Gigabit Ethernet Configuration

These days all the newer Sun Systems ship with GE (Gigabit Ethernet) Port. Let me give you a quick run down on how to go about configuring the GE Port.

First, to make sure that your Network Interface Card is actually GE Supported, run the following command:

# kstat ce | more
module: ce instance: 0
name: ce0 class: net
adv_cap_1000fdx 1
adv_cap_1000hdx 1
adv_cap_100T4 0
adv_cap_100fdx 1
adv_cap_100hdx 1
adv_cap_10fdx 1
adv_cap_10hdx 1
adv_cap_asmpause 0
adv_cap_autoneg 1
adv_cap_pause 0

You the line adv_cap_1000fdx, this means that the interface support GE link. For better through put, i would suggest you to use a Cat-6 cable instead of Cat-5e cable for better results. Cat-5e has low MHz frequency as compared to Cat-6, so Cat-5e can actually be a bottle neck for you if network traffic is high. Next we go about configuring the interface. Dont worry, its pretty simple and straight forward.

The ndd is a nice little utility used to examine and set kernel parameters, namely the TCP/IP drivers. Most kernel parameters accessible through ndd can be adjusted without rebooting the system. To see which parameters are available for a particular driver, use the following ndd command:

# ndd /dev/ce \?

Here /dev/ce is the name of the driver and command lists the parameters for this particular driver. Use of backslash in from of "?" prevents the shell from interpreting the question mark as a special character. However, in most cases even ignoring backslash should give you same results.

Some Interpretations-

# ndd -set /dev/ce instance 2
Interpretation:
Choose ce2 network interface to set parameters.

# ndd -get /dev/ce link_mode
Interpretation:
0 -- half-duplex
1 -- full-duplex

# ndd -get /dev/ce link_speed
Interpretation:
0 -- 10 Mbit
1 -- 100 Mbit
1000 -- 1 Gbit

Usually in most cases, if you enable your network interface to adv_autoneg_cap, it should detect the GE Connection and jump your interface to 1000mbps. But in some cases it might not. In such a situation, i would strongly suggest you to set force GE link on the switch. However, even if that doesnt work, then move to forcing your NIC to GE link. Below steps can be followed.

To Switch the NIC to Auto Negotiation-

ndd -set /dev/ce instance 2
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_1000fdx_cap 1
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_1000hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_100fdx_cap 1
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_100hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_10fdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_10hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_autoneg_cap 1

To force your NIC to 1000fdx

ndd -set /dev/ce instance 2
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_1000fdx_cap 1
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_1000hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_100fdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_100hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_10fdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_10hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_autoneg_cap 0

This should do. In case you want to make these changes permanent, i would suggest that you, create a file /etc/init.d/nddconfig and add following entries into the file-

#!/bin/sh

ndd -set /dev/ce instance 2
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_1000fdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_1000hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_100fdx_cap 1
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_100hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_10fdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_10hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/ce adv_autoneg_cap 0

# ln -s /etc/init.d/nddconfig /etc/rc3.d/S31nddconfig

NOTE: The /etc/system settings are not supported for configuring ce Ethernet adapters during system startup; you may either use ndd commands in an /etc/rc?.d script or create a /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/ce.conf file with appropriate settings.

Please feel free to post your questions in the comments section if you have any. I would be happy to answer them.