RE: HEA cards causing tcp retries

[Dan Kimmel <dkimmel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For others (besides me) lacking knowledge of what an HEA is:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp?topic=/iphb1/iphathea.htm

A Host Ethernet Adapter (HEA) is a physical Ethernet adapter that is integrated directly into the GX+ bus on a managed system. HEAs offer high throughput, low latency, and virtualization support for Ethernet connections. HEAs are also known as Integrated Virtual Ethernet adapters (IVE adapters).

Unlike most other types of I/O devices, you can never assign the HEA itself to a logical partition. Instead, multiple logical partitions can connect directly to the HEA and use the HEA resources. This allows these logical partitions to access external networks through the HEA without having to go through an Ethernet bridge on another logical partition.

To connect a logical partition to an HEA, you must create a logical Host Ethernet Adapter (LHEA) for the logical partition. A logical Host Ethernet Adapter (LHEA) is a representation of a physical HEA on a logical partition.  

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jack Kingsley
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 8:00 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: HEA cards causing tcp retries

Have you IPL'd just that partition.

On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Laine, Rogers <rlaine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Jack,
>
> We were having the problem only on one partition, thus far.
>
> Rogers
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jack Kingsley
> Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 7:02 AM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: Re: HEA cards causing tcp retries
>
> Do you notice it on all your partitions or just certain ones.
>
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 11:31 PM, DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> > Well you have discovered the Achilles heal of the HEA. The card sits
> on
> > the Primary System (GS) Bus so it cannot be hot swapped, added, or 
> > removed. Thus there is no option from the HMC to stop it or start it 
> > either. I hope someone knows a trick that I do not but I think the
> only
> > way to reset that card is to power the system off and back on.
> >
> > Now, that said, that simply should NOT be required. I would 
> > ABSOLUTELY pursue this with IBM SUpport. That card is the defacto 
> > Ethernet on all
> > POWER6 and POWER7 servers and if there are issues with the card or 
> > drivers this needs to be addressed 'with quickness'.
> >
> >   - Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis.
> >
> > Laine, Rogers wrote:
> > > We are using HEA along with the 5706 for important partitions 
> > > using
> VIPA
> > > with load balancing.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > One of the HEA's are reporting lots of retransmissions causing 
> > > performance problems.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > We took the HEA interface down and the performance problems clear
> up.
> > > So how do we go about resetting the HEA port or card?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Is there a command on the OS or some thing on the HMC?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > TIA,
> > >
> > > Rogers
> >
> > --
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