Poor send performance on DL380G5 with NC373i

[Suzanne Knott]

David, are you on a 2003 server -I know the commands are different for 2000 and 2003...
I just tried the command again at my console and it works...it simply returns an "ok" after you initiate the command.
You could also google 'command for disabling TOE' and you may get some alternatives....
If you get it to work can you let me know?
Thanks,

[DavidaPerry]

I am using Windows 2003 Server but what happened is that HP tech Support has me remove Service Pack 2 for a test and that still did not resolve my issues.

I just found out that SP2 has the Scalable Network Support package which includes TOE and TCP Chimney. That is why I cannot disable it. It is because it TCP Chimney does not exist on my Server. I will reinstall the Scalable Network support or SP2 on Monday and then try to disable it again. I will keep you posted.

[DavidaPerry]

I was able to disable TCP Chimney using the command line that you gave me. After I put back windows 2003 Server SP2.

BTW HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

also has a setting for TCPChimney

This did not solve my issue. What did solve it was another option called Receive side Sending It is in the same place in the registy:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

EnableRSS was set to a 1.

After I set it to a zero and rebooted my server HP GL 380 (G5) and this solved the issue.

Now I can map network drives to this server, view the contents of the mapped drive and it also appears that copying files is much faster.

[Jean-Denis CLOSSET]

Hi Suzanne

having a customer using BL460c with NFT teaming and TOE validated on the two NC373i integrated broadcom chipsets.
OS is W2K3 SP2.
Drivers from PSP 7.70.
Customer experiences incremental cpu load increase (process DPCs) when TOE is enabled. After a few hours network connections are lost. Everything OK when TOE is disabled.
Have you une update on the pbs with TOE ?
Is a fix available or is engineering working on these pbs?
thanking you in advance
regards
jean-denis closset

[CA1192176]

We have had huge issues with any HP servers witht he NC373i or TOE based chips. Any recent PSP enables the issues since the drives now turn TOE on by default. We disable TOE and it works fine. We have had escalated case open with support since early July 2007 with NO progress. HP is clearly no interested in fixing thiis, nor does their QA catch this. They keep telling me NOONE elese is having this issue, yeah right. Our case is 3218977400

[Suzanne Knott]

It's validating to see the last two posts as I also think that HP is not acknowledging this issue. We purchased our DL G5 as a main database server but had to take it out of service due to this issue. Even though TOE can be turned off it does come back on when applying patches etc so it is too unpredictable to trust. I am not going to put this server back into production as a database server so now our problem is what to do with a server that is overkill for any other network application needs. Our local vendor is working with HP to try and return/replace the server. I guess we just need to keep putting the issue forward and pressing HP to come up with a solution. I don't have any other info to report at this time. Obviously this is a wide spread issue. I am sending a copy of this posting to my local vendor as proof of this.

[Chad Jorstad]

I have a ML310 G3 do you know if the same problem existis. It seems to just pause every 20-40 seconds. Doesn't seem to matter if I am on the server or running an application over the network. The whole system just pauses for about 2-3 seconds then continues. During the pause, it doesn't keep track of any key strokes or anything. My server is running SBS2K3 and is the DC. The NIC is the NC320i.

Thanks for the forum, it seems I have tried everything you all have except the TOE solution.

[michael Stein]

We have encountered the same issue on our BL-460c G1 with HP NC373i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter. The send speed was 1/10th of the receive. The

"Netsh int ip set chimney DISABLED"

Fixed our problem. Suzanne Knott mentioned stability issues when running in the DISABLED mode. Can anyone elaborate on that?

[Suzanne Knott]

In regards to the second last post, I believe the issue is with the BroadCom Gigabit NIC and not the server model itself.
The last posting asked about the instability I referred to....Our server has not been put back into production as I don't feel like I can trust it's performance. While the TOE shell command successfully turns TOE off, we have seen it turned back on when updates are applied. That's one concern - that it may not stay off. Secondly, what type of functionality do we loose by turning TOE off. This offload engine was designed to take load off of the CPU - to enhance performance in particular for database servers. Does it make sense that we have to turn it off? Also, the OS (at least Server 2003 sp2) is designed to take advantage of TOE....so what happens with it off? I guess I have more questions about possible instability rather than proof....just a gut feeling which I have found quite reliable at times. I think it would make more sense if HP found a patch that would allow these Broadcom cards to take advantage of TOE or switch out the cards to another chip set.

[christophe iasci]

Hi,

I also had the pb. I just fixed it by applying the latest network card firmware and driver. (driver 3.4.10.0 B and fw 2.1.0.8)