Disabling TCP Chimney Offload, RSS and NetDMA in Windows 2008

[bobmarsh]

I've been using the following instrcutions to disable TOE, RSS and NetDMA in windows 2008, would it also be necessary to add registry Keys for TOE and RSS to the following key and disable them as well, or are the command line chagnes enough?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\EnableRSS

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\DisableTaskOffload

instructions used

How to disable TOE and RSS in Windows Server 2008 Operating System

• From a command prompt (open using “Run As Administrator”) run 

netsh int tcp set global chimney=disabled

• Run netsh int tcp show global again to confirm that Chimney Offload State now shows as disabled

• Run netsh int tcp set global rss=disabled

•  Run netsh int tcp show global again to confirm that Receive Side Scaling State now shows as disabled

How to disable NetDMA  - Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

• Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
• Locate the following registry subkey, and then click it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

• Double-click the EnableTCPA registry entry. Note If this registry entry does not exist, right-click Parameters, point to New, click DWORD Value, type EnableTCPA, and then press ENTER.
• To disable NetDMA, type 0 in the Value data box, and then click OK.

How to disable TOE and RSS in the Network Adapter Settings

For physical server the Settings on each NIC should also be disabled

• Open the Device Manager Control panel Applet from command line with

mmc devmgmt.msc

• Expand Network Adapters
• Right Click on the first network adapter and select Properties
• Switch to the Advanced Tab
  • Note : Not all the options below may be present for an adapter, they will depend on the adapter type but all possibilities have been listed here for completeness
• Locate Receive Side Scaling and set the Value to Disabled
• Locate TCP Offload Engine (TOE) and set the Value to Disabled
• Locate TCP/UDP/IP Checksum Offload (IPv4) and set the Value to Disabled
  • If this TCP/UDP/IP Checksum Offload (IPv4) property is present, it overrides and disables the TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4), UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4), and IPv4 Checksum Offload properties.
• Locate TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4) and set the Value to Disabled
• Locate TCP Checksum Offload (IPv6) and set the Value to Disabled
• Locate UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4) and set the Value to Disabled
• Locate UDP Checksum Offload (IPv6) and set the Value to Disabled
• Locate IPv4 Checksum Offload and set the Value to Disabled

• Now go back to the Network Adapters Applet and choose the next Network Adapter in the list and repeat the steps above, continue until you have completed all listed Network Adapters

[M00dY_Blanket]

Does anybody know if there is still a need to perform these actions on Windows Server 2008 R2, or is this old information relating to old limitations of Windows Server drivers or VMware ESXi versions?

I remember seeing a lot people doing this back when they were using VMware ESXi with E1000 or VMXNET3 and older ESXi where there were issues present.  However, since ESXi v 6.5 I thought all those issues were cleared up for VMXNET3.