[AG-TECH] Linux networking problems

[Kay Gunn]

I just got access to the switch and have been gathering port statistics.

The switch is a Cisco Catylist 3500 XL.
All of the ports are fixed to 100 full duplex, running spanning-tree
portfast.

I've found errors on the switch for all machines that are running grid
software (2 Win2K machines, 3 Linux 6.2 machines).  I have tried different
switch ports, and the errors move with the machines.  I have tried
different OSes on the machines (generic Win2k, generic RedHat 7.1), and
the errors go away.  Basically, what I'm seeing is happy switch ports for
machines not doing any multicast; and very unhappy switch ports for
machines doing multicast.  Here is the output from 3 different switch
ports.  For each port with multicast traffic, there are lots of input
errors, consisting of CRC and frame errors.  For ports with no multicast
traffic, there are no errors.  

Any advice?

#1 Windows 2000 running video display
Switch#sh inter fa0/20
FastEthernet0/20 is up, line protocol is up 
  Hardware is Fast Ethernet, address is 0004.2709.9b94 (bia
0004.2709.9b94)
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec, 
     reliability 255/255, txload 80/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive not set
  Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, 100BaseTX/FX
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input 6w0d, output 00:00:00, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters 00:22:34
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue 0/40, 0 drops; input queue 0/75, 0 drops
  5 minute input rate 402000 bits/sec, 664 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 31559000 bits/sec, 6375 packets/sec
     924727 packets input, 70359261 bytes
     Received 264 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     6379 input errors, 3493 CRC, 2886 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 watchdog, 256 multicast
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     8675511 packets output, 1084936973 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

#2 Video capture Redhat 6.2
Switch#sh inter fa0/31
FastEthernet0/31 is up, line protocol is up 
  Hardware is Fast Ethernet, address is 0004.2709.9b9f (bia
0004.2709.9b9f)
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec, 
     reliability 255/255, txload 60/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive not set
  Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, 100BaseTX/FX
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output 00:00:01, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters 00:25:26
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue 0/40, 0 drops; input queue 0/75, 0 drops
  5 minute input rate 14000 bits/sec, 16 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 23656000 bits/sec, 4734 packets/sec
     60286 packets input, 5596246 bytes
     Received 13471 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     1124 input errors, 467 CRC, 657 frame, 2 overrun, 2 ignored
     0 watchdog, 13469 multicast
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     8431404 packets output, 1046653881 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

#3 Redhat 7.1 Generic install
Switch#sh inter fa0/4 
FastEthernet0/4 is up, line protocol is up 
  Hardware is Fast Ethernet, address is 0004.2709.9b84 (bia
0004.2709.9b84)
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec, 
     reliability 255/255, txload 44/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive not set
  Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, 100BaseTX/FX
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output 00:00:01, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters 00:26:57
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue 0/40, 0 drops; input queue 0/75, 0 drops
  5 minute input rate 47000 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 17395000 bits/sec, 3516 packets/sec
     71420 packets input, 107209695 bytes
     Received 7 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 watchdog, 0 multicast
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     8435232 packets output, 949822669 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out


On Wed, 25 Jul 2001, Kay Gunn wrote:

> 
> I have noticed some weird behaviour/poor network performance on my Linux
> audio and video capture stations.  They are running the AG 1.0 linux 6.2
> OS downloaded from ftp://ftp.mcs.anl.gov/pub/AG/redhat-2001-0614-0732.iso.
> In one machine I have an Intel PCI EtherExpress Pro 100 network card, in
> the other a PCI 3c905c Tornado.  They are both set to run full duplex
> 100MB and are hooked up to the same switch as a Redhat linux 7.1 ftp
> server.  When ftping files btw the grid nodes and my ftp server, I get a
> transfer rate of less than 3MB/second on each machine.  Doing the same
> transfer btw the ftp server and 2 different machines on the same switch
> running Redhat 7.1 with the same PCI 3c905c Tornado cards set to 100MB
> full duplex, I get a transfer rate of 11MB/sec. I've run these tests
> multiple times and always get the same results.
> 
> Basically I'm getting much better thruput with 7.1.  Anyone have any ideas
> as to how to fix this with the AG release? 
> 
> ------
> Kay Gunn
> 
> 

------
Kay Gunn