DellR710 + RedHatAS5.4X64 NIC Driver Upgrade

The most strange problem ever occurred. If it wasn't a friend's prompt, I would have to spend more than half a day searching for the original. The operating system used by their company DellR710 is RedHatAs5.3X64, and the network will be disconnected without reason .... And there is no rule, and the day is broken... After a long time, I thought it was a problem with the data center and finally called Dell for repair. Their engineers immediately responded. This is BroadcomNetXtremeIIBCM57 in RedHatAs5.X.

The most strange problem ever occurred. If it wasn't a friend's prompt, I would have to spend more than half a day searching for the original. The operating system used by their company's Dell R710 is RedHat As5.3 X64, which will be disconnected without reason ....
And there is no rule, and the day is broken... After a long time, I thought it was a problem with the data center and finally called Dell for repair.
Their engineers immediately responded that this was the Broadcom NetXtreme ii bcm 5709 driver BUG in RedHat As5.X, which involved ACPI power management.
Therefore, when the network adapter is working normally, it will be mistakenly assumed by ACPI to be idle and thus disabled.

Each time this happens, you only need service network restart or ifdown/ifup ethX (for the disabled Nic port) to restore to normal.
Really angry.

There are two ways to solve this problem. The first is to disable the ACPI Power Management System in the Linux kernel.
This method is not recommended because it will cause the server to lose intelligent power adjustment and increase power consumption.

Another method is to upgrade the NIC driver. The process is as follows:

First, download the latest Broadcom NetXtreme ii bcm driver from Dell.
We believe it is necessary to update all servers that use the Broadcom NetXtreme ii bcm 5709 Nic, such as R710 and R610.

[Root @ localhost DRIVER] # modinfo bnx2 [view the current DRIVER version first]
Filename:/lib/modules/2.6.18-164. el5/updates/bnx2.ko
Version: 1.9.3
License: GPL
Description: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5706/24/60/5708/5709 Driver

[Root @ localhost DRIVER] # tar zxvf Bcom_LAN_14.1.5_Linux_Source_A00.tar.gz
[Root @ localhost DRIVER] # cd Bcom_LAN_14.1.5_Linux_Source_A00/NetXtremeII/
[Root @ localhost netxtremei II] # rpm-ivh netxtreme2-5.0a.10-1.src.rpm
1: netxtreme2 ######################## [100%]

[Root @ localhost NetXtremeII] # cd/usr/src/redhat/
[Root @ localhost redhat] # rpmbuild-bb SPECS/netxtreme2.spec
[Root @ localhost redhat] # RPMS/x86_64/netxtreme2-5.0a.10-1.x86_64.rpm rpm-ivh

All right, the drivers are installed, and there are two ways to make the new driver take effect. One is to restart the server.
If it is inconvenient to restart, the following is the second type:

However, the network may be disconnected and cannot be connected without manual intervention.
Therefore, if you are not operating locally or your server is far away from you, you are advised to think twice.

[Root @ localhost NetXtremeII] # rmmod bnx2 uninstall an existing driver [Note !!! May cause network interruption]
[Root @ localhost NetXtremeII] # modprobe bnx2 [reload the driver]

However, if you do not have.
You can use the following method:

Write the preceding two commands as an sh script.

[Root @ localhost redhat] # vim lan_dr_up.sh

Rmmod bnx2
Modprobe bnx2

: Wq

Then grant the executable permission

[Root @ localhost redhat] # chmod + x lan_dr_up.sh
[Root @ localhost redhat] #. /lan_dr_up.sh & [Note that the command is followed by the & symbol, which means that the command is executed in the background even if the ssh control terminal is disconnected, the server can also independently reload the new NIC Driver.]

Now let's check the NIC Driver version number again.

[Root @ localhost DRIVER] # modinfo bnx2 [view the current DRIVER version first]
Filename:/lib/modules/2.6.18-164. el5/updates/bnx2.ko
Version: 1.9.20d
License: GPL
Description: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5706/24/60/5708/5709 Driver