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I'm troubleshooting VMware ESXi host network and connectivity issues stemming from the use of Intel NICs who require the igb driver.

The chipset is Intel Corporation 82576.

VMware has a few documented issues with these cards, and the driver included in the ESXi image is woefully out-of-date (v2.1.11.1 vs v4.2.16.3). A much newer driver is available, but it's not provided via the normal update process or maintenance releases. I'm not quite sure why it's not bundled with ESXi's updates.

This makes me think that igb cards are not that common or may be a bad/poorly-supported choice for this application.

Where do these cards fit within Intel's NIC hierarchy? Am I missing something obvious about the class of these cards? Are they regarded as low-end? I've seen other issues reported online...

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ewwhite
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  • What's the specific model of the card you are having problems with? It could be that you are using the desktop model instead of the server model. – Epaphus Sep 09 '13 at 22:57
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    VMware reports `Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection` - I don't have the actual part number handy. – ewwhite Sep 09 '13 at 23:01

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According to this link: http://www.intel.com/support/network/adapter/pro100/sb/CS-032498.htm

These are server based nic's. Having said that, some desktop systems use the the igb driver as well. The 82576 is hardly aimed at desktop use. It's stated to be for dual port NICs and virtualization. What NIC model/chipset do you have?

Edit: You've stated you have the 82576.

The Intel 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Controller provides high- performance dual-port gigabit connectivity in a multi-core platform as well as in a virtualized platform. In a multi-core platform it supports different technologies including Intel® QuickData Technology, MSI-X, Low Latency Interrupts and others, that help accelerate the data across the platform thereby improving application response times. In a virtualized environment it supports Intel® Virtualization Technology1 for Connectivity that helps improve the I/O performance by reducing the I/O overhead on a virtualized platform.

I'd expect better. I think the problem is likely the igb driver. Especially if you don't see issues with these cards/nic chipsets under windows.

I suspect he reason the driver is so terribly old is that it's tied to an the kernel version that ESXi is based on. It would be a similar story to XenServer. Even the latest version of XenServer is using a 2.6 series and a distro based on Centos 5.6. It's horrendously old but well tested. There's a good bet this is the reason.

XenServer provide a DDK to allow you to insert other kernel drivers. Do VMWare provide the same sort of facility?

Perhaps the update provided by VMWare may not be available in the normal update channel because it's not been thoroughly tested? After all, what they are providing is a backport of the driver to the specific kernel they are running with ESXi.

Reading through some of the release notes of the igb driver and there were numberous bug fixes. Some of them affecting performance. Some fixing broken features. Some enabling features that are turned off by default.

By the way, in answering "How common are intel igb NIC vs e1000 etc? Very common. I've even seen them on some reasonable desktop motherboards.

hookenz
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  • VMware linked me to another driver, but it was clearly marked as an OEM driver once installed: `net-igb 4.2.16.3-1OEM.500.0.0.472560`. It's been fine, though. – ewwhite Sep 09 '13 at 23:07
  • So using that new driver is OK? no performance issues? – hookenz Sep 09 '13 at 23:08
  • I need to give it another week or two... – ewwhite Sep 09 '13 at 23:08
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    http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000/files/igb%20stable/ Latest release seems to be 5.0.5. Numerous changes between the latest and the 2.11.1 version – hookenz Sep 09 '13 at 23:17
  • The xen server I have next to me is also using igb. Different chipset than yours. It's using 3.2.10. In addition the e1000e module is also loaded. There are 4 NIC ports 2 of them are a different chipsets. I've not had any performance issues related to any of the NIC's so far. – hookenz Sep 09 '13 at 23:23