Difference between i40e and i40en?

Difference between i40e and i40en?

[Edouard Gaulué]

Hi community,

I just received a brand new server with an Intel X710 T4L inside. I 
hoped I could use it at 5GBaseT speed as claimed by Intel, but I couldn't.

In fact, I run ESXi 6.7U3 on this new server and it looks it doesn't 
support this speed (2.5G neither). I downloaded Intel driver source code 
and discovered there was an incompatibility between 5GBaseT and DCB. But 
then vmware support team, point me the driver used by ESXi is i40en and 
not i40e.

Are those drivers totally different? It looks to. Error strings found in 
vmkernel.log couldn't be found in the source code. Is there any way to 
get sources for i40en? For patching and rebuild.

Any idea on who I should write to discuss with those i40en driver 
maintainers? Here or totally out of scope?

Regards, Édouard

Re: Difference between i40e and i40en?

[David Marchand]

Hello Édouard,

On Tue, May 3, 2022 at 9:05 PM Edouard Gaulué <listes@e-gaulue.com> wrote:
>
> I just received a brand new server with an Intel X710 T4L inside. I
> hoped I could use it at 5GBaseT speed as claimed by Intel, but I couldn't.
>
> In fact, I run ESXi 6.7U3 on this new server and it looks it doesn't
> support this speed (2.5G neither). I downloaded Intel driver source code
> and discovered there was an incompatibility between 5GBaseT and DCB. But
> then vmware support team, point me the driver used by ESXi is i40en and
> not i40e.
>
> Are those drivers totally different? It looks to. Error strings found in
> vmkernel.log couldn't be found in the source code. Is there any way to
> get sources for i40en? For patching and rebuild.
>
> Any idea on who I should write to discuss with those i40en driver
> maintainers? Here or totally out of scope?

DPDK provides userspace drivers for various nics.
If you are looking at kernel drivers issues, then yes, your mail seems
out of scope :-).

Afaics, i40en is a VMware thing, so the solution is probably to
continue with VMware support.
I copied some Intel *DPDK* driver maintainers who might have a better idea.


-- 
David Marchand

Re: Difference between i40e and i40en?

[Edouard Gaulué]

Le 04/05/2022 à 08:34, David Marchand a écrit :
> Hello Édouard,
>
> On Tue, May 3, 2022 at 9:05 PM Edouard Gaulué <listes@e-gaulue.com> wrote:
>> I just received a brand new server with an Intel X710 T4L inside. I
>> hoped I could use it at 5GBaseT speed as claimed by Intel, but I couldn't.
>>
>> In fact, I run ESXi 6.7U3 on this new server and it looks it doesn't
>> support this speed (2.5G neither). I downloaded Intel driver source code
>> and discovered there was an incompatibility between 5GBaseT and DCB. But
>> then vmware support team, point me the driver used by ESXi is i40en and
>> not i40e.
>>
>> Are those drivers totally different? It looks to. Error strings found in
>> vmkernel.log couldn't be found in the source code. Is there any way to
>> get sources for i40en? For patching and rebuild.
>>
>> Any idea on who I should write to discuss with those i40en driver
>> maintainers? Here or totally out of scope?
> DPDK provides userspace drivers for various nics.
> If you are looking at kernel drivers issues, then yes, your mail seems
> out of scope :-).
>
> Afaics, i40en is a VMware thing, so the solution is probably to
> continue with VMware support.
> I copied some Intel *DPDK* driver maintainers who might have a better idea.
>
>

Thanks a lot.

VMware support told me it's Intel that develops the driver regarding 
their products. But they request me to ask DELL: "It's DELL support that 
should open a ticket with Intel. You won't be able to do it on your behalf."

The time I'll get an answer, we may be all on 100GBase-T ;-)

Regards,