09e1c06148
Documentation for the ixgbe driver in the kernel docs area is missing. This adds that documentation. Signed-off-by: Peter P Waskiewicz Jr <peter.p.waskiewicz.jr@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Jeff Kirsher <jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel.com> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
200 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
200 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
Linux Base Driver for 10 Gigabit PCI Express Intel(R) Network Connection
|
|
========================================================================
|
|
|
|
March 10, 2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contents
|
|
========
|
|
|
|
- In This Release
|
|
- Identifying Your Adapter
|
|
- Building and Installation
|
|
- Additional Configurations
|
|
- Support
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In This Release
|
|
===============
|
|
|
|
This file describes the ixgbe Linux Base Driver for the 10 Gigabit PCI
|
|
Express Intel(R) Network Connection. This driver includes support for
|
|
Itanium(R)2-based systems.
|
|
|
|
For questions related to hardware requirements, refer to the documentation
|
|
supplied with your 10 Gigabit adapter. All hardware requirements listed apply
|
|
to use with Linux.
|
|
|
|
The following features are available in this kernel:
|
|
- Native VLANs
|
|
- Channel Bonding (teaming)
|
|
- SNMP
|
|
- Generic Receive Offload
|
|
- Data Center Bridging
|
|
|
|
Channel Bonding documentation can be found in the Linux kernel source:
|
|
/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt
|
|
|
|
Ethtool, lspci, and ifconfig can be used to display device and driver
|
|
specific information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Identifying Your Adapter
|
|
========================
|
|
|
|
This driver supports devices based on the 82598 controller and the 82599
|
|
controller.
|
|
|
|
For specific information on identifying which adapter you have, please visit:
|
|
|
|
http://support.intel.com/support/network/sb/CS-008441.htm
|
|
|
|
|
|
Building and Installation
|
|
=========================
|
|
|
|
select m for "Intel(R) 10GbE PCI Express adapters support" located at:
|
|
Location:
|
|
-> Device Drivers
|
|
-> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
|
|
-> Ethernet (10000 Mbit) (NETDEV_10000 [=y])
|
|
|
|
1. make modules & make modules_install
|
|
|
|
2. Load the module:
|
|
|
|
# modprobe ixgbe
|
|
|
|
The insmod command can be used if the full
|
|
path to the driver module is specified. For example:
|
|
|
|
insmod /lib/modules/<KERNEL VERSION>/kernel/drivers/net/ixgbe/ixgbe.ko
|
|
|
|
With 2.6 based kernels also make sure that older ixgbe drivers are
|
|
removed from the kernel, before loading the new module:
|
|
|
|
rmmod ixgbe; modprobe ixgbe
|
|
|
|
3. Assign an IP address to the interface by entering the following, where
|
|
x is the interface number:
|
|
|
|
ifconfig ethx <IP_address>
|
|
|
|
4. Verify that the interface works. Enter the following, where <IP_address>
|
|
is the IP address for another machine on the same subnet as the interface
|
|
that is being tested:
|
|
|
|
ping <IP_address>
|
|
|
|
|
|
Additional Configurations
|
|
=========================
|
|
|
|
Viewing Link Messages
|
|
---------------------
|
|
Link messages will not be displayed to the console if the distribution is
|
|
restricting system messages. In order to see network driver link messages on
|
|
your console, set dmesg to eight by entering the following:
|
|
|
|
dmesg -n 8
|
|
|
|
NOTE: This setting is not saved across reboots.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jumbo Frames
|
|
------------
|
|
The driver supports Jumbo Frames for all adapters. Jumbo Frames support is
|
|
enabled by changing the MTU to a value larger than the default of 1500.
|
|
The maximum value for the MTU is 16110. Use the ifconfig command to
|
|
increase the MTU size. For example:
|
|
|
|
ifconfig ethx mtu 9000 up
|
|
|
|
The maximum MTU setting for Jumbo Frames is 16110. This value coincides
|
|
with the maximum Jumbo Frames size of 16128.
|
|
|
|
Generic Receive Offload, aka GRO
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
The driver supports the in-kernel software implementation of GRO. GRO has
|
|
shown that by coalescing Rx traffic into larger chunks of data, CPU
|
|
utilization can be significantly reduced when under large Rx load. GRO is an
|
|
evolution of the previously-used LRO interface. GRO is able to coalesce
|
|
other protocols besides TCP. It's also safe to use with configurations that
|
|
are problematic for LRO, namely bridging and iSCSI.
|
|
|
|
GRO is enabled by default in the driver. Future versions of ethtool will
|
|
support disabling and re-enabling GRO on the fly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Data Center Bridging, aka DCB
|
|
-----------------------------
|
|
|
|
DCB is a configuration Quality of Service implementation in hardware.
|
|
It uses the VLAN priority tag (802.1p) to filter traffic. That means
|
|
that there are 8 different priorities that traffic can be filtered into.
|
|
It also enables priority flow control which can limit or eliminate the
|
|
number of dropped packets during network stress. Bandwidth can be
|
|
allocated to each of these priorities, which is enforced at the hardware
|
|
level.
|
|
|
|
To enable DCB support in ixgbe, you must enable the DCB netlink layer to
|
|
allow the userspace tools (see below) to communicate with the driver.
|
|
This can be found in the kernel configuration here:
|
|
|
|
-> Networking support
|
|
-> Networking options
|
|
-> Data Center Bridging support
|
|
|
|
Once this is selected, DCB support must be selected for ixgbe. This can
|
|
be found here:
|
|
|
|
-> Device Drivers
|
|
-> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
|
|
-> Ethernet (10000 Mbit) (NETDEV_10000 [=y])
|
|
-> Intel(R) 10GbE PCI Express adapters support
|
|
-> Data Center Bridging (DCB) Support
|
|
|
|
After these options are selected, you must rebuild your kernel and your
|
|
modules.
|
|
|
|
In order to use DCB, userspace tools must be downloaded and installed.
|
|
The dcbd tools can be found at:
|
|
|
|
http://e1000.sf.net
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ethtool
|
|
-------
|
|
The driver utilizes the ethtool interface for driver configuration and
|
|
diagnostics, as well as displaying statistical information. Ethtool
|
|
version 3.0 or later is required for this functionality.
|
|
|
|
The latest release of ethtool can be found from
|
|
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gkernel.
|
|
|
|
|
|
NAPI
|
|
----
|
|
|
|
NAPI (Rx polling mode) is supported in the ixgbe driver. NAPI is enabled
|
|
by default in the driver.
|
|
|
|
See www.cyberus.ca/~hadi/usenix-paper.tgz for more information on NAPI.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Support
|
|
=======
|
|
|
|
For general information, go to the Intel support website at:
|
|
|
|
http://support.intel.com
|
|
|
|
or the Intel Wired Networking project hosted by Sourceforge at:
|
|
|
|
http://e1000.sourceforge.net
|
|
|
|
If an issue is identified with the released source code on the supported
|
|
kernel with a supported adapter, email the specific information related
|
|
to the issue to e1000-devel@lists.sf.net
|