DL380 with Broadcom fibre adapter NC6770 - network problem

[Thomas_166]

I have installed 3 new DL380 servers with W2k server and the latest broadcom adapter drivers. All boxes have the same problem with the installed Broadcom fibre gigabit adapter.
Everytime the server reboots (currently configured to use DHCP, fixed ip-addresses will be assigned later) it does not get an ip-address from the DHCP server unless I physically unplug the network cable and plug it back in.
Has anybody experienced the same problem?
Is there a solution?

Thanks for your help!!
Thomas

[JohnWRuffo · Accepted solution]

The NC6770 NIC's have problems in servers running 3Ghz processors or faster.

HP recommends using the NC6170 Dual Port PCI-X 1000SX Fiber Gigabit Server Adapter; Option Part Number: 313879-B21

Here is one of the issues (there are others):
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=PSD_CN0437W

[Thomas_166]

Thanks a lot for the info!!
A guess we have to buy slower servers or different fibre adapters.

[JohnWRuffo]

Another alternative is using Intel NIC's:

http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/pro1000xf_server_adapter.htm

[Thomas_166]

Sorry, problem still exists because we have DL380G3 and not the unsupported G4 model.
I have just called HP and opened a trouble ticket.

Thanks anyway.

[David Ell]

I have the same problem, did you find the resolution?

[HEM_2]

Thomas:

Have you tried disabling spanning tree, i.e. enabling portfast on the switchports that the NC6770 NICs connect to?

[Thomas_166]

I have opened a call with HP and they provided a new NIC driver, which is already available from the HP website:
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/networking/us/locate/20_5902.html

We are using version 7.74.0.0 that fixes the problem already, but I have no experience with the newest driver 7.80.0.0.

I hope this fixes your problems as well.

[Thomas_166]

HP published a new NC6770 NIC driver that fixed the problem (version 7.74.0.0).

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/networking/us/locate/20_5902.html