Description of problem: I have 6 dual Xeon 5160 compute nodes with Supermicro X7DVL-E motherboards <http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5000V/X7DVL-E.cfm>. These boards have onboard Intel 82563EB NICs (PCI ID 8086:1096). When I first installed them, I was running U4 (kernel 2.6.9-42.0.x), which included version e1000-7.0.39. The network interfaces were very unreliable -- they would randomly stop and then re-start passing traffic. I downloaded version e1000-7.3.20 from intel.com, and they worked just fine. With the release of U5 (kernel 2.6.9-55) and its inclusion of e1000-7.2.7, I decided to give the stock driver a try again, but it had the same issues. Again, upgrading to a more recent version from intel.com (e1000-7.5.5 in this case) fixed the problem. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kernel 2.6.9-55 e1000 7.2.7 How reproducible: Every time. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install kernel 2.6.9-55 Actual results: Network is highly unreliable (df hangs on NFS shares, can't do YP lookups, etc) Expected results: Reliable network. Additional info: According to my server vendor, this problem still exists in RHEL5 (which also uses e1000-7.2.7).
A major update to e1000 is planned for the next update. You can always try my latest test kernels (they generally contain experimental net-driver fixes and are regularly updated): http://people.redhat.com/agospoda/#rhel4 For this case, you can also check the kernels available here: http://people.redhat.com/jbaron/rhel4/ Since they contain kernels that are close to the ones that will be released with the next RHEL4 update. Can you give either of those 2 kernels a try?
Since filing this bug I've switched jobs and moved across the country, although I do still consult for that group. I'll try to give those kernels a shot ASAP. Given the driver version is one I've had work, I'm hopeful. Thanks.
This bug has seen no activity in quite a while, so I can only presume it is no longer a problem. If there is still an issue that needs to be resolved, please re-open this bug and I will be happy to help resolve it. Thank you.