VMware Cloud Community
smora
Contributor
Contributor

HP NC510F issue

Hi all,

We have 2 x HP Proliant DL380 G5 with vSphere 4.1 U1 installed working fine except for HP NC510F that it never sends TCP/IP traffic when it is assigned to any VM through a dedicated vSwitch. The following commands don't show any problem:

#esx-nics -l

PCI           Driver      Link Speed     Duplex MAC Address       MTU    Description Adapter

....

....

....

....

vmnic6  0000:18:00.00 nx_nic      Up   10000Mbps Full   00:17:a4:3e:3b:70 1500   NetXen Incorporated HP NC510F PCIe 10 Gigabit Server Adapter

#ethtool -i vmnic6


driver: nx_nic
version: 4.0.550.1-1vmw
firmware-version: 3.4.339
bus-info: 0000:18:00.0

No errors appear in the vmkernel log and the nx_nic can be download and load without problems. Do we have to upgrade the burned-in firmware or the host-based firmware is enough?

I have read all threads related to HP NC510F and this one:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1416169

tell us the problem is due to the type of the cable. Is it really correct? If so I think VMware had included that detail in it HCL, don't you?

Upsss! I forgot to mention these adapters work fine in Windows 2003 Server.

Any help will be welcome.

Reply
0 Kudos
5 Replies
smora
Contributor
Contributor

Has anyone had experience with this brand of adapters?

Thanks.

Reply
0 Kudos
smora
Contributor
Contributor

Please, any clue?

Reply
0 Kudos
dhallam56
Contributor
Contributor

I am having the exact same issue since we installed the NC510c last week in our DR Site. I have re-built it on the latest esx 4.1 update 1 and esxi as a test and still get the same results. I have tried it with the stock drivers on 4.1 and with the  vmware-esx-drivers-net-nx-nic_400.4.0.407-1.0.4.00000.213274 drivers and still get the same problems that no traffic will go through the card.

It displays the links and up and the speed is set correctally but if i move any virtuall machines onto this card they will not get dhcp or any lan traffic.

We currentally have a HPPN: 8121-0879 CX4 cable could this be the issue???

Not too sure as unless it is vmware that doesent like the cable as yesterday as a test i installed 2003 server on the HP ML370G5 server and the card worked perfectally on the current cable.

Any help or ideas would be appreacated as other that getting another cx4 cable to test (that also might not work) im not sure what else to try...

cheers

david hallam

Reply
0 Kudos
dhallam56
Contributor
Contributor

I had the same issue as above on the HP NC510C card running on vmware 4.1 update 1 and it has been driving me crazy.

today i thought i would sort it once and for all which i didn in the end. As it is only installed as the link to our DR site i could play so i reinstalled esx 4.1 update one 7 times using diffrent drivers for the Qlogic card from the vmware site and even the one included in 4.1.update1 which i think is 4.0.550.

All drivers did the same loaded fine but would not pass any traffic through the card, and i also noticed that in the vmware network config the network ip config was always none.

So after all the rebuilds i though shall we get an intel card, but i dont like being owned buy hardware so i thought i would try one last thing.... after all well worth a try i thought.

now some say that when the vmware driver loads up it also loads the firmware.. so dont bother updating the firwmware on the card WRONG...

After loads of messing around on Hp's site as their firmware upgrade is rubbish to say the least.. i thought lets go  to the people who made the card NextXen or now Qlogic..... so after some hunting i found the actuall car which is a  NXB-10GCX4 this is the copper Cx4 version which i have.

so i get the following firmware update

http://driverdownloads.qlogic.com/QLogicDriverDownloads_UI/SearchByProduct.aspx?ProductCategory=325&... ESX/ESXi

Which is an iso ...run update firmware .... reboot and ... my god Vmware and the NC510c is loaded and now working and passing data fine no issues.

so after all the driver changes and messing it seems that the firmware update from qlogic fixes this issue.

Not sure if this resolves the issue with the NC510F but with this being the same card apart from connection and same issues and their is an firmware upgrade for The Nc510F card too its worth a try..

Sorted it for me and now backing up finally onver 10Gb link..

smora
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks dhallam56. I don't know when I have a new opportunitty to test your solution but as soon as I do it I'll come back with the outcomes.

Reply
0 Kudos