Possible data corruption using SNP and TOE in Windows Server 2003 - Servers

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H19288

Symptom

In rare cases, when using Scalable Networking Pack (SNP) and TCP Offload Engine (TOE) in a severely congested network, data may become corrupted. No error events are logged.

Affected configurations

The system may be any of the following IBM servers:

• BladeCenter HS21, type 8853, any model
• BladeCenter LS21, type 7971, any model
• BladeCenter LS41, type 7972, any model
• System x3550, type 7978, any model
• System x3650, type 7979, any model
• System x3655, type 7985, any model
• System x3755, type 8877, any model

This tip is not option specific.

The Bootcode and IPMI firmware for the NetXtreme II 5706/5708 chip is affected.

The Virtual Bus device driver for the NetXtreme II 5706/5708 chip is affected.

The system is configured with at least one of the following:

• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server for 64-bit Servers, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Datacenter Edition, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, EE x64, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, x64 Edition, any service pack

Note: This does not imply that the network operating system will work under all combinations of hardware and software.

Please see the compatibility page for more information:

Solution

Upgrade both of the following:

1. NetXtreme II Virtual Bus Device driver (VBD) to version 2.8.18 or later via the "Broadcom NetXtreme II GbE Drivers Software Release" vT7.4.4.3 or later.
2. Bootcode Firmware to version 1.9.6 with IPMI Firmware 1.06.0 or later via the "Broadcom NetXtreme II Firmware Update Utility" v1.4.2 or later.

Since this fix corrects a potential data corruption issue, IBM strongly recommends applying this fix as soon as possible.

Additional information

On systems connected through a severely congested network, an offloaded TCP connection may be uploaded back to the Microsoft Windows operating system due to excessive TCP retries. This will only occur under Microsoft Windows 2003 when SNP and TOE are used. During the connection upload, the NetXtreme II VBD may pass the wrong starting address for the next byte to send in the TCP stream, causing previously sent data to be retransmitted as if it were new data, thus corrupting the TCP byte stream.

It is strongly recommended that users upgrade the NetXtreme II VBD to version 2.8.18 or later, and upgrade the Bootcode Firmware to version 1.9.6 or later.