R910 w/x520-2 10g SFP purple screen when SFPs are installed

[joshhills]

I have a Dell R910 with 1 intel x520-2 10g card. The card is installed and seen by ESX 4.1 as a regular nic until I install the SFPs(SFP+) and reboot. I get the purple screen of death. I get the same result on multiple systems. I tried first with the driver that ESX 4.1 installed and then tried the driver suggested to me by Dell.

HELP !

[DSTAVERT]

Make sure you have matched the driver with the firmware version of the card. Check and update all the host firmware to recommended levels. Try moving the card to a different slot. Disable any unused embedded components (serial ports, USB etc) to free up available interrupts. You may be able to set it to use a different interrupt if it shares with another busy device. Beyond that I would file an SR with VMware.

Forum Upgrade Notice - We will be upgrading VMware Communities systems between 10-12 December 2010. During this time, the system will be placed in READ-ONLY mode.

[AndreTheGiant]

Have you tried drivers from VMware site?

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_downloads/vmware_vsphere_4/4#drivers_tools

Andre

[joshhills]

No luck. I think I have the wrong SFPs

[AndreTheGiant]

Strange that you have wrong SFP modules.

When you attach them, do you see the link goes up?

Andre

[joshhills]

There is a green light when fiber is attached but I can't get vmware to see any port that has a SFP in it.

If I boot with the SFPs out I see 2 ports available on that card in VIM. If I boot with 1 SFP in I see 1 port only(the empty port). If I insert the second SFP at that point purple screen. I did update the drivers.

According to Intel , only intel SFPs will work in this card and I have Dell SFPs.

[AndreTheGiant]

I have Dell SFPs.

Could be... I've only tested them on a dual nic from Broadcom and in this case they works (vSphere 4.1).

Andre

[Aicon]

I have some of the same issue, but with R710's..

4 R710 ESXi hosts with X510-2 and Dell (0N743D) SFPs.

If I boot it with the SFPs attached, it don't show the IF. And if I try to hot plug the SFPs I get PSOD.

[joshhills]

I apologize for not following up.  I did replace the Dell SFPs with Intel SFPs and everything works now.