Change Speed of NIC card

[Sentosa]

Dear All,

I am using OpenVMS v8.2.1 & Itanium Server (HP rx2620).

Could anyone help to teach me how to change the speed of Built-in NIC on the itanium server?

From Alpha DS20E, i can change by (>>> set ewa0_mode fastfd)

Regards,
Sentosa

[Ian Miller.]

you have to do this from VMS (parhaps during startup). Use

LANCP SET DEVICE/SPEED=100/FULL_DUPLEX EWA0

[rick jones · Accepted solution]

It has been my experience with the NIC in the rx2620 (under UX and Linux at least) that it will autosense and autoneg just fine, so is there a particular reason you want to change the speed yourself?

[Robert Brooks_1]

If you think you need to change the speed of the card, it's almost certain you have a switch problem. If the port on the switch is set to autonegotiate, and you've still got problems, then you've got bad hardware (and I suppose it's possible it's a bad ethernet card on the system.)

The VMS ethernet drivers correctly handle speed and duplex autonegotiation; the guy who writes the VMS ethernet drivers has been saying for quite some time that if both switch and card are set to autonegotiate, and things still don't work, then you should log a call, as there is definitely a problem.

-- Rob

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Re: Ian
You can also use LANCP to populate the database so the settings survive a reboot.
MC LANCP DEFINE DEVICE EWA0 /SPEED=100 etc.
Re: Robert

If the port on the switch is set to autonegotiate, and you've still got problems, then you've got bad hardware (and I suppose it's possible it's a bad ethernet card on the system.)

In my experience (unfortunately I don't know the brand of routers, switches, etc. the network people are providing us with), I always have to ask them to set the switches to 100Mbit full duplex, and I do the same on the Alpha side, otherwise we have problems. Just the other day I installed VMS on a DS25, and left the ethernet card to autonegotiate (the switch-port was also autonegotiate/sensing), and still had problems.
Just my 2 (euro)cents.
Regards,
Kris (aka Qkcl)

[Chinraj Rajasekaran]

Hi,

If you change the speed of the NIC also make sure the settings match with the settings on the Network SWITCH PORT as well.

For some servers autonegotiation some times doesn't work well. So make sure you match settings with switch including duplex settings.

regards
Raj

[Barbara Barsin]

My understanding is that there are several standards for autonegotiate at 100 mb. Sometimes the switches don't negotiate correctly, the they will fall back to half duplex.

Consequently, I recommend setting the speed and duplex oat both the LANCP prompt and on the switch.

That said, many ports set to autogotiate will work perfectly almost all the time, but a slight glitch, and it will fall back.

I've never seen the same problem on GB ports.

[Richard Brodie_1]

As I understand it, there were some early problems with 100Mbit/s autonegotiation due to the specification not being nailed down tightly enough. It was later revised, so you are relatively unlikely to see a problem with modern hardware.

For gigabit (copper) Ethernet autonegotiation is a mandatory, day one feature. If you disable it, you are running outside the scope of the standard. Regardless of your opinion on 100Mbit, I would thus definitely leave it on auto by default for Gigabit.

[Sentosa]

Thanks