Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
Post Reply
larry
Veteran
Posts: 387
Liked: 97 times
Joined: Mar 24, 2010 5:47 pm
Full Name: Larry Walker
Contact:

E1000 NIC

Post by larry »

I saw the 7 r2 release notes say to avoid the E1000E vNic, is the E1000 ok ?
Gostev
Chief Product Officer
Posts: 31459
Liked: 6648 times
Joined: Jan 01, 2006 1:01 am
Location: Baar, Switzerland
Contact:

Re: E1000 NIC

Post by Gostev »

Presumably, based on the VMware KB article mentioned in the release notes.
larry
Veteran
Posts: 387
Liked: 97 times
Joined: Mar 24, 2010 5:47 pm
Full Name: Larry Walker
Contact:

Re: E1000 NIC

Post by larry »

thanks, most of my vm's use the E1000, didnt want to update them all
nefes
Veeam Software
Posts: 643
Liked: 162 times
Joined: Dec 10, 2012 8:44 am
Full Name: Nikita Efes
Contact:

Re: E1000 NIC

Post by nefes »

VMWare KB says that E1000 are at risk zone too: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2059053
I should mention, that according to our internal tests, E1000E gives PSODs quite often, while E1000 does it much more rarelly.
However if you have any of that NICs at your environment I would suggest to monitor your ESXi state in any way.
If PSOD happens with exception mentioned in VMWare KB - it's high time to follow the instructions, provided there.
larry
Veteran
Posts: 387
Liked: 97 times
Joined: Mar 24, 2010 5:47 pm
Full Name: Larry Walker
Contact:

Re: E1000 NIC

Post by larry »

thanks... but now that my head is out of the sand I will need to start changing them. Never had the PSOD but dont want to go there. Will need to find time just not sure where.
nefes
Veeam Software
Posts: 643
Liked: 162 times
Joined: Dec 10, 2012 8:44 am
Full Name: Nikita Efes
Contact:

Re: E1000 NIC

Post by nefes »

Please note that VMXNET3 have some oun bugs. For example, large packet loss: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2039495
So if I were you I wold better stay on E1000 and wait until VMware will fix their bug with it, or move to VMXNET3 temporary and then come back to E1000, depending on size of your infrastructure.
tsightler
VP, Product Management
Posts: 6009
Liked: 2843 times
Joined: Jun 05, 2009 12:57 pm
Full Name: Tom Sightler
Contact:

Re: E1000 NIC

Post by tsightler »

Also remember that you can also just disable RSS in the Windows guest OS. This is a good temporary workaround and is unlikely to make a measurable performance impact unless you have a VM that is regularly moving data at wire speed. In other words, this might not be a great option for servers that act as Veeam proxies/repositories, but for almost every other server you'll never notice the difference.

Code: Select all

netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled
Then, once VMware releases the patch, just reenable it.

Code: Select all

netsh interface tcp set global rss=enabled
And yes, VMXNET3 is far from bug free, although it does seem that it's become much better. I've wasted a lot of time troubleshooting issues that were caused by VMXNET3 in the past, weird networking issues and performance problems.
larry
Veteran
Posts: 387
Liked: 97 times
Joined: Mar 24, 2010 5:47 pm
Full Name: Larry Walker
Contact:

Re: E1000 NIC

Post by larry »

thanks I will take the easy road when I can.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: karsten123 and 98 guests