Network errors

[Ramesh Donti]

Hi,
I am managing one of K370/4 with HP-PB 100Base-T card configured to 100Mbps, full duplex, Auto-negotiation off.
I am getting very frequent error messages on IT/O console saying about
"Network error is greater than 20 per minute". (I increased the alarm level from default level of 10 to 20 in alarmdef file).
We replaced LAN card, cable, switch port and installed all new patches for LAN & HP-PB 100Base-T card, but no improvement.
This system is heavily loaded interms of network, but still we are not utilising anything more than 2.5Mbytes/sec bandwidth. If I am right, we should get somewhere around 5Mbytes/sec bandwidth with these 100Base-T cards.

Does anyone have any idea about what I am going through?

[Alan Riggs]

Yep.

It gets worse with multiple NICs, too. The alarms you are seeing are generated from measurewear. Since you have already found the alarmdef file, I presume you know this. What you may not know is that the default values are designed for a 10base-T, half-duplex card (as near as I can figure). They will alarm FAR more often than necessary. The only way I have been abl to find to tune the alarms to the level I want is through trial-and-error, but my own experience is that you will have to do MUCH MORE than double the defaults. These are the settings I am running with--they may or may not be a helpful jumping off point for you:

rule GBL_NFS_CALL_RATE > 500 prob 25
rule GBL_NET_COLLISION_PCT > 10 prob 10
rule GBL_NET_COLLISION_PCT > 25 prob 20
rule GBL_NET_COLLISION_PCT > 50 prob 30
rule GBL_NET_PACKET_RATE > 500 prob 10
rule GBL_NET_PACKET_RATE > 1000 prob 15
rule GBL_NET_PACKET_RATE > 3000 prob 20
rule GBL_NET_PACKET_RATE > 5000 prob 25
rule GBL_NET_PACKET_RATE > 9000 prob 25

[Philip Chan_1]

I've heard and experienced myself that full duplex is no good for a network to perform consistently well. Check with your network guys, see if they would suggest for half duplex, if they say so then you should fix your machine at half duplex mode and see.