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ESX Server 3.0.0, Patch ESX-2221: Update to e1000 Driver

Details

Resolved Issues

This patch fixes the following issues:
  • Some Ethernet controllers using the e1000 driver might experience a TX hang when used with ESX Server 3.0.0. This patch should be applied to any systems using the e1000 driver that stop responding.
  • When running VMware ESX Server 3.0.0, you can experience a kernel panic if you use Intel e1000 network adapters with any of the following PCI IDs:

    0x100F
    0x1011
    0x1010
    0x1012
    0x101D

You can check the PCI device ID of your network adapters by running the following command in the service console:

lspci -nv | grep "Class 0200"
00:02.0 Class 0200: 8086:100e (rev 02)
00:04.0 Class 0200: 8086:1229 (rev 0d)
00:06.0 Class 0200: 8086:1229 (rev 0c)
02:04.0 Class 0200: 8086:1008 (rev 02)

The string that follows 8086: is the device ID.
 
The likelihood of this issue occurring increases greatly if you have overridden the default netPktHeapMaxSize VMkernel boot time parameter. If this value is increased and you are experiencing this problem, the following message appears in your log files:

Warning: (errata24) already holdind on to 64bad skb buffers

Solution

Applicability

This patch is for ESX Server 3.0.0 only. For the related patch for ESX Server 3.0.1, refer to http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006511.

Installing the patch

Note: If you are unable to apply this patch, work around this problem by decreasing the size of the network buffer heap (only if you have increased it beyond the default by setting the netPktHeapMaxSize VMkernel boot time parameter with the esxcfg-advcfg command).

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch as follows:
  2. Log in to the ESX Server service console as root.
  3. Create a local depot directory.

    # mkdir /var/updates

    Note: VMware recommends that you use the updates directory.

  4. Change your working directory to /var/updates.

    # cd /var/updates

  5. Download the tar file into the /var/updates directory.
  6. Verify the integrity of the downloaded tar file.

    # md5sum ESX-2221.tgz

    The md5 checksum output should match the following:

    c2e37a178776f9fc1c066e70d19363e4 ESX-2221.tgz

  7. Extract the compressed tar archive.

    # tar -xvzf ESX-2221.tgz

  8. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-2221.

    # cd ESX-2221

Installation Instructions

If you are in the directory you created above, install the update using the following command:

esxupdate update

If you want to run esxupdate from a different directory, you must specify the bundle path in the command:

esxupdate -r file:<directory>/ESX-2221 update

During the update process, logs appear on the terminal. You can specify the verbosity of esxupdate logs by using the -v option as shown below:

esxupdate -v 10 -r file:<directory>/ESX-2221 update

For more information on using esxupdate, please refer to the Patch Management for ESX Server 3 tech note at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_esxupdate.pdf.

Keywords

2221; vi3relnotes; esx300;esxpatch

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  • KB Article: 2221
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x