Network Card transition 10MB -> 100MB

[jad]

we have a few machines/servers that don't like being disconnected from the 10MB hub to the 100MB switch some with Intel cards some with 3com cards.

since the switch will happily do 10MB/s or 100MB/s the machines should still work even if for some reason the cards would think that they are hardwired to the wrong speed.

rebooting the machine, reconfiguring and similar concepts do not fix this problem, the cards fail to convert to 100MB/s or even to talk at all on the switch.

we tried plugging them into a 100MB hub instead of the 10MB hub but they even failed to do that.

does anyone have any idea how to get these machines to talk 100MB ...

similarly we have some machines that once talking on the 100MB switch will not ever want to talk to a 10MB hub, i'm assuming the problems are related, and i'd love to know if they can be 'tweaked'

Jon

 

[daFranze]

please look at faq60-3981 (FAQ Button above), there is a section about how to set a NIC to a fixed speed....

in short:
You want to hardcode 100Full Duplex for hme0
#ndd –set /dev/hme instance 0
#ndd –set /dev/hme adv_100fdx_cap 1
#ndd –set /dev/hme adv_100hdx_cap 0
#ndd –set /dev/hme adv_10fdx_cap 0
#ndd –set /dev/hme adv_10hdx_cap 0
#ndd –set /dev/hme adv_autoneg_cap 0

create a /etc/rc2.d/S70ethernet and put these commands inside (chmod 755 the file!) to have the settings persistant (after reboot)

Best Regards, Franz
--
Solaris System Manager from Munich, Germany
I used to work for Sun Microsystems Support (EMEA) for 5 years

 

[daFranze]

there is another thread with the same problem! ;-)

Best Regards, Franz
--
Solaris System Manager from Munich, Germany
I used to work for Sun Microsystems Support (EMEA) for 5 years

 

[jad]

all the cards in all the machines are set up without 'tinkering' with the ndd stuff ... they're all auto-detect ...

i'd have assumed that powering the whole thing off, removing the cable, making sure that the card _doesn't_ remember any settings ... the card comes online (can see the light on the hub) and then as solaris boots (literally the second it starts, before the devices are configured) the light goes out and the link is unavailable.

i couldn't get any of the ndd commands to work previously.

 

[jad]

actually i didn't try using the 'instance' one ... i'll have to test it sometime ...

will report back

 

[daFranze]

the instance one is just to make sure you set hme0; if you want to set a hme1 you just set instance to 1 and set the speed and mode as you like.

maybe you have to change /dev/hme to another name; the Ethernet Cards in a SunFire are called /dev/eri

Best Regards, Franz
--
Solaris System Manager from Munich, Germany
I used to work for Sun Microsystems Support (EMEA) for 5 years

 

[jad]

it'd explain 1 of the situations ... with 2 intel cards in it ... but all the machines were set to autoneg ... so it's a little odd that it doesn't seem to change.

i'm using x86 solaris, but i'm assuming that it'd be similar ...

biggest trouble for me is that our machines are NIS+, and won't boot (except in single user) if no network is available, and at that point no users exist on it, so my scripts aren't available either

could be i mistyped something ...

 

[daFranze]

I have no experience in Solaris x86 but, as you sayed, it will be similar...

Best Regards, Franz
--
Solaris System Manager from Munich, Germany
I used to work for Sun Microsystems Support (EMEA) for 5 years

 

[jad]

I cannot ndd /dev/iprb ... so the x86 isn't equivalent to the sparc interface for communicating with the auto_neg property.

in fact if i ndd everything in the /dev/directory i fail to find any auto_neg properties ...

anybody got any idea?

 

[jad]

hmm ... ok ...

on x86 you need to modify the .conf files in /kernel/drv

the elx and elxl devices are fairly straight forward, having all the options in them commented out.

the iprb driver you need to look at the man page for iprb ... (yeah i know that i should have RTFM before posting

ForceSpeedDuplex= (in reverse order)
5) Auto-negotiate
4) 100 FDX
3) 100 HDX
2) 10 FDX
1) 10 HDX

Intel (iprb) devices at least allow :
ForceSpeedDuplex=5,4,5,2
setting iprb0 = 5, iprb1 = 4, iprb2 = 5, iprb3 - 2 (if i had that many

 

[telcomwork]

What's the command to determine if the NIC is set to auto-negotiate?

 

[jad]

on x86 hardware, i don't believe there is one.

finally got around to moving the server to 100Mb on monday evening, and couldn't get it to move at all, even with tweaking the file and a large number of reboots ...

what fixed it was sticking in a second card at the same time as the original reconfiguring and then setting the new card to be the originals IP by moving /etc/hostname.iprb0 to /etc/hostname.iprb1 ...

can't be bothered to get the old card out, especially if it only wants to work at 100Mb.