Intel X710 on R730 / i40en driver on vmware

[CVibe]

Hi,

We have been having the same problem since last October when we upgraded to esxi 6.5 and in turn started using the i40en nic driver. With this driver on every few weeks one of our hosts locks up. This post nails the problem better than I can describe https://communities.vmware.com/thread/552470?start=15&tstart=0 Install ESXi 6.5 on R730 with Intel X710 |VMware Communities

Our workaround was to downgrade to the i40e version, unfortunately doing this makes VMware non compliant in update manager and because us IT guys have serious OCD its very annoying. It's also not good as we like to keep a visual view of these hosts so we know when to patch them.

Is this issue going to be fixed? Just to note on more than one occasion we have had production hosts go down because of this issue and we have had to explain to our staff.

Regards

[idata]

Hi Vibs1983,

Thank you for the post. I am branching out your post here so that we can further check.Thanks,Sharon T

[idata]

Hi Vibs1983,

Can you confirm if the X710 NIC you have is a Intel retail version or OEM network card or OEM NIC from Dell as I can see you are using Dell R730 server.Thanks,Sharon T

[CVibe]

Hi Sharon T,

When i look on the idrac it says its the Intel(R) 10GbE 4P X710-k bNDC nic.

Regards

Craig

[idata]

Hi Vibs1983,

Thank you for the information. Based on the information this is a Dell OEM Intel(R) 10GbE 4P X710-k bNDC, have you tried contacting Dell about this issue ? Thanks,Sharon T

[BK6]

Same issue occurs whether it has Dell branding or not; it's still the same underlying broken card with the same broken driver i40en. Other threads:

https://communities.intel.com/thread/117035 https://communities.intel.com/thread/117035

https://communities.intel.com/thread/117076 https://communities.intel.com/thread/117076

https://communities.intel.com/thread/124085 https://communities.intel.com/thread/124085

[CVibe]

Hi Sharon,

Firstly, thank you for trying to help I understand it cannot

be easy for you trying to deal with frustrated customers. We have now sent anemail to our account manager and hopefully from our perspective they can sendus some new nic's which aren't this model because they are clearly a problem.

Just to state we have had about 6 outages due to this

issue, all when we upgraded our ESXi host 6.5 and it stated using this driver.Please note when these outages occurred we had core system on these hosts suchas Microsoft exchange causing a companywide outage. One of these outages was at4am and because we have an Asia office, I was woken up with a rather angryphone call. Since we have downgraded our driver, the crashes have gone away entirelyalthough update manager is saying we are non-compliant with this driver missing.In addition, when we patch a host the updates always include this driver, whichmeans we have to roll back this driver as part of the process or our ESXservers will eventually lockup due to this issue.

Looking at the links ispcolohost has added this is not

just on Dell branded kit. Even if it is on Dell branded cards really as a customer,it is not my problem to help Intel and Dell to work on the resolution process.At the end of the day as a customer, I do not want to deal with the politicsbetween Intel and Dell. I do hope this issue are addressed in the next releasedriver release for the i40en.

Kind Regards

[idata]

Hi Vibs1983,

Thank you for the reply and I am sorry to hear about the outage encountered. I received an update about regarding Malicious Driver Detection (MDD) Error, and this will be addressed in the next driver release. Please refer to information below: This Malicious Driver Detection is and open issue for ESX i40en driver version 1.5.8.. The Malicious Driver Detection issue that we are aware of will be addressed in the next i40en driver release. The next driver is going through VMware Certification process and expected to release in a couple of weeks. We will have an official statement on this issue by next week. Please wait for our further update, thank you for your patience on this matter.Regards,Sharon T

[idata]

Hi Vibs1983,

Please refer to the link below regarding the latest about Malicious Driver Detection Eventhttps://communities.intel.com/community/tech/wired/blog/2018/05/23/malicious-driver-detection-mdd-event-resolved https://communities.intel.com/community/tech/wired/blog/2018/05/23/malicious-driver-detection-mdd-event-resolvedRegards,Sharon T

[idata]

Hi Vibs1983,

You may continue to monitor this post in case there will be any updates. https://communities.intel.com/community/tech/wired/blog/2018/05/23/malicious-driver-detection-mdd-event-resolved https://communities.intel.com/community/tech/wired/blog/2018/05/23/malicious-driver-detection-mdd-event-resolvedRegards,Sharon TIntel Customer SupportAgent under contract to Intel

[CSmit29]

Malicious Driver Detection (MDD) Event - Resolved - New 1.7.11 i40en driver

How is this issue being addressed?

The Malicious Driver Detection issue that we are aware of is addressed in the 1.7.11 i40en driver release for ESXi 6.0, ESXi 6.5 and ESXi 6.7.

Available 1.7.11 i40en driver Download Links: For Intel Ethernet 700 Series Network Adapters ( X710, XL710, XXV710, and X722)

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details%3FdownloadGroup%3DDT-ESXI60-INTEL-I40EN-1711%26productId%3D564 ESXi 6.0 i40en 1.7.11 Driver

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details%3FdownloadGroup%3DDT-ESXI65-INTEL-I40EN-1711%26productId%3D614 ESXi 6.5 i40en 1.7.11 Driver

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details%3FdownloadGroup%3DDT-ESXI67-INTEL-I40EN-1711%26productId%3D742 ESXi 6.7 i40en 1.7.11 Driver

For more information please see the blog post: /community/tech/wired/blog/2018/05/23/malicious-driver-detection-mdd-event-resolved Malicious Driver Detection (MDD) Event – Resolved