Solaris Driver Software: Broadcom NetXtreme II Network Adapter User Guide
file:///T|/htdocs/NETWORK/BroadCom/71921/NetXtremeII/en/solaris.htm[9/26/2012 3:28:52 PM]
To upgrade the Broadcom driver package to the current version, you must first uninstall the previous driver version from the
system. See
Uninstalling Driver
. Once the previous driver has been removed, you can follow any of the installation methods
in this document to install the new driver version.
NOTE: Do not install multiple instances of the driver on a single system.
Uninstalling Driver
1. ifconfig bnxe[instance_number] down
2. ifconfig bnxe[instance_number] unplumb
3. pkgrm BRCMbnxe
Configuring the Driver
The bnxe driver can be configured via the bnxe.conf file installed under /kernel/drv. When this config file is modified, the
system must be either rebooted or the driver unloaded and reconfigured using the
update_drv
admin command.
All configuration can be specified per-instance. The format used is as follows and each line must end with a semicolon:
bnxe<#>_<config_item>=X;
So for
adv_autoneg_cap,
you would use the following:
bnxe0_adv_autoneg_cap=1;
bnxe1_adv_autoneg_cap=0;
bnxe2_adv_autoneg_cap=1;
bnxe3_adv_autoneg_cap=1;
If a configuration item is not specified for a specific instance, then the default value will be used. The default value used by all
instances can be overridden using:
default_<config_item>=X;
For boolean values, 1 = TRUE and 0 = FALSE.
Memory Usage
The number of RX/TX buffer descriptors specified in the configuration file can have a detrimental affect on memory usage. If
the counts are too high, DMA allocations can fail, thereby affecting other drivers loaded on the system. If DMA allocations fail
during system initialization and/or boot, then there is a chance the system will not boot. This behavior is an implementation
constraint of the Solaris OS. Additionally, it has been seen that the amount of DMA allocation space available on a system
running in 32-bit mode is less than when running as 64-bit.
For a single RX descriptor, the following is allocated:
1 DMA handle
1 DMA memory buffer that is MTU in size
1K memory overhead
For a single TX descriptor, the following is allocated:
9 DMA handles for sending chained mblks
1 DMA memory buffer that is MTU in size
1K memory overhead
NOTE: The number of DMA handles available in the system scales with the amount of RAM. With more RAM, the
descriptor counts can be safely increased.
The default number of RX/TX buffer descriptors is 2048 for each. When using a Broadcom BCM57711 network adapter in
multifunction mode, the number of configured descriptors is divided by four, ending up at 512. This is to keep the number of
DMA allocations at a minimum. After installation, it is suggested these descriptor counts be increased until stability is
guaranteed and the desired performance is reached.
For example, using the default setting of 2048 for the number of both RX and TX descriptors, the approximate amount of
