OVM Server for SPARC Service Domains Running Certain Solaris 10 Patches may Suffer From Dropped Packets in TCP and UDP Incoming Traffic

Asset ID:	1-77-1644321.1
Update Date:	2014-06-05
Keywords:

Solution Type Sun Alert Sure

Solution 1644321.1 : OVM Server for SPARC Service Domains Running Certain Solaris 10 Patches may Suffer From Dropped Packets in TCP and UDP Incoming Traffic

Applies to:

Sun Software - Generic
Solaris SPARC Operating System
Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 Server
Information in this document applies to any platform.
SPARC
____________________________________________

Date of Workaround Release: 08-Apr-2014

Date of Resolved Release: 20-May-2014
____________________________________________

Description

Oracle VM Server (OVM) for SPARC Service domains running Solaris 10 with the patch listed below and servicing an LDOMs virtual network switch can occasionally cause packet loss due to checksum errors in incoming TCP or UDP traffic from an external network.

Occurrence

This issue can occur in the following releases on OVM Server SPARC Service domains:

SPARC Platform

Solaris 10 with patch 150031-02 through 150031-06 and without patch 150031-07

Notes:

1. Solaris 8, Solaris 9 and Solaris 11 are not affected by this issue. Solaris on the x86 platform is not affected by this issue.

2. Only SPARC sun4v systems with a virtual network switch are affected by this issue. The issue does not occur if the physical Network Interface Card (NIC) assigned to the virtual network switch uses the igb(7D) driver.

To determine the architecture of the system, execute the following command:

      # uname -m
      sun4v

To determine if the system has a virtual network switch and which driver the physical NIC assigned to it is using, execute the following command:

      # kstat -p vsw::net_dev:net_device
      vsw:0:net_dev:net_device
      vsw:1:net_dev:net_device
      vsw:2:net_dev:net_device        ixgbe0
      vsw:3:net_dev:net_device        nxge12
      vsw:4:net_dev:net_device        nxge4
      vsw:5:net_dev:net_device        nxge7
      vsw:6:net_dev:net_device
      vsw:7:net_dev:net_device        igb1

If the output of the above command returns an interface name in the second column starting with anything other than "igb", then the system is affected. If there are no lines of the output, the system is unaffected. Use dladm(1M) to display aggregated interfaces if needed.

Symptoms

Should the described issue occur, a short TCP or UDP packet may cause a checksum error and cause packet loss at the receiver. This can be confirmed with the kstat(1M) utility:

      # kstat -p | grep sw_cksum_err
      ip:0:ip6stat:ip6_tcp_in_sw_cksum_err    0
      ip:0:ip6stat:ip6_udp_in_sw_cksum_err    0
      ip:0:ipstat:ip_tcp_in_sw_cksum_err      6788
      ip:0:ipstat:ip_udp_in_sw_cksum_err      1

Workaround

There is no workaround for this issue.

This issue is addressed in the following release:

SPARC Platform

Solaris 10 with patch 150031-07 or later

For additional information on the Oracle VM Server, see also the "Oracle VM Server for SPARC 3.1 Administration Guide":

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E38405_01/html/E38406/ldomssoftwareoverview.html

Patches

<SUNPATCH:150031-07>

History

08-Apr-2014: Document released; status Workaround
20-May-2014: Patch released, issue is now Resolved

This regression was caused by the putback for 15816173
Questions regarding this document should be addressed to
sunalertpublication_us_grp@oracle.com and copy the
responsible engineer/submitter listed below.

Internal Contributor/Submitter: vitezslav.batrla@oracle.com
Internal Eng Responsible Engineer: vitezslav.batrla@oracle.com
Internal Services Knowledge Engineer: david.mariotto@oracle.com
Internal Eng Business Unit Group: Solaris RPE
Internal Escalation ID: 3-8540115011 3-8686062271
3-8693682701 3-8734478291 3-8746391241

References

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