HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module for c-Class BladeSystem - Manual (Page 188)

Configuring the Virtual Connect domain using the CLI 188
immediately until an administrative action is taken. The administrative action involves resolving the loop
condition and clearing the loop protection error condition. The "loop detected" status on a port can be
cleared by one of the following administrative actions:
• Restart loop detection by issuing "reset" loop protection from the CLI or GUI.
• Unassign all networks from the port in "loop detected" state.
The SNMP agent supports trap generation when a loop condition is detected or cleared.
Virtual Connect provides the ability to enable or disable network loop protection. The feature is enabled by
default and applies to all VC-Enet modules in the domain. Network loops are detected and server ports can
be disabled even prior to any enclosure being imported.
A loop-protect reset command resets and restarts loop detection for all server ports in a “loop-detected” error
condition.
Configuring pause flood protection settings
To enable pause flood protection, use the set port-protect command:
set port-protect [-quiet] [networkLoop=<Enabled|Disabled>]
[pauseFlood=<Enabled|Disabled>]
To reset all ports disabled due to the port protection action, use the reset port-protect command:
>reset port-protect
Ethernet switch interfaces use pause frame based flow control mechanisms to control data flow. When a
pause frame is received on a flow control enabled interface, the transmit operation is stopped for the pause
duration specified in the pause frame. All other frames destined for this interface are queued up. If another
pause frame is received before the previous pause timer expires, the pause timer is refreshed to the new
pause duration value. If a steady stream of pause frames is received for extended periods of time, the transmit
queue for that interface continues to grow until all queuing resources are exhausted. This condition severely
impacts the switch operation on other interfaces. In addition, all protocol operations on the switch are
impacted because of the inability to transmit protocol frames. Both port pause and priority-based pause
frames can cause the same resource exhaustion condition.
VC provides the ability to monitor server downlink ports for pause flood conditions and take protective action
by disabling the port. The default polling interval is 10 seconds and is not customer configurable. VC
provides system logs and SNMP traps for events related to pause flood detection.
This feature operates at the physical port level. When a pause flood condition is detected on a Flex-10
physical port, all Flex-10 logical ports associated with physical ports are disabled.
When the pause flood protection feature is enabled, this feature detects pause flood conditions on server
downlink ports and disables the port. The port remains disabled until an administrative action is taken. The
administrative action involves the following steps:
1. Resolve the issue with the NIC on the server causing the continuous pause generation.
This might include updating the NIC firmware and device drivers. For information on firmware updates,
see the server support documentation.
Rebooting the server might not clear the pause flood condition if the cause of the pause flood condition
is in the NIC firmware. In this case, the server must be completely disconnected from the power source
to reset the NIC firmware. To perform a server reboot with power disconnection:
a. Shut down the server.
b. Log in to Onboard Administrator with Administrator privileges using the OA CLI.