NIC in DL 380 not Receiving

[texmansru47]

All,

I have a DL 380 G4 server that is a secondary node in a Microsoft Cluster Solution (MSCS) and the public NIC (NIC 1) is not responding to the outside world (my internal LAN network). I am transmitting but not receiving. The card shows no issue, Insight Manager shows no issues, but it cannot receive. This is a built-in NIC as you all know, what can I do to verify that the NIC is working, and can be corrected or is this a replacement needed to occur situation?

[Gus Kwong]

"I am transmitting but not receiving"

Can you describe a bit more on how you find this out?

[Connery]

Texmansru,
Have you verified that the switch port that the NIC is connected to is configured for the correct VLAN?

Does PerfMon show that you are receiving ANY frames (broadcast, multicast, etc.) on that NIC?

I ditto Gus's inquiry about how you know you are transmitting but not receiving.

Regards,
-sean

[texmansru47]

What is happening is the NIC is showing that packets are being sent outbound (transmit) however there is no traffic being Received (the value is 0). I did run PerfMon, and found the same activity, no packets are being received. On the Switch, yes the correct VLAN is setup for that NIC, and here is the what I see from the switch:

178683037 packets input, 967173288 bytes, 0 no buffer Received 4615 broadcasts (0 multicast) 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored 0 input packets with dribble condition detected 68297841 packets output, 2025779465 bytes, 0 underruns 0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier 0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

So there appears to be some traffic trying to hit the NIC, but the NIC does not seem to be responding or identifying the packets. I also updated the drivers to see if that would help... no it did not. I fear that I need to replace the NIC but this is a system board NIC, so not sure what that will create.

[Connery]

Have you tried configuring the NIC2 as the public NIC and moving the cable from the NIC 1 over? If the behavior is the same, then I would agree that the system board needs to be replaced.

If you are using NIC 2 as the cluster interconnect, just swap the functions of the two onboard NICs (NIC 1 is cluster interconnect and NIC 2 is public). Did problem follow NIC 1 or did it stay with the NIC providing the connection to the public network?

An alternative is to add a standup NIC to one of the PCI slots, configure it with the same IP address as NIC 1 and move NIC 1's cable to the standup NIC. Leave NIC 2 configured the way it is. If the standup NIC works fine (you can connect to the public network), then it looks like you need a new system board.

If you swap NICs or add a standup, make sure you use the same IP and same physical cable that's currently on NIC 1. This means you are only making one change - the NIC.

Regards,
-sean

[texmansru47]

I will try to swap the functions. The troubled NIC (NIC 1) is the public and it is the one with the issues. I will swap their functions and see if I can resolve the problem. I do not have a 10/100/1000 NIC to place in the PCI slots so this will be my only option right now.

Thanks,

[texmansru47]

I did the swap and got the same problem but just on the other NIC. This tells me that Microsoft is crazy in stating that in a MSCS that all public NICs talk to the LAN network... Does anyone have any experience on how I can get this NIC available to my LAn so I can change the password for the clsuter service on the secondary NIC? I have the procedures to do it, I just cannot get that server to see the LAN network to response to the account, since this account has to be a Domain account according to MS and they all (servers in the cluster) have to have the same account, I need this network connectivity to work.