have a free PCIe slot too.

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

Suman_1978 — Sat, 14 May 2022 14:22:26 GMT

Hi,

If you are referring to FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLR-SFP+ Adapter, its compatible with ProLiant SL230s Gen8.
Here are the drivers for this card.

Thank You!
I work with HPE but opinions expressed here are mine.
Recent Support Video Releases

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Sun, 15 May 2022 18:41:26 GMT

Hi,

Yes, that's the card but even in the list you show me, I don't see any drivers for bsd (freebsd 13).

Is there a driver there that works and it just doesn't say bsd?

HP FLEXFABRIC 10GB 2-PORT 554FLR-SFP+ ADAPTER CARD 634026-001 629140-001

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

Suman_1978 — Mon, 16 May 2022 01:52:32 GMT

Hi,

FreeBSD is not officially supported,
You can install but It may or may not work properly.

Few reference document:
https://techlibrary.hpe.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/index.aspx
https://www.hpe.com/jp/ja/servers/bsd.html
https://people.freebsd.org/~jcagle/

Thank You!
I work with HPE but opinions expressed here are mine.
Recent Support Video Releases

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Mon, 16 May 2022 17:13:07 GMT

It's a production environment so I really cannot play with it. I need something reliable right from the start.

I guess I'll have to swp out the adapters for PCIe cards then.

Thanks very much for your help.

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Wed, 18 May 2022 14:50:47 GMT

It was n fact pretty simple to enable.

To enable the Emulex 10G cards on freebsd;
Add into /boot/loader.conf
if_oce_load="YES" (or what ever your card is)

To enable the interface for DHCP, add in rc.conf for which ever NIC you want;

ifconfig_oce0="DHCP"
#ifconfig_igb0="DHCP"

# /etc/netstart # To restart network

Seems to work fine but I'll test since you mention it's not officially supported and may not behave correctly.

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

Suman_1978 — Thu, 19 May 2022 02:54:54 GMT

Hello @ServerPains

Let me know if you were able to resolve the issue.

If you have no further query and you are satisfied with the answer then kindly mark the topic as Solved so that it is helpful for all community members.

Thankyou
Suman

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Thu, 19 May 2022 03:10:06 GMT

The driver seems to work fine but you have me nervous with your comment that it may not work properly.

What does that mean specifically? How would I know if it's ok to put into production?

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

Suman_1978 — Thu, 19 May 2022 03:21:53 GMT

Hi,

I understand your concern.
Here is the link to check HPE Servers Support & Certification Matrices.
Here we can know HPE matrices of servers and supported operating systems and virtualization software versions.
As per this, freebsd is not listed as supported.

Thank You!
I work with HPE but opinions expressed here are mine.
Recent Support Video Releases

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Thu, 19 May 2022 03:36:46 GMT

So the fact that the driver works and gives a solid 900Mbps+ doesn't mean anything?
It means it could fail any time or just that it wasn't completely tested to be certified by HP?

I'm trying to understand why someone would build a driver and not bother to make sure it's usable?

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

gracz — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 13:33:28 GMT

Hello,

may I ask which driver was working for you? I try to find a solution to use a HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLB Adapter with FreeBSD 13.1 without any success so far.

Thank you in advance.

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 14:33:05 GMT

Hate to sound like many forum trolls do but did you read the entire thread? The answer is on page one.
I hared it.

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

gracz — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 10:37:47 GMT

Yes, I've read all of the previous comments. Tried to enable the NIC as you suggested, but I still get POST failed in dmesg. I thought that maybe I need a driver, however I can only find the ones for RHEL and Suse. I guess I'll just change this card, I only asked because you mentioned that a similar setup is working for you. Thanks for the reply anyways.

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 14:27:53 GMT

In my case, the driver was likely added by the installer when I first installed the OS. It's just not santioned or officially supported so it's not enabled.

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

pchops — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 15:13:09 GMT

@gracz wrote:
Yes, I've read all of the previous comments. Tried to enable the NIC as you suggested, but I still get POST failed in dmesg. I thought that maybe I need a driver, however I can only find the ones for RHEL and Suse.

FreeBSD 13.1 includes a driver that "works" with this card (if_oce.ko), but as previously mentioned, it is not supported by HPE.

Can you post the related "POST failed" output from dmesg?

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 16:39:45 GMT

I simply added this into the /etc/rc.conf and rebooted and the interface came up. It's been fully reliable so far.

In rc.conf;

ifconfig_oce0="DHCP"

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

gracz — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 11:23:35 GMT

I've added ifconfig_oce0="DHCP" to rc.conf, though I have a different type NIC: HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLB. It uses Emulex BE3 network processor which should work and it is listed as supported HW for FreeBSD.

This is the relevant piece from dmesg:

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

ServerPains — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 14:45:17 GMT

I don't know what that error is but did you use the correct interface name? I just shared mine, yours may be different.

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

pchops — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 06:39:26 GMT

@gracz -- What is the interconnect option that connects to the 554FLB? If it is not a Virtual Connect, would it happen to be a model that support 1Gb operation? Also, what firmware version is currently installed on the 554FLB?

Re: HP 10G 554FLR freebsd driver

gracz — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 07:51:43 GMT

Thank you for the answer. I tried to check the firmware version in iLO but it's unknown. I do not know if this is related to the OS or not.. This card has 2*10G and ports are connected to Catalyst switches.