1Linux* Base Driver for the Intel(R) Ethernet 10 Gigabit PCI Express Family of
2Adapters
3=============================================================================
4
5Intel 10 Gigabit Linux driver.
6Copyright(c) 1999 - 2013 Intel Corporation.
7
8Contents
9========
10
11- Identifying Your Adapter
12- Additional Configurations
13- Performance Tuning
14- Known Issues
15- Support
16
17Identifying Your Adapter
18========================
19
20The driver in this release is compatible with 82598, 82599 and X540-based
21Intel Network Connections.
22
23For more information on how to identify your adapter, go to the Adapter &
24Driver ID Guide at:
25
26    http://support.intel.com/support/network/sb/CS-012904.htm
27
28SFP+ Devices with Pluggable Optics
29----------------------------------
30
3182599-BASED ADAPTERS
32
33NOTES: If your 82599-based Intel(R) Network Adapter came with Intel optics, or
34is an Intel(R) Ethernet Server Adapter X520-2, then it only supports Intel
35optics and/or the direct attach cables listed below.
36
37When 82599-based SFP+ devices are connected back to back, they should be set to
38the same Speed setting via ethtool. Results may vary if you mix speed settings.
3982598-based adapters support all passive direct attach cables that comply
40with SFF-8431 v4.1 and SFF-8472 v10.4 specifications. Active direct attach
41cables are not supported.
42
43Supplier    Type                                             Part Numbers
44
45SR Modules
46Intel       DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ SR (bailed)                FTLX8571D3BCV-IT
47Intel       DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ SR (bailed)                AFBR-703SDDZ-IN1
48Intel       DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ SR (bailed)                AFBR-703SDZ-IN2
49LR Modules
50Intel       DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ LR (bailed)                FTLX1471D3BCV-IT
51Intel       DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ LR (bailed)                AFCT-701SDDZ-IN1
52Intel       DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ LR (bailed)                AFCT-701SDZ-IN2
53
54The following is a list of 3rd party SFP+ modules and direct attach cables that
55have received some testing. Not all modules are applicable to all devices.
56
57Supplier   Type                                              Part Numbers
58
59Finisar    SFP+ SR bailed, 10g single rate                   FTLX8571D3BCL
60Avago      SFP+ SR bailed, 10g single rate                   AFBR-700SDZ
61Finisar    SFP+ LR bailed, 10g single rate                   FTLX1471D3BCL
62
63Finisar    DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ SR (No Bail)                FTLX8571D3QCV-IT
64Avago      DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ SR (No Bail)                AFBR-703SDZ-IN1
65Finisar    DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ LR (No Bail)                FTLX1471D3QCV-IT
66Avago      DUAL RATE 1G/10G SFP+ LR (No Bail)                AFCT-701SDZ-IN1
67Finistar   1000BASE-T SFP                                    FCLF8522P2BTL
68Avago      1000BASE-T SFP                                    ABCU-5710RZ
69
7082599-based adapters support all passive and active limiting direct attach
71cables that comply with SFF-8431 v4.1 and SFF-8472 v10.4 specifications.
72
73Laser turns off for SFP+ when device is down
74-------------------------------------------
75"ip link set down" turns off the laser for 82599-based SFP+ fiber adapters.
76"ip link set up" turns on the laser.
77
78
7982598-BASED ADAPTERS
80
81NOTES for 82598-Based Adapters:
82- Intel(R) Network Adapters that support removable optical modules only support
83  their original module type (i.e., the Intel(R) 10 Gigabit SR Dual Port
84  Express Module only supports SR optical modules). If you plug in a different
85  type of module, the driver will not load.
86- Hot Swapping/hot plugging optical modules is not supported.
87- Only single speed, 10 gigabit modules are supported.
88- LAN on Motherboard (LOMs) may support DA, SR, or LR modules. Other module
89  types are not supported. Please see your system documentation for details.
90
91The following is a list of 3rd party SFP+ modules and direct attach cables that
92have received some testing. Not all modules are applicable to all devices.
93
94Supplier   Type                                              Part Numbers
95
96Finisar    SFP+ SR bailed, 10g single rate                   FTLX8571D3BCL
97Avago      SFP+ SR bailed, 10g single rate                   AFBR-700SDZ
98Finisar    SFP+ LR bailed, 10g single rate                   FTLX1471D3BCL
99
10082598-based adapters support all passive direct attach cables that comply
101with SFF-8431 v4.1 and SFF-8472 v10.4 specifications. Active direct attach
102cables are not supported.
103
104
105Flow Control
106------------
107Ethernet Flow Control (IEEE 802.3x) can be configured with ethtool to enable
108receiving and transmitting pause frames for ixgbe. When TX is enabled, PAUSE
109frames are generated when the receive packet buffer crosses a predefined
110threshold.  When rx is enabled, the transmit unit will halt for the time delay
111specified when a PAUSE frame is received.
112
113Flow Control is enabled by default. If you want to disable a flow control
114capable link partner, use ethtool:
115
116     ethtool -A eth? autoneg off RX off TX off
117
118NOTE: For 82598 backplane cards entering 1 gig mode, flow control default
119behavior is changed to off.  Flow control in 1 gig mode on these devices can
120lead to Tx hangs.
121
122Intel(R) Ethernet Flow Director
123-------------------------------
124Supports advanced filters that direct receive packets by their flows to
125different queues. Enables tight control on routing a flow in the platform.
126Matches flows and CPU cores for flow affinity. Supports multiple parameters
127for flexible flow classification and load balancing.
128
129Flow director is enabled only if the kernel is multiple TX queue capable.
130
131An included script (set_irq_affinity.sh) automates setting the IRQ to CPU
132affinity.
133
134You can verify that the driver is using Flow Director by looking at the counter
135in ethtool: fdir_miss and fdir_match.
136
137Other ethtool Commands:
138To enable Flow Director
139	ethtool -K ethX ntuple on
140To add a filter
141	Use -U switch. e.g., ethtool -U ethX flow-type tcp4 src-ip 10.0.128.23
142        action 1
143To see the list of filters currently present:
144	ethtool -u ethX
145
146Perfect Filter: Perfect filter is an interface to load the filter table that
147funnels all flow into queue_0 unless an alternative queue is specified using
148"action". In that case, any flow that matches the filter criteria will be
149directed to the appropriate queue.
150
151If the queue is defined as -1, filter will drop matching packets.
152
153To account for filter matches and misses, there are two stats in ethtool:
154fdir_match and fdir_miss. In addition, rx_queue_N_packets shows the number of
155packets processed by the Nth queue.
156
157NOTE: Receive Packet Steering (RPS) and Receive Flow Steering (RFS) are not
158compatible with Flow Director. IF Flow Director is enabled, these will be
159disabled.
160
161The following three parameters impact Flow Director.
162
163FdirMode
164--------
165Valid Range: 0-2 (0=off, 1=ATR, 2=Perfect filter mode)
166Default Value: 1
167
168  Flow Director filtering modes.
169
170FdirPballoc
171-----------
172Valid Range: 0-2 (0=64k, 1=128k, 2=256k)
173Default Value: 0
174
175  Flow Director allocated packet buffer size.
176
177AtrSampleRate
178--------------
179Valid Range: 1-100
180Default Value: 20
181
182  Software ATR Tx packet sample rate. For example, when set to 20, every 20th
183  packet, looks to see if the packet will create a new flow.
184
185Node
186----
187Valid Range:   0-n
188Default Value: 1 (off)
189
190  0 - n: where n is the number of NUMA nodes (i.e. 0 - 3) currently online in
191  your system
192  1: turns this option off
193
194  The Node parameter will allow you to pick which NUMA node you want to have
195  the adapter allocate memory on.
196
197max_vfs
198-------
199Valid Range:   1-63
200Default Value: 0
201
202  If the value is greater than 0 it will also force the VMDq parameter to be 1
203  or more.
204
205  This parameter adds support for SR-IOV.  It causes the driver to spawn up to
206  max_vfs worth of virtual function.
207
208
209Additional Configurations
210=========================
211
212  Jumbo Frames
213  ------------
214  The driver supports Jumbo Frames for all adapters. Jumbo Frames support is
215  enabled by changing the MTU to a value larger than the default of 1500.
216  The maximum value for the MTU is 16110.  Use the ip command to
217  increase the MTU size.  For example:
218
219        ip link set dev ethx mtu 9000
220
221  The maximum MTU setting for Jumbo Frames is 9710.  This value coincides
222  with the maximum Jumbo Frames size of 9728.
223
224  Generic Receive Offload, aka GRO
225  --------------------------------
226  The driver supports the in-kernel software implementation of GRO.  GRO has
227  shown that by coalescing Rx traffic into larger chunks of data, CPU
228  utilization can be significantly reduced when under large Rx load.  GRO is an
229  evolution of the previously-used LRO interface.  GRO is able to coalesce
230  other protocols besides TCP.  It's also safe to use with configurations that
231  are problematic for LRO, namely bridging and iSCSI.
232
233  Data Center Bridging, aka DCB
234  -----------------------------
235  DCB is a configuration Quality of Service implementation in hardware.
236  It uses the VLAN priority tag (802.1p) to filter traffic.  That means
237  that there are 8 different priorities that traffic can be filtered into.
238  It also enables priority flow control which can limit or eliminate the
239  number of dropped packets during network stress.  Bandwidth can be
240  allocated to each of these priorities, which is enforced at the hardware
241  level.
242
243  To enable DCB support in ixgbe, you must enable the DCB netlink layer to
244  allow the userspace tools (see below) to communicate with the driver.
245  This can be found in the kernel configuration here:
246
247        -> Networking support
248          -> Networking options
249            -> Data Center Bridging support
250
251  Once this is selected, DCB support must be selected for ixgbe.  This can
252  be found here:
253
254        -> Device Drivers
255          -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
256            -> Ethernet (10000 Mbit) (NETDEV_10000 [=y])
257              -> Intel(R) 10GbE PCI Express adapters support
258                -> Data Center Bridging (DCB) Support
259
260  After these options are selected, you must rebuild your kernel and your
261  modules.
262
263  In order to use DCB, userspace tools must be downloaded and installed.
264  The dcbd tools can be found at:
265
266        http://e1000.sf.net
267
268  Ethtool
269  -------
270  The driver utilizes the ethtool interface for driver configuration and
271  diagnostics, as well as displaying statistical information. The latest
272  ethtool version is required for this functionality.
273
274  The latest release of ethtool can be found from
275  https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/network/ethtool/
276
277  FCoE
278  ----
279  This release of the ixgbe driver contains new code to enable users to use
280  Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Data Center Bridging (DCB)
281  functionality that is supported by the 82598-based hardware.  This code has
282  no default effect on the regular driver operation, and configuring DCB and
283  FCoE is outside the scope of this driver README. Refer to
284  http://www.open-fcoe.org/ for FCoE project information and contact
285  e1000-eedc@lists.sourceforge.net for DCB information.
286
287  MAC and VLAN anti-spoofing feature
288  ----------------------------------
289  When a malicious driver attempts to send a spoofed packet, it is dropped by
290  the hardware and not transmitted.  An interrupt is sent to the PF driver
291  notifying it of the spoof attempt.
292
293  When a spoofed packet is detected the PF driver will send the following
294  message to the system log (displayed by  the "dmesg" command):
295
296  Spoof event(s) detected on VF (n)
297
298  Where n=the VF that attempted to do the spoofing.
299
300
301Performance Tuning
302==================
303
304An excellent article on performance tuning can be found at:
305
306http://www.redhat.com/promo/summit/2008/downloads/pdf/Thursday/Mark_Wagner.pdf
307
308
309Known Issues
310============
311
312  Enabling SR-IOV in a 32-bit or 64-bit Microsoft* Windows* Server 2008/R2
313  Guest OS using Intel (R) 82576-based GbE or Intel (R) 82599-based 10GbE
314  controller under KVM
315  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
316  KVM Hypervisor/VMM supports direct assignment of a PCIe device to a VM.  This
317  includes traditional PCIe devices, as well as SR-IOV-capable devices using
318  Intel 82576-based and 82599-based controllers.
319
320  While direct assignment of a PCIe device or an SR-IOV Virtual Function (VF)
321  to a Linux-based VM running 2.6.32 or later kernel works fine, there is a
322  known issue with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 VM that results in a "yellow
323  bang" error. This problem is within the KVM VMM itself, not the Intel driver,
324  or the SR-IOV logic of the VMM, but rather that KVM emulates an older CPU
325  model for the guests, and this older CPU model does not support MSI-X
326  interrupts, which is a requirement for Intel SR-IOV.
327
328  If you wish to use the Intel 82576 or 82599-based controllers in SR-IOV mode
329  with KVM and a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 guest try the following
330  workaround. The workaround is to tell KVM to emulate a different model of CPU
331  when using qemu to create the KVM guest:
332
333       "-cpu qemu64,model=13"
334
335
336Support
337=======
338
339For general information, go to the Intel support website at:
340
341    http://support.intel.com
342
343or the Intel Wired Networking project hosted by Sourceforge at:
344
345    http://e1000.sourceforge.net
346
347If an issue is identified with the released source code on the supported
348kernel with a supported adapter, email the specific information related
349to the issue to e1000-devel@lists.sf.net
350