IBM HS23 and HS23e network freeze during high traffic(600mbps peak)

[KobrAs]

Hi there,

We use VMware essentials in our development cluster with two IBM HS23 and one IBM HS23e. During high traffic(600mbps peak) any of the server freeze and needs manual rebooting to come back online.

In this time the console works, I can try to restart the management network but the network card appears disconnected, and the only fix is reboot.

As IBM HS23 has 4 network cards, two 10G and two 1G, we are using just one of the 1G network card(we didn't yet configured the secondary 1G network card) but IBM HS23e has just two 1G network cards and the problem is similar.

We did manage to replicate this issue using iperf.

Please see attached images.

[KobrAs]

And the images

[KobrAs]

Hi there,

The problem still exist, we did flash upgrade and driver upgrade.

Please see attached screenshot, anyone have ideas?

[MikeStoica]

What ESXi version are you running?

[KobrAs]

At this moment we run ESXi 6.5u2 as we have 2 HS22 that need to be replaces and we can upgrade to 6.7.

We have latest firmware from lenovo and latest driver.

The only thing we could not accomplish is the replication of the problem.

esxcli network nic get -n vmnic2

   Advertised Auto Negotiation: false

   Advertised Link Modes: 1000None/Full

   Auto Negotiation: false

   Cable Type: Twisted Pair

   Current Message Level: 4631

   Driver Info:

         Bus Info: 0000:16:00:4

         Driver: elxnet

         Firmware Version: 11.2.1193.93

         Version: 12.0.1216.4

   Link Detected: true

   Link Status: Up

   Name: vmnic2

   PHYAddress: 2

   Pause Autonegotiate: true

   Pause RX: true

   Pause TX: false

   Supported Ports: TP

   Supports Auto Negotiation: false

   Supports Pause: true

   Supports Wakeon: true

   Transceiver: external

   Virtual Address: 00:50:56:51:f5:e0

   Wakeon: MagicPacket(tm)

[MikeStoica]

You have the issue on both of them? HS23e it's not on VMware HCL VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

[KobrAs]

Ignore the HS23e, it was a mistake, that server does not have the issues described.

They only affect HS23.