v100 and flapping dmfe0 ethernet interface

From: sunlist (sun@oryx.cc)
Date: Mon Aug 08 2005 - 16:40:07 EDT


I have a Sun V100 system running Solaris 9 plus a cluster patch from late May
2005. The dmfe interface that is constantly going up and down.

The system is attached to a Cisco 2950. Both ends are auto-negotiating 100Mb
and full duplex. I do not see any network errors either on the Cisco side or
the Sun side.

I am getting this in the /var/adm/messages file:

Aug 8 14:01:02 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link up
100 Mbps Full-Duplex
Aug 8 14:01:03 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link down
Aug 8 14:01:06 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link up
100 Mbps Full-Duplex
Aug 8 14:17:41 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link down
Aug 8 14:17:44 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link up
100 Mbps Full-Duplex
Aug 8 14:19:25 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link down
Aug 8 14:19:29 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link up
100 Mbps Full-Duplex
Aug 8 14:49:57 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link down
Aug 8 14:50:01 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link up
100 Mbps Full-Duplex
Aug 8 14:50:11 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link down
Aug 8 14:50:15 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link up
100 Mbps Full-Duplex
Aug 8 14:58:24 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link down
Aug 8 14:58:28 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link up
100 Mbps Full-Duplex
Aug 8 14:59:43 v100b dmfe: [ID 801593 kern.notice] NOTICE: dmfe0: PHY 1 link down

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I found these link in an effort to resolve my issue from a yahoo search:

http://www.sunmanagers.org/pipermail/sunmanagers/2005-January/034332.html

http://www.webservertalk.com/archive103-2004-6-259199.html

http://www.sunmanagers.org/pipermail/sunmanagers/2003-December/027343.html

http://usenet2.best-buy-online.com/Dir10/File276.html

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  I also poked around sunsolve and found patch 116561-06 which addressed these
issues:

4643212 dmfe driver should be GLD v2 "compliant"
4646439 dmfe driver should support Davicom DM9102A rev 9
4463714 DM9102A (-6) chip can overrun buffers even after SW reset of MAC
4498135 dmfe0: PHY 1 Link down / up reported on console

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I applied this patch and did help quite a bit. Prior to this patch, the
interface was cycling every 5 seconds. It is now flapping about 12 times an hour.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It appears that this is a not-uncommon problem for systems that use the dmfe
interface, but I haven't come across any post that indicate that they resolved
it or how they did it.

TIA for any replies, I will summarize with my solution.

Jerry K
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