Emulex OneConnect OCm11102-N-X Information

Brand: Emulex

Model: OneConnect OCm11102-N-X

Type: Information

This manual is also suitable for

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

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Emulex for its use; or for any infringements of patents or other rights of third parties which may result from its use.

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

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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.

Emulex OneConnect OCm11102-N-X Information

Brand: Emulex

Model: OneConnect OCm11102-N-X

Type: Information

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