Broadcom TOE, Dell, ISA 2004 and my headache....

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A while back I posted about how Broadcom and it’s TOE system in the Dell PowerEdge 2900 stops ISA from functioning on Small Business Server 2003.

Well, since then I have installed a few more Dell servers, all with Intel cards and have had no problems. However, once recent order managed to slip through the net and came with only the Broadcom Netextreme II card.

Researching the web, I found that people have tried removing the TOE connector that disabled this feature at a hardware level on the PowerEdge box. They have also tried installing the Broadcom drivers, as well as the most recent Dell ones. Some have even gone as far as to upgrading the firmware on the device. I even tried the Scalable Networking Pack from Microsoft. Nothing seems to work…

What is worse is that if you call into Dell Technical support about this issue, they will not easily acknowledge that this is their issue. In fact, just today I had to purchase the Intel replacement. (I conceded with my account manager that this would be the easier and less stressful process).

This stuff needs to be easier. But for the moment my recommendation is still to avoid the Broadcom solution.

Posted: Mon, Mar 12 2007 18:46 by NickWhittome | with 12 comment(s)

Filed under: Small Business Server, Dell, Rants, Broadcom

Comments

Victor said:

Hi Nick,

I´m a Server support analyst at Dell.

This evening I had a case of ISA malfunction with Broadcom Nics.

I didn´t finish the torubleshoot with my customer yet, but at first it seems the issue is related to "Receive-side Scaling", not to TOE. You can try by disabling it in the Broadcom Driver properties.

I hope it helps you.

Regards

# March 27, 2007 10:43 AM

NickWhittome said:

Hi Victor, I believe that this does not fix 100% of the issues. But thanks for your feedback.

I believe Broadcom recently updated the drivers on the site again, but I am not sure if it fixes things.

Also, the Microsoft article on the subject is being worked on and made clearer.

# March 27, 2007 11:00 AM

Mike said:

Thanks for the tip on the "Receive-side Scaling". I have been having problems with this for almost 2 weeks. I had tried the new drivers from Broadcom, which didn't fix my issue. Tried the firmware updates, didn't help, completely re-installed SBS, which worked, right until I put ISA back on.

Now with disabling the Receive-side Scaling, I can remove workstations from the domain and re-add them successfully.

Thanks Victor.

# March 29, 2007 3:22 PM

Ingram Leedy said:

We've fought the same issue, infact, Windows Server 2003 SP2 included SNP (scalable network pack) which re-enabled TOE if you have previosly disabled.,

Just disable it TOE at command prompt,

netsh int ip set chimney DISABLED

# July 3, 2007 7:00 PM

pie8ter said:

A lesson learned. I wish I've seen these blogs before we purchased three Poweredge 2950s with broadcom. We are having ton of problems with the Broadcom.

# July 30, 2007 5:21 AM

Greg said:

We had major problems with the TOE where we had a 64bit server with VM Ware on it. The VM's wouldn't communicate with the host and vica versa. Disabled the TOE and all problems resolved.

Cheers,

Greg

# October 2, 2007 4:54 AM

Ahmed said:

Had the same problem yesterday. Was determined to find a better fix than uninstalling sp2 for windows 2003.

I posted it on my blog with a couple of photos that could help.

It fixed my problem and I confirmed the solution with Dell

www.it-etc.com/.../vmware-host-and-guest-cannot-communicate-over-network-shares-on-dell-poweredge-and-broadcom-toe

# October 10, 2007 9:23 AM

2K3 - L2TP Verbindung von ISA zu ISA schl?gt fehl mit Fehler 789 - MCSEboard.de MCSE Forum said:

Pingback from 2K3 - L2TP Verbindung von ISA zu ISA schl?gt fehl mit Fehler 789 - MCSEboard.de MCSE Forum

# October 29, 2007 8:11 AM

Soonersby50 said:

Sounds like the Receive Side Scaling issue to me..If you want to use your TOE license/key in the future for offloading features then you may need to apply these and disable the RSS feature:

You may experience network-related problems after you install Windows Server 2003 SP2 or the Scalable Networking Pack on a Windows Small Business Server 2003-based computer

support.microsoft.com/.../en-us

You cannot host TCP connections when Receive Side Scaling is enabled in Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2

support.microsoft.com/.../en-us

# November 6, 2007 3:59 PM

Tai said:

you guys are the bomb, fixed mine with this command on the host server.

netsh int ip set chimney DISABLED

# December 7, 2007 11:33 PM

John said:

Confirmed here too. Dell Poweredge 2950 with Broadcom NICs, SBS R2. Numerous network problems. No software fix whatsoever worked. Had to physically pull the TOE 2 adapter. Problem solved.

# January 14, 2008 9:03 AM

Ethan said:

I concur, it's a year later and these Broadcom NICs are still just awful. I learned a lesson from these things, ALWAYS upgrade to the Intel NICs when you purchase a Dell.

# March 26, 2009 1:32 PM

Nick Whittome - The Naked MVP