Non-Oracle GBIC (transceiver) causes no OS NIC data or improper operation

Asset ID:	1-72-1634139.1
Update Date:	2017-12-13
Keywords:

Solution Type Problem Resolution Sure

Solution 1634139.1 : Non-Oracle GBIC (transceiver) causes no OS NIC data or improper operation

Applies to:

SPARC T5-4 - Version All Versions and later
SPARC T5-2 - Version All Versions and later
SPARC T4-1 - Version All Versions and later
SPARC T4-2 - Version All Versions and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Symptoms

The OBP shows all NIC cards (T5-2 in this case), but prtdiag doesn't list the ports from one of the NIC cards:

{0} ok [oracle.com] show-nets
a) /pci@380/pci@1/pci@0/pci@5/network@0,1   PCIe 2
b) /pci@380/pci@1/pci@0/pci@5/network@0
c) /pci@3c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/network@0,1    NET 3
d) /pci@3c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/network@0      NET 2
e) /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@4/network@0,1   PCIe 1
f) /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@4/network@0
g) /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/network@0,1   NET 1
h) /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/network@0    NET 0
q) NO SELECTION

================================= prtdiag IO Devices =================================
Slot +            Bus   Name +                            Model        Speed
Status            Type Path                                                                    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/SYS/MB/USB       PCIE usb-pciexclass,0c0330                          5.0GTx1                  /pci@340/pci@1/pci@0/pci@3/usb@0
/SYS/MB/XGBE0     PCIE network-pciex8086,1528                         5.0GTx8                  /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/network@0
/SYS/MB/NET1      PCIE network-pciex8086,1528                         5.0GTx8                  /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/network@0,1
/SYS/MB/SASHBA0   PCIE scsi-pciex1000,87                 LSI,2308_2   8.0GTx4                  /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0
/SYS/MB/PCIE1     PCIE network-pciex8086,10fb            X1109a-z/1109a-z 5.0GTx8             /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@4/network@0
/SYS/MB/PCIE1     PCIE network-pciex8086,10fb            X1109a-z/1109a-z 5.0GTx8             /pci@300/pci@1/pci@0/pci@4/network@0,1
/SYS/MB/XGBE1     PCIE network-pciex8086,1528                         5.0GTx8                  /pci@3c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/network@0
/SYS/MB/NET3      PCIE network-pciex8086,1528                         5.0GTx8                  /pci@3c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@1/network@0,1
/SYS/MB/SASHBA1   PCIE scsi-pciex1000,87                 LSI,2308_2   8.0GTx4                  /pci@3c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0
/SYS/RIO/VIDEO    PCIE display-pciex102b,522                          2.5GTx1                  /pci@380/pci@1/pci@0/pci@3/display@0

prtdiag does not contain PCIe 2. NIC PCI card replacement does not resolve the problem.

/etc/path_to_inst contains an entry for the missing NIC.

"/pci@380" 3 "px"
"/pci@380/pci@1" 16 "pcieb"
"/pci@380/pci@1/pci@0" 17 "pcieb"
"/pci@380/pci@1/pci@0/pci@5" 19 "pcieb"
"/pci@380/pci@1/pci@0/pci@5/network@0" 6 "ixgbe"
"/pci@380/pci@1/pci@0/pci@5/network@0,1" 7 "ixgbe"

Another possible symptom is many btlp & ce ereports related to NIC PCI card paths over time.

         
Aug 07 15:58:58.0519 ereport.io.pci.fabric           
Aug 07 15:58:58.0519 ereport.io.pciex.dl.btlp      
Aug 07 23:34:54.4436 ereport.io.pci.fabric           
Aug 07 23:34:54.4436 ereport.io.pciex.dl.btlp       
Aug 09 14:22:18.6936 ereport.io.pci.fabric           
Aug 09 14:22:18.6936 ereport.io.pciex.dl.btlp       
Aug 09 16:11:09.7323 ereport.io.pci.fabric           
Aug 09 16:11:09.7323 ereport.io.pciex.dl.btlp       
Aug 09 19:02:43.9635 ereport.io.pci.fabric           
Aug 09 19:02:43.9635 ereport.io.pciex.dl.btlp       
Aug 10 21:27:08.5962 ereport.io.pci.fabric           
Aug 10 21:27:08.5962 ereport.io.pciex.dl.btlp       
Aug 11 01:13:23.5675 ereport.io.pci.fabric           
Aug 11 01:13:23.5675 ereport.io.pciex.dl.btlp              device-path = /pci@300/pci@1
Aug 11 2014 01:13:23.567505538 ereport.io.pciex.rc.ce-msg  device-path = /pci@300/pci@1

Cause

A non-Oracle GBIC inserted (or none) in the NIC or non-Oracle TwinX cable caused the problem above.

Solution

Replace the GBIC or TwinX cable with the proper Oracle part. More information about cables can be found at: http://www.oracle.com/us/products/networking/ethernet-transceivers-cables-faq-1994166.pdf

Attachments

This solution has no attachment