Flex-10 VC Drops Packets @ 5 Mega Packet Per Second

[rick jones]

2mpps might be the pps limit for the HW driven by the bnx2x driver, but it is not necessarily the limit of the bnx2x driver itself. On the half-height blades, there is a single, dual-port LOM. The full-height "i2" Integrity blades have a pair of dual-port LOMs. I don't recall how many are on the full-height ProLiant blades.

I am not sure that all G6 blades have the same NC532m (driven by the BCM57711E chip) LOM. Some may have a different chip for their LOM. Best check the quickspecs etc of each blade.

Also, I am informed the PPS limit of the BCM57711E is 2Mpps in each direction.

[Nima Gh.]

Thanks for your reply! As I got informed, This is the Limit of Firmware! Is there a single firmware for both NICs or there are separate firmwares?

[rick jones]

The limit applies to the entire chip. As far as the *NIC* limits go, it does not matter whether one is using one port or both.

[Nima Gh.]

OMG!!! Then, who enforces these limits? and Where? Is this limit is hard-wired or is matter of firmware? Ann, how could we override these limits?

[rick jones]

The limit is as fast as the chip can go. It isn't "enforced" per se.

What is the end-goal of this testing? What sort of task do you wish to perform with the system?

[Nima Gh.]

You can consider it as a load balancer with input rate of (3mpps,10Gbps).

[rick jones]

If you do indeed need a 3Mpps input rate, and presumably a 3Mpps output rate to the "back ends" then I would suggest getting in touch with your HP sales rep and/or reseller and see about getting some of the of the 10GbE Mezz cards to try-out. While I suspect it is probably clear from the name, keep in mind that the NC532m uses the same BCM57711E chip as the NC532i LOM. Were I not one of the cobbler's children (*) :) I would be inclined to try an NC550m or NC542m.


(*) from the old saying "The cobbler's children have no shoes."

BTW, just to get the number out there, "link-rate" PPS for minimum sized frames is something like 14.7 Mpps for 10GbE. Which then leaves me wondering, so I will ask, how do you know your input pps rate will be limited to 3Mpps?

[Nima Gh.]

Thanks, Then I have to give up the on-board FlexNIC option and look for a mezzanine card!