OneConnect™
OCm11102-N-X,
OCm11102-I-X,
OCm11102-N-XI and
OCm10102-N-XI
Virtual Fabric Adapters
(CFFh) for IBM
BladeCenter
Release Notes for OneConnect SW Version 5.2.36
One Network.
One Company.
P007447-01A Rev. A Connect with Emulex.
OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page ii
Copyright © 2010-2011 Emulex. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this document may be reproduced by any
means or translated to any electronic medium without the prior written consent of Emulex.
Information furnished by Emulex is believed to be accurate and reliable. However, no responsibility is assumed by
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No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent, copyright or related rights of Emulex.
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MultiPulse, OneCommand, OneConnect, One Network. One Company., SBOD, SLI, and VEngine are trademarks of
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Emulex provides this manual "as is" without any warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not
limited to the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Emulex may make
improvements and changes to the product described in this manual at any time and without any notice. Emulex
assumes no responsibility for its use, nor for any infringements of patents or other rights of third parties that may
result. Periodic changes are made to information contained herein; although these changes will be incorporated into
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OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page iii
Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1
Product Overview .............................................................................................. 1
New Features .................................................................................................... 2
Supported Switches .......................................................................................... 2
Supported Network Switches ...................................................................... 2
Supported Storage Switches ....................................................................... 2
Supported Operating Systems and Versions ..................................................... 3
Updating the Firmware ............................................................................................ 3
vNIC Interface Names ............................................................................................. 4
Resolved Issues ...................................................................................................... 4
Known Issues .......................................................................................................... 4
Technical Tips.......................................................................................................... 6
OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page 1
Introduction
This document contains important information about the Emulex
®
OneConnect
™
OCm11102-N-X,
OCm11102-I-X, OCm11102-N-XI, and OCm10102-N-XI Virtual Fabric Adapters (VFA).
This document includes the following sections:
• Overview of the products.
• New features that were added to the products.
• Switches that support the VFAs.
• The various operating systems that support the VFAs.
• Pointer to the instructions for installing the OneConnect VFA software.
• Instructions for updating the Emulex OneConnect firmware.
• Information on how vNIC function numbers correlate to vNIC IDs on the switch.
• Resolved issues in this release.
• Known issues in this release.
• Technical tips.
Product Overview
The OCm11102-N-X, OCm11102-I-X, OCm11102-N-XI, and OCm10102-N-XI VFAs provide traditional
network interface card (NIC) functionality for a 10-gigabit (Gb/s) Enhanced Ethernet (EE) fabric.
Highlights of this release include:
• Support for the Emulex OneCommand Manager
™
application.
• Support for SOL (OCm11102-N-X and OCm11102-N-XI VFAs only).
• Dual port 10-Gb adapter supporting multiple virtual I/O functions.
• Virtual NIC: Physical ports can be divided into a maximum of eight virtual NICs per adapter with
bandwidth allocation in 100-MB increments. Each virtual NIC appears as an individual adapter
to the operating system.
• FCoE functionality
• Support for Boot from Network via iSCSI software or hardware initiator.
• Support for FCoE Boot from SAN.
• Support for hardware licensing.
• User documentation includes:
• OneCommand Manager Application User Manual: Describes how to use the
OneCommand Manager application.
• Firmware Update Manual: Provides a reference to Emulex applications that include
firmware update capability.
• Operating system—specific documentation: May include driver user manuals, quick
installation guides, and release notes.
Note: The driver versions listed in the operating system—specific documentation may not
match the driver versions provided for the VFA. If this is the case, any differences in
functionality are listed in the New Features section of the Emulex OneConnect
OCm10102-N-X, OCm11102-N-X, OCm10102-N-XI, and OCm11102-N-XI Virtual
Fabric Adapters (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes (this document).
OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page 2
• Emulex OneConnect OCm10102-N-X, OCm11102-N-X, OCm10102-N-XI, and
OCm11102-N-XI Virtual Fabric Adapters (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes
(this document).
• OneCommand NIC Teaming and VLAN Manager User Manual (for Windows only): Pro-
vides instructions for configuring NIC teaming functionality.
• Boot Manual: Provides instructions for UEFI boot.
New Features
• Serial over LAN support
• Switch-independent multichannel mode support
• Inner VLAN-ID (VLAN Tag) values for each vNIC function are supported
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 6 support
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 support
• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1 support
• FCoE support
Supported Switches
Supported Network Switches
• Virtual Fabric vNIC Switches
• BNT Virtual Fabric 10G Switch Module
• Physical NIC Switches
• IBM BNT Virtual Fabric 10G Switch Module
• QLogic 10Gb Ethernet Passthru Module
• 10Gb Ethernet Pass-Thru Module for IBM BladeCenter
• Cisco Nexus 4001 Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter
• Brocade Converged Networking Switch
Supported Storage Switches
• FCoE Virtual Fabric vNIC Switches
• IBM BNT Virtual Fabric 10G Switch Module with the QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension
Module
• iSCSI Virtual Fabric vNIC Switches
• IBM BNT Virtual Fabric 10G Switch Module
• iSCSI Physical NIC Switches
• IBM BNT Virtual Fabric 10G Switch Module
• 10Gb Ethernet Pass-Thru Module for IBM BladeCenter
• Cisco Nexus 4001 Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter
• Brocade Converged Networking Switch
Note: The Blade Network Technologies switch documentation is available at
http://www.bladenetwork.net/. The switch Application Guide and Command
Reference contains information on configuring the adapter.
OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page 3
Supported Operating Systems and Versions
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 5
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 6
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Update 7
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Update 1
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1
• VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0
• VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 3
• VMware ESX/ESXi 4.1 Update 2
• VMware vSphere 5.0
• Citrix XenServer 6.0
Updating the Firmware
• The Firmware Update Manual provides a reference to Emulex applications that include firmware
update capability.
• The Elxflash Offline/Online Utilities User Manual provides information about the Linux
ElxflashOffline NIC Kit, which you must use to perform firmware download to the inbox NIC
drivers on Red Hat operating systems.
Note: Windows and Linux operating systems are supported for x86 and x64 system
architectures.
OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page 4
vNIC Interface Names
When in vNIC mode, the VFA presents eight vNICs to the operating system or hypervisor (four for each
of the two physical NIC ports). Each vNIC is identified in the operating system or hypervisor with a
different vNIC function number (0-7). vNIC function numbers correlate to vNIC IDs on the switch as
follows:
Resolved Issues
See the driver, application, and firmware-specific release notes for resolved issues in this release.
Known Issues
1. To resolve an issue with the iSCSI driver released as part of the RHEL6.1 distribution kernel
(inbox version), a DUP ISO that includes an out-of-box iSCSI driver version is provided.
However, there is an issue when installing the out-of-box iSCSI DUP ISO during iSCSI boot on
the RHEL6.1 kernel, and which is due to a defect in the RHEL6.1 kernel's iSCSI boot code.
When you install RHEL6.1 to iSCSI boot code, even if you attempt to use the out-of-box iSCSIi
driver DUP ISO, the inbox driver version is loaded first which in turn prevents the out-of-box ver
-
sion from being loaded.
Workaround
During the RHEL6.1 boot media installation you must first prevent the inbox iSCSI driver from
loading by blacklisting it with the following command:
dd blacklist=be2iscsi
This means that any iSCSI module is blacklisted and is not loaded. To bypass this limitation, as
part of the workaround the device driver that is included in the DUP ISO has been renamed to
"beiscsi", to differentiate it from the standard "be2iscsi" which is part of the RHEL6.1 distribution.
Thus the driver module installed as part of the DUP ISO installation will be "beiscsi".
Table 1: vNIC ID Correlation
Virtual Fabric Adapter Virtual Fabric Switch Module
PCIe
Function
VFA Port Chassis Bay vNIC Pipe vNIC ID
0 0 HSSM 7 1 INTx.1
2 0 HSSM 7 2 INTx.2
4 0 HSSM 7 3 INTx.3
6 0 HSSM 7 4 INTx.4
1 1 HSSM 9 1 INTx.1
3 1 HSSM 9 2 INTx.2
5 1 HSSM 9 3 INTx.3
7 1 HSSM 9 4 INTx.4
OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page 5
To address the driver module name difference, you must subsequently install a later version
standard iSCSI driver which installs the "be2iscsi" driver binary RPMs. As part of the driver
binary RPM installation process, the previously installed "beiscsi" module will be removed, and
the previously blacklisted "be2iscsi" module name will be removed from the OS blacklist. As a
result the standard "be2iscsi" driver module will be installed and used.
If you must install a previous version (downgrade) from the "beiscsi" driver version immediately
after installing it via the DUP ISO process, it is highly recommended that before downgrading the
"beiscsi" driver, you first upgrade or overwrite (with the same driver version as the "beiscsi" one
included in the DUP ISO) using the driver binary RPMs. This way the RPM installation process
will properly restore the "be2iscsi" driver naming scheme as described above.
2. Advanced Mode* is not supported with some inbox NIC drivers for Linux and VMware. Enabling
Advanced Mode with certain inbox NIC drivers can cause system instability.
Affected inbox NIC drivers:
• RHEL 5.7 and RHEL 5.6
• RHEL 6.1 and RHEL 6.0
• SLES 11 SP1
• SLES 10 SP4 and SLES 10 SP3
• ESXi 5.0
• ESX 4.1
• Citrix XenServer 6.0
• Citrix XenServer 5.6 SP2
Affected adapters: 90Y3550, 90Y3569
Workaround
Before enabling Advanced Mode, update the inbox NIC driver to the latest IBM-supported driver
version identified on the IBM pages of the Emulex website.
*Advanced Mode is a new feature introduced in the 4.0.1062.0 firmware release. For more infor-
mation about Advanced Mode, see one of the following sections in the Boot Manual For Emulex
OneConnect Adapters:
• The "Advanced Mode Support" section under "Using the PXESelect Utility"
• The "Configuring Advanced Mode Support" section under "Using the Emulex NIC
Configuration Utility"
3. Contrary to the parameter default information provided in the Emulex Drivers for Windows User
Manual, TOE is enabled by default on Windows Server 2008 R2 for all IBM adapters.
4. If you purchase a hardware upgrade license for your OneConnect VFA, you must clear the
existing IQN data on the adapter by following the procedure in the "Erasing the Configuration"
section of the Boot Manual for Emulex OneConnect Adapters.
5. If you uninstall Emulex software for Windows operating systems, registry keys for the software
may still be present.
6. TCP connections are not offloaded to the NIC if multiple VLANs are created over a team; only
the TCP connections for the first VLAN are offloaded, and the remainder are left on the host.
There is no workaround at this time.
7. With Windows 2008, a legacy-mode iSCSI software initiator SAN installation may hang. This
issue is not observed with EFI-mode or hardware initiator configurations.
8. With Windows 2008, the blade may hang during boot when the iSCSI hardware initiator is
configured via DHCP and the DHCP server is offline. A reboot of the system when the DHCP
server is online will resolve this issue.
OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page 6
9. Excessive time and packet loss during failover has been observed on Windows 2003 systems.
10. Low throughput of network stress testing with vNIC enabled has been observed.
11. The 10Gb/s iSCSI VFA continually logs in and out of the array when trying to create a HWI
iSCSI session.
12. Even when vNIC is disabled, the universal converged network adapter (UCNA) requires a
'Virtual' port defined for use with Open Fabric Manager. When creating an initial configuration
with the Advanced Management Module's Open Fabric Manager utility, ensure 'Virtual NIC' is
checked in Advanced Options. With an Open Fabric Manager configuration file created in this
way, the UCNA uses the MAC addresses assigned to ports 5 and 7 as the type 'Virtual'. With
vNIC disabled, the MAC addresses assigned to vPorts 1 and 2 are used. With vNIC enabled, the
MAC addresses assigned to vPorts 1 through 8 are used.
13. The inner VLAN tag values are not cleared when vNIC mode is disabled. If a VLAN tag value
was assigned to any vNIC interfaces while vNIC was enabled, this may prevent traffic from
passing through the interface. To prevent this issue, ensure VLAN tags are removed from all
vNIC interfaces before disabling vNIC mode. This can be accomplished with the NIC
configuration utility within UEFI setup.
14. For OCm10102-series UCNAs, FIP Response packets must be VLAN tagged when the UCNA is
configured in vNIC mode. This can be easily achieved by enabling tagpvid on the corresponding
INT port. For simplicity, a similar configuration is recommended for OCm11102-series UCNAs.
Technical Tips
1. Windows uninstaller does not remove drivers and services.
After using the Windows 'Uninstall or change a program' feature to remove all the kit compo-
nents, the drivers remain on the system. A VFA adapter is configured with teams using the latest
elxocm-window’s driver kit. Without first removing the teams, the following software is unin
-
stalled from Control Panel > Uninstall a Program (uninstalled in the order listed):
• Emulex elxocm
• Emulex OCManager
• Emulex Common SAN Management
Uninstalling these utilities does not result in the removal of the related drivers and services. This
is working as designed.
2. Firmware version reported differently with FCoE personality enabled.
When the VFA has the FCoE personality enabled, the firmware version is displayed as
2.7xx.xxx.xxx in the UEFI setup utility and in the operating system (as reported by ethtool). By
design, FCoE firmware (2.7xx) is differentiated from NIC firmware (2.1xx) by the 7 and 1. If the
FCoE storage protocol is enabled and the VFA is being booted via PXE, the NIC version of the
firmware will be displayed in the PXE Select banner. This may be perceived as a cosmetic error,
but is actually working as designed.
3. Using the offline ISO firmware flash utility
The Emulex VFA (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter required a specific update during a previous
release to properly update the FPGA and configuration regions on the adapter. This update pro
-
cedure must be followed before updating to the latest firmware or issues are likely to occur. If an
OneConnect VFAs for IBM BladeCenter Release Notes Page 7
adapter is currently running a firmware revision below 2.101.411.7 or was updated to
2.101.411.7 or higher without following this procedure, the following steps should be performed:
a. From the Emulex website, locate the latest ISO firmware update image for this release.
It should be named OneConnect-Flash-2.103.397.3806.iso.
b. Either burn this image to a CD-ROM or mount the ISO with the Advanced Management
Module Remote Control feature.
c. Power on the server and boot the offline flash CD or Remote Control-mounted ISO. This
process loads an abridged version of the Linux operating system and mounts the CD-
ROM. Once the server completes the boot process, the Emulex banner appears with a
shell. The program may take some time to load completely.
d. When the program has finished loading, you are prompted to re-flash the firmware and
boot code image. Press Y then press Enter. The flash process takes approximately 10
minutes. The flash memory is first erased and then rewritten.
e. After upgrading the adapter with this offline flash method, all future firmware updates
may be performed with the online flash utilities provided.
4. Delayed write failure, Windows 03 DataCenter x64, iSCSI IBM DS3XXX, after controller reset
and iSCSI IBM DS3XXX controller firmware/NVSRAM download causes I/O fail in SLES11 and
RHEL5.
If you are connecting to an IBM DS3XXX iSCSI storage array and you encounter delayed write
failures or issues during controller firmware downloads, Emulex recommends that you change
the Extended TimeOut (ETO) value to 144. This is outlined in detail in the Emulex OneCommand
Application User Manual.
5. Unable to enable or disable legacy PXE boot on vNIC functions in PXESelect.
There is no option to enable or disable PXE booting on any of the vNIC interfaces from within
the PXESelect utility. This utility only allows enabling or disabling of the boot option for the two
physical ports. The UEFI menu lists PXE boot options for all eight interfaces (the two physical
interfaces as well as the six vNIC interfaces). Because legacy PXE booting is disabled by
default, there is no way to perform a legacy PXE boot on any interface other than the first two
functions. The uEFI Configuration Utility must be used to enable or disable PXE boot
functionality. The current functionality for this feature set is under review for a future release.
6. If a vLAN is assigned to a failover team, the assigned vLAN is not listed in the main GUI when
the team is expanded.
To view an assignment, select the desired team and click the vLAN button.
Note: The online flash method fails on the first attempt if the blade has not been re-seated
since updating the firmware with the offline flash ISO. If it fails, you can run the online
flash a second time and it should succeed.
/