Dell Broadcom NetXtreme Family of Adapters - Manual (Page 46)

VMware Driver Software: Broadcom NetXtreme II® Network Adapter User Guide
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The optional parameter qs_per_cos is used to specify the number of queues that will share the same CoS. This parameter is evaluated by the driver up to 3 values
of 8 bits each. Each byte sets the desired number of queues for that CoS. The total number of queues is limited by the hardware limit.
For example, set the qs_per_cos parameter to 0x10101 to create a total of three queues, one per CoS. In another example, set the qs_per_cos parameter to
0x404 to create a total of 8 queues, divided into only 2 CoS, 4 queues in each CoS.
cos_min_rate
The optional parameter cos_min_rate is used to determine the weight of each CoS for Round-robin scheduling in transmission. This parameter is evaluated by the
driver up to 3 values of 8 bits each. Each byte sets the desired weight for that CoS. The weight ranges from 0 to 100.
For example, set the cos_min_rate parameter to 0x101 for fair transmission rate between two CoS. In another example, set the cos_min_rate parameter to
0x30201 to give the higher CoS the higher rate of transmission. To avoid using the fairness algorithm, omit setting the optional parameter cos_min_rate or set it
to 0.
dropless_fc
The optional parameter dropless_fc can be used to enable a complementary flow control mechanism on Broadcom network adapters. The default flow control
mechanism is to send pause frames when the on-chip buffer (BRB) is reaching a certain level of occupancy. This is a performance targeted flow control mechanism.
On Broadcom network adapters, you can enable another flow control mechanism to send pause frames if one of the host buffers (when in RSS mode) is exhausted.
This is a "zero packet drop" targeted flow control mechanism.
Set the dropless_fc parameter to 1 as shown below to enable the dropless flow control mechanism feature on all Broadcom network adapters in the system.
vmkload_mod bnx2x dropless_fc=1
Driver Defaults
Speed: Autonegotiation with all speeds advertised
Flow Control: Autonegotiation with rx and tx advertised
MTU: 1500 (range 46–9000)
Rx Ring Size: 4078 (range 0–4078)
Tx Ring Size: 4078 (range (MAX_SKB_FRAGS+4) - 4078). MAX_SKB_FRAGS varies on different kernels and different architectures. On a 2.6 kernel for x86,
MAX_SKB_FRAGS is 18.
Coalesce RX Microseconds: 25 (range 0–3000)
Coalesce TX Microseconds: 50 (range 0–12288)
MSI-X: Enabled (if supported by 2.6 kernel)
TSO: Enabled
WoL: Disabled
Unloading and Removing Driver
To unload the driver, type the following:
vmkload_mod -u bnx2x
Driver Messages
The following are the most common sample messages that may be logged in the file /var/log/messages. Use dmesg -n <level> to control the level at which
messages will appear on the console. Most systems are set to level 6 by default. To see all messages, set the level higher.
Driver Sign On
Broadcom NetXtreme II 5771x 10Gigabit Ethernet Driver
bnx2x 0.40.15 ($DateTime: 2007/11/22 05:32:40 $)
NIC Detected
eth0: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM57710 XGb (A1)
PCI-E x8 2.5GHz found at mem e8800000, IRQ 16, node addr 001018360012
MSI-X Enabled Successfully
bnx2x: eth0: using MSI-X
Link Up and Speed Indication
bnx2x: eth0 NIC Link is Up, 10000 Mbps full duplex, receive & transmit flow control ON
Link Down Indication
bnx2x: eth0 NIC Link is Down
Memory Limitation
If you see messages in the log file that look like the following, then the ESX host is severely strained. To relieve this, disable NetQueue.
Dec 2 18:24:20 ESX4 vmkernel: 0:00:00:32.342 cpu2:4142)WARNING: Heap: 1435: Heap bnx2x already at its maximumSize. Cannot expand.
Dec 2 18:24:20 ESX4 vmkernel: 0:00:00:32.342 cpu2:4142)WARNING: Heap: 1645: Heap_Align(bnx2x, 4096/4096 bytes, 4096 align) failed.
caller: 0x41800187d654
Dec 2 18:24:20 ESX4 vmkernel: 0:00:00:32.342 cpu2:4142)WARNING: vmklinux26: alloc_pages: Out of memory
Disable NetQueue by manually loading the bnx2x vmkernel module via the command.
vmkload_mod bnx2x multi_mode=0