Issue Gathering Ethernet Error Metrics on Ubuntu with Intel X550 NIC

[JDiaz16]

I am working on some cable benchmarking and have been having some problems gathering accurate ethernet error statistics. When running traffic generation software, I found that the OS counters (both ifconfig and /proc/net/dev) always have ethernet errors at 0 even though typically well performing ethernet have at least 1 in 1012 bit error rate (probably worse since I am using a lossy cable). I am wondering if there is some other place I can look for ethernet metrics. Why does the OS not seem to update the packet errors? Are packets with errors dropped automatically and not counted? Is there some issue with my current NIC/driver/kernel combo? Any tips on how to get more accurate measurements?

Current my setup is 2 linux Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS servers with a 10gE ethernet running between both. I am using 2 NICs and a cat6 cable going between both servers that supports 10gE. The NIC is using Intel(R) 10 Gigabit PCI Express Network Driver - version 4.2.1-k.

Thanks for any help!

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy, Thank you for the reply. We will check on this and update you as soon as possible. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask.. Best regards, Crisselle C Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy, Thank you for patiently waiting. May we know what is your e1000e driver setup? Are you using a different NIC card in this setup? If yes, please provide the network adapter used. Let me know if you have other questions. Best regards, Crisselle C Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[JDiaz16]

We are using the I217-LM with the e1000e driver.

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy, Thank you for the reply. We will get back to you once done checking on this. Let me know if you have additional questions. Hoping for your patience. Best regards, Crisselle C Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy, We apologize for the delay on this matter. Please be informed that we are still checking on your query. We'd also like to double check if the "rx_missed_errors" in Ethtool -S output also shows as "0" which is the same as the output of other OS counters (ifconfig and /proc/net/dev) Looking forward to your response. Best regards, Crisselle C Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy, Good day! We'd like to follow up the output of the "ethtool -S <interface>" command. Your prompt reply is highly appreciated. Best regards, Crisselle C Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[JDiaz16]

Hi CrisselleC_Intel,

Yeah I get the following from the above command:

   rx_missed_errors: 0

Thanks,

Jeremy

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy, Thank you for the response. We will continue to further check on this and give you an update as soon as there is any findings. Thank you for the patience on this matter. Best regards, Crisselle C Intel Customer Support Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy,

Please be informed that we are still checking on this. Rest assured that we will give you an update as soon as there is any findings.

Thank you for your time and patience on this matter.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel Customer Support

Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy,

Good day!

We'd like to inform you that we are still looking into this matter. Rest assured that we will give you an update as soon as possible.

Hoping for your patience and kind understanding.

Thank you for the time in reading this message.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel Customer Support

Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy,

How are you today?

Please be informed that we are still checking your query. We will give you an update as soon as there is any findings.

Thank you for the patience on this matter.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel Customer Support

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[Crisselle_Intel]

Hello Jeremy,

We apologize for the delay on this matter.

We have checked your query with our engineering and informed that we don't have this type of support in our drivers. You may submit a feature request on the sourceforge site below for further assistance.

https://sourceforge.net/p/e1000/feature-requests/

 Let us know if you have additional questions on this matter.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel Customer Support

A Contingent Worker at Intel