NETDEV WATCHDOG: vswif0: transmit timed out + Broadcom BNX2 + ESX

[yaki5]

Today,

I struggle with a strange networking issue:

NETDEV WATCHDOG: vswif0: transmit timed out.

It caused by a faulty module - bnx2.

In order to somehow return it to online state the following commands must be used:

login to console:

vmkload_mod -u bnx2

vmkload_mod bnx2

This issue affects on Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 and maybe on other cards too

Regards,

Boris Mikhailovski

[amartin1]

I also had this same problem this morning with the Broadcom card. I lost my service console connection, but could still ping my VMkernel IP (SC and VMkernel are in vSwitch0). How is this possible ?

[jeffko]

This hit me too, and I have am using the tg3 driver. I have the Broadcom 5703 and 5704 cards. The strange thing that I can't figure out is that I have 2 NICs on each vswitch and it only affected vSwitch0 (which had my service console and 1 portgroup with vm's on it).

The posted fix worked great. We'll see if support has any ideas.

This took out my whole training farm at the exact same time. I sure hope this isn't some periodic bug that crops up again.

Jeff