Solved: E810-XXVDA2 unable to establish link at 25G with sfp28 optical transceivers - Page 2

kishkaru · ‎04-14-2023

Hello, I have a brand new E810-XXVDA2 network adapter (Intel branded, not OEM), and I'm setting it up for the first time. I want to connect it to my switch, which is a Ubiquiti usw-pro-aggregation, on an SFP28 port.

The client is Windows Server 2022. I have the latest Intel driver for Windows Server 2022 installed, v 1.12.164.0, which came from the Intel v28 release package.

If I use a SFP28 DAC cable between the switch and the E810 nic, then the connection establishes at 25G immediately. However, when I use SFP28 optic transceivers, the link does not establish.

I have tried a loopback test using the SFP28 optics from the switch port-to-port and that works at 25G. I have also tried a loopback on the E810 nic port-to-port and that works too at 25G. So this tells me both the optic transceivers and cable is fine.

If I use SFP+ (10G) optics, or force the connection to 10G using SFP28 optics, then the link establishes at 10G. So the issue seems to be isolated to the 25G connection.

I'm guessing there is a failure to auto-negotiate the connection between the switch and the nic. I have tried forcing 25G link speed on both sides, but no luck. I also played around with the FEC (Forward Error Correction) settings on both sides, but no luck. The Ubiquiti switch port uses FC-FEC (BASE-R) for FEC. It can also be configured to disable FEC.

Any ideas?

kishkaru · ‎06-21-2023

Update: I got the link working at 25G!

Solution = update the firmware (NVM) of your Intel E810 NIC to 4.20 or higher.

-----

I saw several other people talking about firmware (NVM) update for their nics in this forums. That got me thinking to searching to see if there's an NVM update for my E810XXV-DA2, and I noticed there was one (4.20) released on 2/17/2023.

I installed the update:

Intel(R) Ethernet NVM Update Tool
NVMUpdate version 1.39.32.6
Copyright(C) 2013 - 2023 Intel Corporation.


WARNING: To avoid damage to your device, do not stop the update or reboot or power off the system during this update.
Inventory in progress. Please wait [***.......]


Num Description                          Ver.(hex)  DevId S:B    Status
=== ================================== ============ ===== ====== ==============
01) Intel(R) Ethernet Network Adapter   3.32(3.20)   159B 00:017 Update        
    E810-XXV-2                                                   available     

Options: Adapter Index List (comma-separated), [A]ll, e[X]it
Enter selection: A
Would you like to back up the NVM images? [Y]es/[N]o: Y
Update in progress. This operation may take several minutes.
[**........]


Num Description                          Ver.(hex)  DevId S:B    Status
=== ================================== ============ ===== ====== ==============
01) Intel(R) Ethernet Network Adapter   4.32(4.20)   159B 00:017 Update        
    E810-XXV-2                                                   successful    


Tool execution completed with the following status: All operations completed successfully.
Press any key to exit.

which updated the NVM of the nic from 3.20 to 4.20.

Immediately after the update, the link established at 25G! No configuration needed. Both link speed and FEC was set to "auto".

I tried all sorts of SFP28 transceivers, including the Ubiquiti one (UACC-OM-SFP-28-SR), the Intel-coded one, the SFP28 transceiver supporting FC-FEC, and the SFP28 AOC. They all worked after the NVM update!

------

So it turned out to be an issue on Intel's side after all, the Ubiquiti switch wasn't to blame.

Intel support should've noticed that my NVM (3.20) was outdated and suggested to upgrade to the latest version. If we had done this from the start, the problem would've been solved instead of dragging this out 2+ months.

There seems to be several other bugfixes. The "Media Type" now shows as "Fiber-SR", and the "Negotiated Link Speed" shows as "16.0 GT/s". These were not being populated earlier.

View solution in original post

Nakul · ‎07-23-2024

Hi,

How to identify the full name/description of my Intel(R) Ethernet 25G 2P E810-XXV Adapter.

Is it

Intel Ethernet Network Adapter E810-XXVDA2: which supports dual 25GbE ports.

or

Intel Ethernet Network Adapter E810-XXVAM2: which supports dual 25GbE ports with advanced offloads.

E810-XXVDA2 unable to establish link at 25G with sfp28 optical transceivers

800 Series Network Adapters (up to 100GbE)