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dominic7
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

10G ServerEngine adapters, slow PXE booting

So I've got a relatively large footprint on HP BL480C G6/G7's that use the Emulex ServerEngine/BladeEngine 10G adapters ( be2net driver ). They're *painfully* slow to PXE boot and I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I'm pxebooting them wtih debian and syslinux/pxelinux. Once the servers are up, they operate normally ( 10G ) and if I create a virtualized ESXi instance on one of the blades it PXE boots/installs quickly ( a few minutes for the entire process ).

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peetz
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Same here. We have developed an automatic ESXi installation for BL620c G7 blades based on PXE boot.

They use the same Emulex adapters and are also painfully slow with tftp loading at PXE boot.

Maybe a firmware update of the NICs might help. I have not yet tried that. The most current version is available as a bootable ISO file at HP.


Andreas

- VMware Front Experience Blog

Twitter: @VFrontDe, @ESXiPatches | https://esxi-patches.v-front.de | https://vibsdepot.v-front.de
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dominic7
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I guess I failed to mention the BIOS portion of it. I have a range of different BIOSes out there on the cards that all exhibit the same problem. For the most part I have been working with the newest BIOS that is available ( 3.104.281.0 ) which doesn't resolve the issue of slow PXE booting.

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dominic7
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Just to cirlce back around, the problem is in the firmware of the OneConnect/ServerEngine/BladeEngine adapters. Moving to firmware 4.0.265.0 improved the PXE booting/installing speed bya  factor of 1000x.

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peetz
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Dominic,

thanks for the info. Where can I find this updated firmware? I haven't seen anything at hp.com?!

Andreas

- VMware Front Experience Blog

Twitter: @VFrontDe, @ESXiPatches | https://esxi-patches.v-front.de | https://vibsdepot.v-front.de
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dominic7
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It's not publicly available yet. My sources say that it will be released with the next update wave after ESXi5 is released ( a few weeks after ). You may be able to beat on your spport rep enough to let you have it.

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dominic7
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The firmware is publicly available today:

OneConnect-Flash-4.0.348.0.iso

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