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Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

 
N4M-Jasper
Occasional Visitor

VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

We are running a VSA 2014 on a Windows 2012 Hyper-V server (not the R2 version).

With a clean install of the VSA we are unable to configure the network speed, duplex, frame size settings.

The hardware server has an Intel X540-AT2 10Gb 2-port controller. With the latest intel drivers (v18.7 09/27/2013).

The 2x 10Gb ports are teamed using the intel driver.

The VSA is running on 11.0.00.1263.0 with patches 40001 and 40002

Windows is installed using the X18-27588 iso, no patches installed.

 

When using the CMC and on the console of the VSA we get the same error message:

"Cannot change speed, duplex, NIC flow control, or frame size because this storage system does not provide support for those settings."

 

We currently have multiple 10.5 servers and are preparing to move over to 11.0.

As our current infrastructure is using Jumbo Frames and the new 11.0 nodes cannot be configured to use them, they are rather unusable... 

 

If anyone knows a workaround it would be greatly appreciated.

9 REPLIES 9
a_o
Valued Contributor

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

Those settings can't be changed in a VSA. They're only applicable to hardware NSMs.

However, the settings in the underlying hardware would be used.
So for instance, you would have presented a Teamed or Bonded NIC to HyperV. All the settings in the Intel Teaming configuration will be used.

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

what a_o said should be correct.  The VSA is supposed to just pass on network traffic along the virtual network card and it assumes the physical NICs settings so that is why the settings aren't editable through CMC.

 

That said... I've moved to v11 and was verifying everything and I"ve noticed that if I run a jumbo pring w/ the don't fragment flag, I do NOT get a return ping which makes me thing jumbo frames is not working even through it should be.  I can ping a different VM on the same host on the same vswitch and I can do a jumbo ping without a problem.

 

I'm a bit busy to contact support now, but I might later.  Has anyone tested and verified jumbo frames w/ hyper-v?

N4M-Jasper
Occasional Visitor

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

These settings could be set on a VSA running on Lefthand OS 10.5 and older.

Our current infrastructure (hardware and virtual nodes) is fully configured to use jumbo frames.

While a teamed Intel NIC can be used in Hyper-V as the interface for a VSA, the VSA will not respond to jumbo frames unless configured to use them, even if the host system is configured to use them.

The functionality of the underlying hardware is reflected on the VSA, not the configured settings.

So in this case the VSA has virtual NICs that support jumbo frames, they just can't be configured to use them. They are just dropped.

After a lengthy support phone call with multiple Lefthand engineers, they came to the conclusion that this is a design decision. In my opinion a very bad one. As this lowers the performance of the system greatly.

If you need jumbo frames on a VSA you need to run 10.5 or older as 11.0 does not support this setup anymore.

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

Jasper, thanks for the info.  That really is annoying.  I'll be contacting support to ask them about that as well and if they confirm I"ll let them know how I feel about that one.

a_o
Valued Contributor

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

I'll be interested in finding out also.

 

AFAIK, VSAs have never supported these features.
I'm looking at 10.5 and 9.5 based VSAs that have those features greyed out (Frame size and NIC flow control).

It even says so in the manuals for as far back as 2009 that I'd downloaded, and in all the help files.
The closest thing to be able to do this that my ESXi based VSAs allow for a choice of between 1Gbit and 10Gbit.

HyperV VSAs don't even give this choice.

 

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

the manuals said it is not configurable through CMC, but that it simply follows the physical settings of the physical cards so if you have flow control or jumbo frames enabled on the network card the VSA will then apply those same features.

N4M-Jasper
Occasional Visitor

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

I made a screenshot of our current 10.5 hyper-v nodes.

The VSA have been configured to use Jumbo Frames.

This option is available on both the CMC and the console of the VSA.

 

If it is not configured, the VSA will not respond to large packets, regardless of settings on the underlying hardware.

 

We have VSA nodes running on versions going back to 8.5.

They all have these options available except for the new 11.0 nodes.

The option is never greyed out. It just gives a popup error message when selected on 11.0.

cgracie
Visitor

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

This is a huge issue. We have successfully used Jumbo frames with the VSA version 10.5 with no problems. We are now building our first clusters using Hyper-V 2012 R2 so are installing new VSA 2014 and now we find this out?? What is HP thinking by dropping this without any indication or warning. This really cripples the VSA just when they have started pushing to make it a more visible solution.

 

They need to put Jumbo frames back for the VSA ASAP!

hal9
New Member

Re: VSA 2014 (Hyper-V 2012) No network settings

Yes, our VSA uses jumbo frames from underlying settings on the vmware hosts. Ping with -f -l xxxx gets a reply, but CMC now reports a frame size mismatch in management group. There is non just the content of that text box is different. And you can not do anything against it, because there is no possibility to change the setting from "default" to anything else. So currently we have to life with that warning.

 

HP is there any chance to get a fix? Why was the possibility to change it depreciated? And why is a mismatch reported when there is non. Default is not custom, but frame sizes are identical!