NetFlex3 VMs losing network connectivity and Emulex 10gb HP Blade servers

I was at a unrelated training course and just happened to mention to the tutor about having just moved from E1000 to Netflex 3 adapters due to dropped packet issues.

He said

“You know about the dropped packet issues in netfex 3 don’t you?

Err no?

“You know about the dropped packet issues in your HP Blade servers using 10GB Emulex adapters don’t you?

Err no?

So here are a couple of links if you are having issues with dropped packets.

The first is a known issue for windows 2008 R2 and is VMWare specific

Large packet loss at the guest OS level on the VMXNET3 vNIC in ESXi 5.x / 4.x (2039495)

The second is more concerning as it appears there has been issues with a bug in the Emulex firmware for more than a year. It is an issue on VMWare and Hyper-V

Just waiting on HP for updated drivers for HP BL460c Gen 8 blade servers.

The workaround is to disable the VMQ feature, which has a tad of a downside, “It is estimated that disabling VMQ will significantly reduce throughput going through the network adapter.”

Emulex driver and firmware update

Microsoft Windows 2012/2012 R2 Hyper-V VMs losing network connectivity: a workaround

Additional Background on the VMQ Issue with Emulex and HP

 

 

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