Re: I217-LM - no RSS possible under Win 8.1 Pro x64 - driver setting without effect - Page 2

JJoha1 · ‎09-04-2015

Hi,

I'm using an http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EPC612D8A-TB# Specifications ASRock Rack EPC612D8A-TB motherboard with two Intel onboard NICs (I210 (Ethernet 2) and I217-LM (Ethernet)), running Win 8.1 Pro x64 with all Windows Updates installed and the latest Intel Ethernet driver package (20.2.3001.0). My problem is with the I217-LM, according to the http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/i217brief.pdf Intel spec sheet it does support RSS (cp. figure on page 2).

In the I217-LM's advanced driver settings there is an option to enable and disable RSS. However Windows itself always says that the I217-LM is not RSS-capable.

The same option in the I210 driver options has the expected effect: With the PowerShell command get-SmbClientNetworkInterface you can see the RSS capability changing from True to False and vice versa.

Can anyone tell why the I217-LM is not getting the RSS feature?

Further system details:

CPU: Xeon E5-1620-V3

RAM: 2 x 16 GiB Crucial DDR4-2133 ECC

The motherboard does not have a later BIOS/UEFI release than the one installed.

Thank you very much for your help!

JJoha1 · ‎10-01-2015

Well, I'm all for making more noise, creating a support ticket where at exactly?

Intel obviously takes its time, not even confirming the issue and leaving it to a bunch of individuals to list all affected products.

I'm using OEM versions of Windows 8.1 without Microsoft software support so (for me) that's a dead end as well.

The motherboards' vendors? I already did and to quote ASRock Rack: "it seems that your issue is rather critical." but also, after I asked them if they had a more direct partnership with Intel than a personal end customer since they design various products equipped with multiple Intel components I received "We can try to attend Intel on this but we don't have that much of influence as you think. We also depend on when or if they release an update." and that's coming from the server/workstation branch of a motherboard manufacturer.

I myself came across this by trying to use SMB Multichannel in a home setup which relies on RSS working properly.

st4 · ‎10-01-2015

Hi JBBG,

Good day. Rest assured we are attending to this issue, I will update you when there is any finding.

rgds,

wb

st4 · ‎10-05-2015

Hi JBBG,

Good day. Further checking, this is found to be a Microsoft issue. It is recommmended you contact Microsoft* to further check with them.

Thanks,

wb

JJoha1 · ‎10-06-2015

Well, okily dokily!

Could you please explain a little how that conclusion has been made so I have something to report to Microsoft so their first response won't be sending me back to you since this issue can only be seen (so far) on various Intel NICs and absolutely no others?

What does the asterisk after Microsoft* mean? Do you have any contact information for Microsoft that are better than the ones an average Joe can find online?

Thank you again!

JHend8 · ‎10-06-2015

Yes, we need background info if we have a prayer of getting Microsoft to look at this seriously, or we need to be able to provide them with your information so that you can be listed in the issue.

Most importantly, We need to know why NIC drivers for other boards (like my Intel x540-T1 or Broadcom NetExtreme II for example) don't show this disparity, while the drivers for these Intel NIC chipsets (i217-LM in my case) do not work. And, why the behavior of this is consistent across multiple operating systems and NDIS versions.

Without some background, your reply is unfounded, and, given what little we the customer know, makes no sense.

But, we do appreciate your help!

st4 · ‎10-13-2015

Hi JBBG,

Good day. The RSS is found to be enabled when we run Intel powershell tool to check but disabled when using Microsoft powershell tool. Thus, it would be more appropriate to inform Microsoft to check on this. Hope this clarified.

Thanks,

wb

JJoha1 · ‎10-13-2015

Can you please post your exact testing methodolgy (e. g. used commands) so that these results can be recreated?

General statements are less helpful and something I don't get is why Intel itself isn't contacting Microsoft after users found a critical RSS bug affecting a wide range of Intel NICs while running different Windows generations.

We see that you cooperate with Microsoft regarding the adapter teaming issues during the Windows 10 release but here we are to contact mailto:support@microsoft.com support@microsoft.com*?

(*email address made up out of thin air)

THatt2 · ‎11-07-2015

Hi

same issue with windows 10 and a bunch of intel nuc boards win10 intel driver 20.4.1 from 11/5/2015

Get-IntelNetAdapterSetting shows that rss is enabled! (you have to install: PROWinx64.exe)

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-NetAdapterRss

Name : Ethernet

InterfaceDescription : Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I218-V

Enabled : True

NumberOfReceiveQueues : 2

Profile : NUMAStatic

BaseProcessor: [Group:Number] : 0:0

MaxProcessor: [Group:Number] : 0:2

MaxProcessors : 2

RssProcessorArray: [Group:Number/NUMA Distance] : 0:0/0 0:2/0

IndirectionTable: [Group:Number] :

Name : Ethernet 2

InterfaceDescription : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

Enabled : True

NumberOfReceiveQueues : 4

Profile : NUMAStatic

BaseProcessor: [Group:Number] : 0:0

MaxProcessor: [Group:Number] : 0:2

MaxProcessors : 2

RssProcessorArray: [Group:Number/NUMA Distance] : 0:0/0 0:2/0

IndirectionTable: [Group:Number] : 0:0 0:2 0:0 0:2 0:0 0:2 0:0 0:2

0:0 0:2 0:0 0:2 0:0 0:2 0:0 0:2

THatt2 · ‎11-08-2015

Get-IntelNetAdapterSetting shows that rss is enabled! (you have to install: PROWinx64.exe)

JHend8 · ‎11-18-2015

@ThomasHi

Please read all the details of the thread. The indicators you are seeing saying that it is enabled aren't accurate to the true state. If there is no reported indirection table value (which, your results also show) then it isn't actually working. Using the get-smb* commands will also corroborate this. I have verified that RSS is not working using load tests as well and seeing that the distribution is not occurring.

THatt2 · ‎11-18-2015

hendryjl

Get-IntelNetAdapter and Get-NetAdapter

shows both that RSS is enabled

That don't means that RSS is really working!

Get-SmbClientNetworkInterface

shows: RSS Capable == FALSE

That means RSS is not working!

I have had escaleted a intel support case a week before. I have got a bunch of intel boards with non working I218.

JHend8 · ‎11-18-2015

Ok, it looks like I misunderstood your emails. I thought you were attempting to say they reverse of what JBBG and I were saying. But now it looks like you are in agreement with us in saying that RSS shows enabled, but is not actually working. The way that this issue presents is unique to these few Intel Adapters.

THatt2 · ‎11-18-2015

you are right.

Get-IntelNetAdapter

should be a possible answer to the question from:

JBBG 13.10.2015 14:11

"Can you please post your exact testing methodolgy (e. g. used commands) so that these results can be recreated?"

I couldn't find a "quotation" function here in this board.

JJoha1 · ‎11-19-2015

What is the PowerShell command get-IntelNetAdapter supposed to show? I only get generic details without any connection to RSS.

Since Intel doesn't share its testing methodology on how they came to the conclusion that this is supposed to be Microsoft's fault I'm out of ideas what can be done about this on an end user level. But it's educational to see that certain Intel NICs under all Windows versions from 7 to 10 are affected and still no one cares about it.

From now on I'll be actively lobbying to never deploy Intel network products again.

THatt2 · ‎11-19-2015

OMG my mistake

Get-IntelNetAdapterSetting is the right

you can find the description of all cmdlets in

Program Files\Intel\IntelNetCmdlets\about_IntelNetcmdlets.help.txt

on my intel board (excerpt):

Name: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I218-LM

DisplayName DisplayValue RegistryKeyword RegistryValue

----------- ------------ --------------- -------------

Maximum Number of R... 2 Queues *NumRssQueues 2

Receive Side Scaling Enabled *RSS 1

RSS load balancing ... NUMAScaling *RSSProfile 3

----------------

my intel support case about non working RSS is already one week pending

JJoha1 · ‎11-23-2015

That cmdlet seems to show the NIC's driver's settings (same as the GUI) or am I missing something?

The point is - to my knowlege - the driver settings are all correct yet RSS doesn't function with certain Intel NICs in reality under Windows 7 to 10. Intel says it's Microsoft's fault but they don't share how they came to this conclusion.

THatt2 · ‎12-08-2015

I have got the answer of this case from intel:

Intel 82579/I217/I218/I219 and Receive Side Scaling (RSS).

The Intel (R) Ethernet Connection 82579, I217, I218, and I219 Network adapter families provide support for Receive Side Scaling (RSS) for up to 2 receive queues. This feature allows incoming network traffic to be processed in multiple queues to provide greater receive efficiency.

Because of the internal architecture of these Network Connection families they do not support Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI-X).

Message Signaled Interrupts are required to allow separate receive queues to be processed by separate CPU Cores.

The Intel(R) Ethernet Connection 82579, I217, I218, and I219 Network adapters' multiple Receive Queues are thus handled by a single CPU Core. This prevents the use of these network connections in SMB-Multichannel configurations.

Other Intel networking products including the Intel(R) I210 Gigabit Network Connection, do support MSI-X and can be used in SMB-Multichannel configurations.

JHend8 · ‎12-08-2015

Thank you, ThomasHi! I marked your answer as liked, but it's not because I like Intel's answer, it's because I am thankful you relayed the information.

I'm don't claim to be an expert on RSS by any means, but I feel like I know enough to say that it is, at a minimum, very disingenuous to advertise the chipsets support RSS when the whole point of it in my understanding is to distribute that load across cores Especially when you see this in the Receive Side Scaling description in the Advanced Adapter Settings dialog:

"Enables Receive Side Scaling (RSS). RSS balances receive traffic across multiple CPUs or CPU cores. This setting has no effect if your system has only one processing unit."

In my case, I don't need this for SMB, but rather for handling high interrupt loading running VoIP testing. This is very disheartening.

JJoha1 · ‎12-08-2015

Thanks from me, too.

hendryjl I'm having the same trouble understanding this. What is the point of multiple traffic queues if they cannot be processed by different CPU cores?

Also, in what scenario does RSS on these chips actually provide any advantage?

I thought the whole point of RSS is to distribute the load among different cores which is impossible according to the answer ThomasHi received from Intel's tech support.

To come full circle I do not understand the statement made in this thread that (regarding my case) SMB multichannel not working on these chips is Microsoft's fault. They just require "real" RSS, something I expect to be working when checking data sheets that state "RSS: Yes", e. g. http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/i217brief.pdf http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/i217brief.pdf

I would like to see all data sheets to be updated since this is an obvious feature limitation.

JHend8 · ‎12-08-2015

That's right where I went (to the Intel Datasheets). The I210 datasheet (http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/i210-ethernet-controller-datasheet.pdf http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/i210-ethernet-controller-datasheet.pdf) says:

"RSS and MSI-X to lower CPU utilization in multi-core systems"

Whereas the I217 (http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/i217-ethernet-controller-datasheet.pdf http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/i217-ethernet-controller-datasheet.pdf) and I218 (http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/i218-ethernet-connection-datasheet.pdf http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/i218-ethernet-connection-datasheet.pdf) say just:

"-Receive Side Scaling (RSS)

-Two Queues (Tx & Rx)"

I get that you don't explicitly call out features you DON'T have in a datasheet, but I too was having trouble understanding how multiple RSS queues helps anything without MSI (PCI 2.2) or MSI-X (PCI-E 3.0), Then I found this link which talks about all the ways RSS can be implemented (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff567236(v=vs.85).aspx Receive Side Scaling - Windows 10 hardware dev) and I felt... well... I didn't feel any better, but I understood there was a difference. I still think it's natural to assume that RSS implies RSS+MSI-X... but we all know what happends when we "ass-u-me". I still am left feeling crappy about it. But, it's at least settled.

JJoha1 · ‎12-08-2015

Maybe I'm not quite understanding the technical background well enough yet but I couldn't find a description of the "feature" of RSS having two queues but only a single CPU core at its disposal? There is a page about RSS with a single queue but there there's a figure with CPU A and B in that article.