Network Settings 1

[RenC]

We are currently in the process of setting up a dedicated gigabit Ethernet for our NetBackup environment. We have been having trouble with communication and seem to have it narrowed down to setting configuration. I am looking for some help on what is the recommended settings for the configurable parameters on our switches and nic cards. The following is the hardware that we have in our private network and the configurable parameters that we are trying to set:

Switch: Nortel 5510 10/100/100

Switch Configurable Parameters:

SPEED (10/100/100)
DUPLEX (HALF/FULL)
FLOW CONTROL (NONE/ASYMETRIC/SYMETRIC)

Windows 2000 Dell servers Gig-E cards: Broadcom gigabit 57xx series

Broadcom configurable Parameters:

Checksum Offload = none, Rx TCP/IP, Tx TCP/IP, Tx/Rx TCP/IP
Ethernet@WireSpeed =enable, disable
Flow Control =auto, disable, Rx Pause, Rx/Tx Pause, Tx Pause
Additonal questions with Flow Control:
off or disabled
TX on, RX off (is this Asymmetric?)
TX off, RX on (is this Asymmetric too?)
RX on, TX on (symmetric?)
Jumbo MTU =1500-9000
Speed & Duplex =auto,10/100 half/full duplex
Wake Up Capabilities =Both, Magic packet, None, Wake Up Frame
WOL Speed =Auto, 10mb, 100mb

Unix Systems:
HP-UX system Gig-E cards:HP C13COM
Sun Solaris Gig-E cards: Sun X1150A
IBM AIX Gig-E cards: IBM -14100401

Unix configurable paramaters:

Autonegotiate: ON/OFF
Transmit and Receive Flow Control Status: Enabled/Disabled
Media Speed:
10/100/1000
FULL DUPLEX/HALF DUPLEX

 

[PGPhantom]

For network settings:
Everything - NIC and Switch shoule be manually set at 100/full unless you are using Gigabit which is automatically full.
Flow control should be Rx/Tx on.
Checksum offload should be Rx/Tx.

 

[gbagby]

We are using Dell servers with Broadcom NetXtreme NIC's. We found that in certain cases that if the driver is not up to at the latest level (7.40 download from Dell) you may have client timeouts including clients going to blue screen, rebooting and other mysterious symptoms, mainly network disconnects. Once the clients were upgraded to the latest Broadcom driver all seems to smooth out. There is also a 7.43 driver level available on the Broadcom website. I recommend the Dell version (since you are running Dell servers).

Hope this helps.