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jedijeff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Anyone using Emulex OCe10102 with ESXi 5.5?

So these older 10Gbit adapters will not work with the Aysnc ELXNET driver. Apparently only the legacy BE2NET works. I have some OCe11xxx as well and those work fine.

However what is odd is the the VMware HCL says these cards are supposed to work with ELXNET using elxnet version 10.2.298.5 which I have and Firmware version 4.9.416.2.

The firmware is where is gets weird because on Emulex site the jump from 4.4xxx to 10.0.803.37. I cannot find 4.9 anywhere!

An emulex engineer I spoke too said these OCe10102 cards are no longer supported and will not use ELXNET so you have to use BE2NET as they are not modifying firmware anymore. However after I spoke to him is when I discovered this mystery firmware on the HCL page.

So I was curious on the off chance if anyone is in the same boat as I am.

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MKguy
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

The firmware is where is gets weird because on Emulex site the jump from 4.4xxx to 10.0.803.37. I cannot find 4.9 anywhere!

That's because you don't have a CNA from Emulex directly, but a HP-branded (probably the NC551i/m or NC550, but you should confirm that) model using that OCe10102 chip by Emulex.

Emulex, as well as OEMs like HP, Dell etc. manage their own firmware releases for their own models independently.

The latest firmware from HP for be2net based CNAs is 4.9.416.2

http://www.hp.com/swpublishing/MTX-b0c60f70c3be4681ae00ccfe17

The latest Emulex elxnet driver version for the ethernet network role on ESXi 5.5 is elxnet-10.2.298.5-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820.x86_64.vib:

http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/sep2014/esxi-550-devicedrivers/VMW-ESX-5.5.0-elxnet-10.2.298.5-1886030.z...

The latest Emulex lpfc driver version for the hardware FCoE initiator role on ESXi 5.5 is lpfc-10.2.298.12-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820:

http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/sep2014/esxi-550-devicedrivers/VMW-ESX-5.5.0-lpfc-10.2.298.12-1894091.zi...

The latest Emulex be2iscsi version for the hardware iSCSI initiator role on ESXi 5.5 is scsi-be2iscsi_10.2.250.0-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820:

http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/sep2014/esxi-550-devicedrivers/be2iscsi-10.2.250.0-1813234.zip

The firmware is where is gets weird because on Emulex site the jump from 4.4xxx to 10.0.803.37. I cannot find 4.9 anywhere!

10.x is the versioning used on be3net based CNAs. The firmware package I linked above updates HP-branded be3net-based CNAs to 10.2.340.19. However, this is irrelevant as you have a be2net based CNA.

An emulex engineer I spoke too said these OCe10102 cards are no longer supported and will not use ELXNET so you have to use BE2NET as they are not modifying firmware anymore. However after I spoke to him is when I discovered this mystery firmware on the HCL page.

Emulex' support statement is mostly irrelevant because your CNA is from a different vendor.

Others here have reported issues with the elxnet driver as well and switched to be2net in the end, you should engage HP or VMware support for a clear statement.

Vsphere 5.5 and Emulex OneConnect 10Gb NIC trouble

Also read the following articles one recommends using an older elxnet driver 10.0.575.7 :

VMware KB: When using the Flex NIC option in Virtual Connect, only 4 of 8 Flex ports are functional ...

VMware KB: Emulex OneConnect network cards missing with elxnet driver 10.0.725.2 and later in ESXi 5...

-- http://alpacapowered.wordpress.com
jedijeff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

TThank you for the extensive post.  It is actually a card in an IBM system X box. So it is IBM branded. And the IBM firmware goes up to 4.6x I believe. Getting the VID info from vmkchdev confirms it is an IBM virtual fabric adapter. Based on the oce10102.

so basically the same emulex card if bought from IBM wont work with asynch Drivers. But bought from hp it will? Crazy.

I Really wanted to run elxnet through be2net has been very stable for me under 5.1

and I have in the past mistakeenly applied pure emulex firmware to these cards as opposed to older firmware from ibm site. And it wolves fine.

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kumarlakshman_k
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Jedifeff,

you can use 4.6.142.10 firmware from Previous Releases or 4.9.461.2 firmware pointed by MKguy anything is fine. coming to OCe10102 with elxnet it will work fine with any 10.0.* elxnet version.

Let me know if you face any issue i will test the same combination in house.

Thanks & Regards,

Lakshman

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kumarlakshman_k
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Jedijeff,

Emulex driver/firmware model is independent of Hardware vendor, you can flash the firmware from HP site as well.

Thanks & Regards,

Lakshman

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jedijeff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I do have issues. When I use elxnet(the latest 10.x driver) vm networking does not work.  We used tagged Vlans in port groups. I have tried the latest IBM firmware 4.6x and the lateat emulex firmware 10.0. Still no vm networking. If I load the be2net driver instead of elxnet it works. Either on the 4.6 or 10.0 firmware.

i have another group of system x IBM boxes that have the oce11002 instead of this oce10102 and they work fine with elxnet. its strange because eBen the emulex pdf documentatoon on their 5.5 driver says the 4.x firmware should work with Elxnet. all our Vlans are tagged so I can't try untag. very confusing.

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jedijeff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I Hear a lot of different answers regarding whose vendor firmware to use from both IBM and emulex. everyone there has different opinions Smiley Happy

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jedijeff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

So I downgraded the ELXNET driver from 10.2.298.5-1 to 10.0.575.9 and it worked. That driver was the one listed on the Emulex OEM page which pointed to the Vmware third party page. I stuck with using the latest firmware for the IBM branded adapter which is 4.6.281.26.

That later ELXNET driver was released in the VMware non-critical patch channel. Maybe something is wrong with that? However that driver does work with the IBM branded OCe11002 cards, just not these OCe10102 cards.

Still a bit confused.

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jedijeff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I got this all worked out. Apparently according to the IBM OEM page you have to downgrade from the latest ELXNET. IBM Virtual Fabric2 adapters(OCe10102) have actually been withdrawn from IBM. So whether that means they are stopping development which is why you have to downgrade to ELXNET, I do not know.

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dsohayda
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks a ton for this post! one of my HP blades refused to run the support pack for proliant disc and I've been searching for the HP OCe10102 firmware for a while. Thank you!

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jedijeff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

http://www.emulex.com/downloads/oem-qualified/hp/

Try to look here. I am not sure if HP has the matrix that IBM does for their OEM adapters. But once I downgraded ELXNET to what IBM said you needed, it all worked.

So I basically disabled the non-critical patches in VUM from updating my hosts, which is where this new ELXNET came from. I will simply do this manually from now on.

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