Good morning, all!
We have two C210 M2 rack mount servers running VMware 5.5 U2. They have the two Intel NICs on the motherboard and a 4-port Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709. This morning one of the two servers had the VMware driver crash, disabling two of the four ports on the Broadcom. We were able to keep going with the other ports until we could make the production changes to allow a reboot. The ports came back online, which indicated a driver issue rather than a hardware failure.
Has anyone observed this behavior in your environment?
VMware has recommended a driver update to their latest revision. However, the driver needs a firmware update to the NIC. The current firmware is bc 7.4.0 and the firmware needed for the recommended driver is 7.10.0.
When I logged in to Cisco to get the latest adapter drivers, the README pointed me to the current HUU, 1.4(3x) - which is the firmware bundle installed on the box. So it appears that we have the latest firmware Cisco has released for this Broadcom NIC.
I think I have two options: first, to find a newer VMware driver that will work with the adapter firmware available, if possible. Second, to scout around and find a Broadcom/QLogic firmware for that card from the manufacturer and see if the firmware sticks and works with the VMware driver. I'm ignoring the option to replace the Broadcomm with an Intel or other supported NIC for now.
Am I correct in my reasoning that the latest Cisco firmware for this Broadcomm NIC is already installed? Do either of the two options have merit over the other? If I have to go to an updated NIC, are there any recommended NICs that anyone would recommend?
Thanks to all for looking!
Gregg
