Upgrading 10G NIC driver on Linux (Intel® 82599ES 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller)

by Teffin Varghese | Jul 7, 2020 | Howtos, Linux, Networking, OS, Python, Security, Servers, Storages, Troubleshooting, Uncategorized, VMware Esxi, Workstation

How to upgrade 10G Intel NIC driver in Linux.

Step 1: Identify the NIC adapter on the server/machine.

For upgrading the NIC driver, First you need to identify the NIC model for that you can use “lspci” command.
Use the command “lspci | grep -i net” to list the PCIe devices. (Usually 10G NIC’s are plugged into the PCIe slots on the Motherboard)

Command: lspci | grep -i net

Sample Output:

04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
04:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 01)
06:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 01)

Here our 10G adapter is Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)

Step 2: Identify the active interface in the OS.

For identify the active interface just type “ip a” on the terminal, this will display the interfaces on the OS and from the list identify the active interface name.

Command: ip a

Sample Output:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000
link/ether 32:36:65:64:66:34 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet x.x.x.x/x brd 50.7.126.127 scope global eth0
inet6 x:x:x::x/64 scope global
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 x::x:x:x:x/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Step 3: Check the current driver version of the NIC.

For identifying the driver version use the command “ethtool -i <interface name>” Eg: ethool -i eth0
From the results you can view the current driver version. The output will be something like this.

Command: ethtool -i <interface name>

Sample Output:

driver: ixgbe
version: 4.2.1-k
firmware-version: 0x80000208
bus-info: 0000:04:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

Here the “version: 4.2.1-k” indicates the current driver version of the NIC.

Step 4: Download the latest available driver from Intel.

Go to https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/32609/Intel-82599-10-Gigabit-Ethernet-Controller
to download the required driver.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/32609/Intel-82599-10-Gigabit-Ethernet-Controller

For Linux: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/14687/Ethernet-Intel-Network-Adapter-Driver-for-PCIe-Intel-10-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Connections-Under-Linux-?product=32609

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/14687/Ethernet-Intel-Network-Adapter-Driver-for-PCIe-Intel-10-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Connections-Under-Linux-?product=32609

Download the latest available driver from the above link.

Step 5: Install/upgrade the Driver.

To manually build the driver
—————————-
1. Move the base driver tar file to the directory of your choice.
For example, use ‘/home/username/ixgbe’ or ‘/usr/local/src/ixgbe’.

2. Untar/unzip the archive, where <x.x.x> is the version number for the
driver tar file:

# tar zxf ixgbe-<x.x.x>.tar.gz

3. Change to the driver src directory, where <x.x.x> is the version number
for the driver tar:

# cd ixgbe-<x.x.x>/src/

4. Compile the driver module:

# make install

The binary will be installed as:
/lib/modules/<KERNEL VER>/updates/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe.ko

The install location listed above is the default location. This may differ
for various Linux distributions.

5. Load the module using the modprobe command.

To check the version of the driver and then load it:

# modinfo ixgbe
# modprobe ixgbe [parameter=port1_value,port2_value]

Alternately, make sure that any older ixgbe drivers are removed from the
kernel before loading the new module:

# rmmod ixgbe; modprobe ixgbe

Note: For certain distributions like (but not limited to) Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 7 and Ubuntu, once the driver is installed, you may need to update the
initrd/initramfs file to prevent the OS loading old versions of the ixgbe
driver.

Use the dracut utility on Red Hat distributions:
# dracut –force

For Ubuntu:
# update-initramfs -u

Step 6: Check and verify the new driver version.

Use the same command we used before “ethtool -i <interface name>” to view the driver version

Command: ethtool -i <interface name>

Sample Output:

driver: ixgbe
version: 5.7.1-k
firmware-version: 0x80000208
bus-info: 0000:04:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

Note: Please read the read me file available from Intel before proceeding.

That’s all for now. CHEERS!!!