Rx Errors on vmnic of ESXi

[dima_r]

We have some input errors on vmnic. Can somebody explain what is it (type of error, reason)? THX.

[root@server:~] esxcli network nic stats get -n vmnic0

NIC statistics for vmnic0

   Packets received: 107322202

   Packets sent: 488867

   Bytes received: 10168504351

   Bytes sent: 84602982

   Receive packets dropped: 0

   Transmit packets dropped: 0

   Multicast packets received: 7564403

   Broadcast packets received: 0

   Multicast packets sent: 0

   Broadcast packets sent: 0

   Total receive errors: 104669

   Receive length errors: 0

   Receive over errors: 0

   Receive CRC errors: 0

   Receive frame errors: 0

   Receive FIFO errors: 0

   Receive missed errors: 0

   Total transmit errors: 0

   Transmit aborted errors: 0

   Transmit carrier errors: 0

   Transmit FIFO errors: 0

   Transmit heartbeat errors: 0

   Transmit window errors: 0

[root@server:~] esxcli network nic get -n vmnic0

   Advertised Auto Negotiation: true

   Advertised Link Modes: 1000BaseKR2/Full, 10000BaseKR2/Full, 20000BaseKR2/Full, Auto

   Auto Negotiation: false

   Cable Type:

   Current Message Level: 4631

   Driver Info:

         Bus Info: 0000:06:00:0

         Driver: elxnet

         Firmware Version: 12.0.1216.0

         Version: 12.0.1115.0

   Link Detected: true

   Link Status: Up

   Name: vmnic0

   PHYAddress: 0

   Pause Autonegotiate: true

   Pause RX: false

   Pause TX: false

   Supported Ports:

   Supports Auto Negotiation: true

   Supports Pause: true

   Supports Wakeon: true

   Transceiver: external

   Virtual Address: 00:50:56:5c:72:4d

   Wakeon: MagicPacket(tm)

[NathanosBlightc · Accepted solution]

Hi

There is many reason for network packets errors include:

• Checksum errors
• Header corruption
• Buffer overflow or other buffering problem
• TOE errors

And any other corrupted packets ... I think all of them are also included in this counting

[dima_r]

Is it possible to catch these types of errors with pktcap-uw utility?

[NathanosBlightc]

I am not really sure you can do it for a VMNIC because I think it's possible to do only for VMKernel interfaces. But try with tcpdump-uw in the shell access (or SSH session) and export capture packets in a file (by following command) and open it in a tools like Wireshark. Maybe you can find something related. (I can't remind a syntax of tcpdump about  capturing errors, discards or bad packets.)

# tcpdump-uw -i vmk0 -w /var/tmp/export.pcap

[NathanosBlightc]

Because you mentioned pktcap-uw also try this one:

# pktcap-uw --uplink vmnic0 -o /var/tmp/export.pcap

Then sort and analyze packets with wireshark to find out what you want