PCI 10/100Base-TX and 100Base-FX/9000

The following subsections apply to the PCI 10/100Base-TX and 100Base-FX/9000 network cards. The information on the 100Base-FX/9000 (fiber) card is only applicable to the V-class server.

The PCI 10/100Base-TX and 100Base-FX/9000 products interface various types of HP servers and workstations to either a 10Base-T, 100Base-TX, or 100Base-FX network. The same card port that supports 100Base-TX operation can also support 10Base-T operation.

The category-5 UTP cable used in 100Base-TX networks between devices such as an HP computer and a 100Base-TX hub must be less than 100 meters long.

For more information on network topologies and associated specifications for 100Base-TX networking, refer to the IEEE 802.3u specification. Also, a useful practical reference is Fast Ethernet, Dawn of a New Network by Howard W. Johnson (published 1996 by Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. Phone 800-382-3419. The ISBN number is 0-13-352643-7).

Compatibility and Installation Requirements

The limits of the current PCI 10/100Base-TX and 100Base-FX/9000 are:

The PCI 10/100Base-TX/9000 card supports autonegotiation and autosensing. You should not normally need to manually configure the speed, autonegotiation, or duplex mode of the card. If your switch does not support autonegotiation but is set to full-duplex mode, there may be a mismatch between the card and the switch, because the card defaults to half-duplex for switches that do not support autonegotiation. You can determine what the card is set to using lanadmin -x and reset it if necessary using lanadmin -X. See “Manual Speed and Duplex Mode Configuration” for details.
By default, autonegotiation is on.
If you manually set the speed and duplex mode of the Base-TX card, autonegotiation will be turned off.
The PCI 100Base-FX (fiber) card operates only at 100Mbits/s half-duplex mode. The fiber card does not support autonegotiation or autosensing.
Only the PCI 100Base-TX card supports both full and half-duplex modes. If your hub or switch does not support autonegotiation, ensure that your hub or switch is set to the desired duplex mode.
The PCI 10/100Base-TX and 100Base-FX/9000 LAN software is for use with only the following protocols: TCP/IP, ARPA, and NFS.
When using the ioscan -f command to verify installation, the last digit of the H/W Path (hardware path) will show the port number of the card. The other fields of the output will show the driver as btlan, and the Hardware Type Description will show the product number of each link card.
The built-in PCI card for workstations has a nettl subsys_id of 173. The built-in workstation card also uses a dynamic major number.
On the built-in PCI card for workstations, the RJ-45 connector operates at either 10 or 100 Mbits/s, but the AUI connector operates only at 10 Mbits/s.

Configuring Network Connectivity

These instructions apply to the PCI 10/100Base-TX and 100Base-FX/9000 cards for the HP V-Class server and the PCI 10/100Base-TX card for HP Workstations. They assume that the PCI network card has been factory installed and the software already loaded on your disk. The PCI 10/100Base-TX card operates at both 10Mbits/s and 100Mbits/s. The Base-TX card supports autonegotiation and autosensing. The PCI 100Base-FX card operates only at 100Mbits/s, half-duplex mode only, and the fiber card does not support autonegotiation or autosensing.

Attach the system to the network:

Ensure that the system is shut down completely and the power is OFF. Ensure that the system is grounded.

If your Base-TX network uses 8-pin RJ-45 connectors, attach the RJ-45 plug on your twisted-pair LAN cable into the RJ-45 connector on the PCI 10/100Base-TX card. The same RJ-45 connector is used for either 10 or 100 Mbits/s operation.

If your network uses BNC connections, attach the LAN cable to the 10 Mbits/s BNC connector.

If your network uses Attachment Unit Interfaces (AUIs), attach your 10 Mbits/s Media Access Unit (MAU) to the AUI connector. Only use one of the three connectors at a time; disconnect the other two connectors on the card.




	NOTE: The RJ-45 connection operates at either 10 or 100 Mbits/s, but the BNC and AUI connections operate only at 10 Mbits/s. Also, the Link Status LED is for the RJ-45 connector only; the Link Status LED is dark if the AUI or BNC port is used.

For 100 Base-FX (fiber), attach the fiber optic cable to the duplex SC connector. Cabling can be either 62.5 or 125 micron multimode fiber optic cable. The operating distances for fiber optic cable for V-Class systems are:

Node-to-repeater hub: 150 m.
Half-duplex from node to switch or hub: 400 m.
The fiber card does not support full-duplex node.

Attach the free end of the cable to any unused port on the appropriate hub or switch (or into a wall jack that is connected to a hub or switch). Connect power cable to system. Set the hub or switch speed and duplex mode. The PCI 10/100Base-TX card operates in either full-duplex or half-duplex mode. The Base-TX card autonegotiates; the fiber card does not. If using the 100Base-FX card, set the duplex mode manually to half-duplex.
Power up the system. When the system is up, any error messages will appear on the terminal display or system console. You can also use the dmesg command to retrieve start-up messages later.
If you are using the RJ-45 connector on the PCI 10/100Base-TX or you are using the 100Base-FX card, verify that the Link LED on the card is on. The Link LED will remain dark if you are using either the BNC or AUI connector.

Configure the card using SAM:
1. Log in as root and verify that the card and its hardware path are displayed by executing:
  ioscan
2. Run the System Administration Manager: sam
3. Double click Networking and Communications.
4. Double click Network Interface Cards.
5. Highlight the PCI 10/100Base-TX or 100Base-FX card and choose Configure from the Actions menu.
6. Fill in the form according to the instructions.
7. Click on the OK button to activate the card. Then select Exit from the File menu until you exit SAM.
Verify the installation:
1. Obtain the PPA (on HP-UX 10.20, it is the NMIDnumber) and the station address of your card by executing:
  lanscan
2. To verify that no errors have occurred during installation, enter:
  linkloop -i PPA_number station_address
  If there is a problem, you can obtain error messages by entering:
  dmesg
3. Verify connectivity with a remote system by entering:
  ping remote_IP_address and netstat -in
4. PCI 10/100Base-TX/9000 or 100Base-FX installation is complete when you have successfully ran these two commands:
  linkloop
  ping
5. To configure remote systems, see the Using PCI 10/100Base-TX/9000 guide, available on the Instant Information CD and on the Web at:
  http://docs.hp.com/
  Do this step only if remote systems have not been previously configured.

Manual Speed and Duplex Mode Configuration

Because this PCI 10/100Base-TX/9000 LAN card supports autonegotiation, you should not normally need to manually set the duplex mode. Sometimes you may need to manually set the duplex mode of the card, for example, if the switch is operating at full-duplex but does not autonegotiate. Because the card defaults to half-duplex when autonegotiation is turned off, this could cause a mismatch between the card and switch (at either 10 or100 Mbits/s). To fix this, use lanadmin -X as described later in this section.

The CSMA/CD media access method used in IEEE 802.3u-1995 is inherently a half-duplex mechanism. That is, at any one time, there can be only one sender of data on the link segment. It is not possible for devices on either end of the link segment to transmit simultaneously.

Devices on both ends of a link segment can send data to each other simultaneously (full-duplex mode). While the details of full-duplex operation are not currently defined by IEEE 802.3u-1995 (full-duplex mode essentially involves "turning off" the CSMA/CD access method which is the foundation of IEEE 802.3), the autonegotiation mechanism defined in IEEE 802.3u-1995 allows devices to advertise and configure themselves to operate in a full-duplex mode which is essentially vendor-specific. Devices that do not support autonegotiation can sometimes be manually configured to operate in full-duplex mode.

Full-duplex mode is most-commonly found in either 10 Mbit/s or 100 Mbit/s switches rather than hubs. Full-duplex mode may provide a throughput advantage under some circumstances, depending upon the application. The PCI 10/100Base-TX card supports both half- and full-duplex operation. The fiber card supports only 100 Mbit/s half-duplex operation.

Ensure that the speed, duplex mode, and autonegotiation of the associated switch are configured the same as on the PCI 10/100Base-TX card. If the switch supports autonegotiation on the ports connected to the cards, this should be enabled as explained in “Autonegotiation and Auto-sensing”.

To list the current speed and duplex mode of a PCI 10/100Base-TX/9000 card, use the -x option (lowercase x) in the lanadmin command. Determine the speed and duplex mode of your hub or switch before performing manual configuration:

lanadmin -x ppa

To manually set the duplex mode of the interface, enter:

lanadmin -X mode ppa

where: mode can be any one of the following strings (fd or hd are case-insensitive):

10fd =10 full-duplex

10hd =10 half-duplex

100fd =100 full-duplex

100hd =100 half-duplex

lanadmin -X auto_on ppa turns autonegotiation on.

The ppa is the physical point of attachment on HP-UX 10.30 or 11.0. On HP-UX 10.20, use the nmid or Network Management ID of the card. You can get the ppa (nmid) from the output of the lanscan command.

For example, if the ppa (nmid on HP-UX 10.20) of the 100Base-TX interface is 5, this command sets the card to 10Mbits/s and full-duplex:

lanadmin -X 10fd 5

You must wait at least 11 seconds before attempting to use the specified network interface.

If you want the Duplex Mode setting to be effective in all subsequent reboots, you must create a script that includes the appropriate command in the /sbin/init.d directory so it gets executed on each reboot. Manually configuring the speed or duplex setting of a switch port on some switches may disable that switch port from doing autonegotiation. Verify that both the card and the switch port are operating in the same speed and duplex mode as desired.

If you use manual configuration to change the card to a different speed and duplex mode, you may need to turn autonegotiation on first before the manual setting takes place.




	NOTE: Mismatches between the speed, autonegotiation, or duplex mode of the card and switch will cause incorrect operation.

Setting Speed and Duplex Mode at Boot Time (workstation only)

With this method you may set both the speed and duplex mode of the interface, and have this setting be in effect across subsequent system reboots.

To access the LAN configuration commands: From the boot console, select the Configuration Menu and from there select LAN Configuration. From this menu you can configure and display the current mode of the10/100 Base-T interface using these commands:

LanConfig Display current configuration settings.

LanConfig 10/Half_dx Operate in 10 Mbit/s, half-duplex mode.

LanConfig 100/Half_dx Operate in 100 Mbit/s, half-duplex mode.

LanConfig 10/Full_dx Operate in 10 Mbit/s, full-duplex mode.

LanConfig 100/Full_dx Operate in 100 Mbit/s, full-duplex mode.

LanConfig AUTO_detect (default) Enable auto-negotiation.

If you don't use this method, the system boots up with the default setting AUTO_Detect.

Autonegotiation and Auto-sensing

Autonegotiation enables devices sharing a link segment to operate at the optimal mode: 10Base-T or 100Base-TX and half- or full-duplex modes.

If the PCI 10/100Base-TX/9000 card is connected to a device, such as a switch, that is autonegotiating, the PCI card will autonegotiate with the device to mutually determine the highest possible speed and duplex settings.The fiber card (100Base-FX/9000) operates at 100 Mbit/s and in half-duplex mode only. It does not support autonegotiation or autosensing.




	NOTE: If the PCI 10/100Base-TX/9000 card is connected to a device that does not support autonegotiation or a device that has autonegotiation disabled, the PCI card will autosense the speed of the link and set itself accordingly. The card will be set to half-duplex in this case. If you want the card to operate in full-duplex mode, you have to set it using the method described previously in "Manual Speed and Duplex Mode Configuration."

The PCI 10/100Base-TX card will sense when the connection between itself and a hub or switch on the other end of a link has been broken. If a connection is made to another (or the same) device, the autosensing process will be done again automatically. Autosensing is also done whenever the interface is reset.

RJ-45 and AUI Ports

The 10/100 Base-TX link works with both an RJ-45 and (on the V-class) an AUI port. The RJ-45 port can be used for either 100 Base-T or 10 Base-T networking; the AUI port is used only for 10 Base-T. Only one of these ports should be connected to a network at any given time. The link will normally attempt to automatically sense which port is connected and configure that port, unless this is overridden via the Boot Time LAN configuration described above.

If the RJ45 port is not connected to the network, the system will configure itself to use the AUI port during boot-up or reset.

Performance

The 100 Base-T product is initially set with a conservative value for the transmit threshold (that is, the number of bytes that must be in the transmit FIFO buffer before transmission can begin). The transmit threshold is set to a "store and forward" value. This means that the entire Ethernet frame must be in the transmit FIFO before transmission of data onto the wire will begin.

The initial transmit threshold value is set to eliminate transmit underruns (that is, when the transmitter encounters an empty transmit FIFO during the transmission). However, it can also reduce transmit performance by not being able to pre-fetch the next packet until the current frame is completely transferred. This causes a slight delay between frames, resulting in an overall drop in transmit performance.

The transmit threshold value is adjustable. Adjusting the threshold to either 1024 or 512 bytes can increase performance. If the transmit threshold is 1024 or 512, the CORE 100 Base-T interface will start transmitting data onto the wire after 1024 or 512 bytes are in the transmit FIFO. This allows the CORE 100 Base-T hardware to start pre-fetching the next frame in the transmit FIFO before the current frame is completely transmitted. This results in less time between subsequent frames and therefore increases the transmit performance.

Setting the transmit threshold

The CORE 100 Base-T product supports three levels of transmit threshold. These three levels are modified via lanadmin:

lanadmin -S transmit_threshold PPA

where:

transmit_threshold of 512 is most aggressive.
transmit_threshold of 1024 is somewhat aggressive.
transmit_threshold of 1500 is conservative.

After issuing lanadmin -S, you must wait at least 8 seconds before attempting to use the specified network interface.

If you want the transmit threshold setting to be effective in all subsequent reboots, you must create an SD script and include the command in the /sbin/init.d directory so it gets executed on each reboot.




	CAUTION: Be careful when adjusting the transmit threshold. While lowering the threshold may increase performance, it also makes the CORE 100 Base-T interface more susceptible to Transmit Underrun errors.

A large number of transmit underrun errors (more than 1 out of every 1000 packets) may cause a noticeable drop in networking performance. The performance drop will depend on the application being used. Applications that send data in a continuous stream (FTP, for example) may have a more noticeable drop in performance (when more than 1 out of every 1000 packets have errors) than applications which are request-response in nature (NFS, for example).

Transmit underrun errors may occur on some HP systems when there is sufficient bus contention from competing I/O devices on the system I/O bus. These errors can be monitored in two ways:

Examine the output from the netstat -I command. If the number of output errors is high (more than 1 out of every 1000 packets), then the system is most likely suffering from transmit underruns on the specified network interface, and corrective action must be taken to resolve the problem.
Turn on nettl errors and warnings for the network interface being monitored. The following command will turn on disasters, errors and warnings for the network interface with Instance number 1:
nettl -log 0xe -e base100 -C 1




	NOTE: Be sure to keep nettl disaster and error logging enabled at all times.

Check the nettl log file /var/adm/nettl.LOG00 for the following message:

HP CORE 10/100BASE-T driver encountered a Transmit Underflow

If a significant number of these messages occur and the timestamps for each of the messages are within 30 seconds of each other, the specified networking interface will suffer a noticeable performance drop. Corrective action must be taken to resolve this problem.

What Happens During Card Initialization Sequence?

Following is an overview of the initialization sequence for the PCI 10/100Base-TX and (for V-Class servers) the 100Base-FX cards.

Initialization of a PCI 10/100Base-TX or 100Base-FX card happens during system bootup only, and it is driven by the btlan driver for the card. Whenever initialization fails, it prints a message on the console identifying the failure. You can later retrieve initialization messages after the system is fully booted up by using the dmesg command. Finally, the driver tries to establish a good data link between the card and the hub or switch.

The Link Status LED is for the RJ-45 connector only. The link LED is lit only when the RJ-45 connector on the card is connected properly to a 10/100 Mbit/s switch or hub.When the RJ-45 cable connection is used, the link LED must be lit to indicate proper functioning. If there is no RJ-45 cable connection, or if the cable connection is bad, or if the hub or switch is not compatible, that is, not 10Base-T or 100Base-TX capable, no LEDS will be lit. Also, a message indicating the detection of a bad cable connection is printed on the console as well as logged in NETTL logs.

The Link LED functions as follows:

LED solid green = link established in 100Base-TX mode.
LED solid yellow = link established in 10Base-T mode.
LED remains dark in 10Base2 (BNC) or 10Base5 (AUI) mode. The Status LED is dark if the AUI or BNC port is used.

The Activity LED flashes whenever the switch is sending link pulses. If the activity LED on the card is not blinking, then there may be a problem with the driver or the card. Contact HP.




	NOTE: The RJ-45 connection operates at either 10 or 100 Mbits/s, but the BNC and AUI connections operate only at 10 Mbits/s.

V-Class PCI 10/100Base-TX Card Specifications

Physical:

Dimensions (A3738A): 5.839 x 4.78 inches.
Dimensions (A5172A): 5.075 x 3.9 inches. (PCI short card specification).

Power requirement: +5 Volts @ 0.5 Amps max.

Environmental: (degrees F = (1.8 x degrees C) + 32)

Operating temperature: 5 degreesC to 50 degreesC.
Humidity: 5 to 85% non-condensing.
Altitude: 3000 m.

Electromagnetic:

FCC Class A: USA, Canada, and Latin America.
CISPR-22 Class A, EN55022 Class A: Europe.

Cable Interfaces:

The 10-Mbit/s twisted-pair port is compatible with IEEE 802.3u-1995 Type 10Base-T. Cat 5 UTP.
The 100-Mbit/s twisted-pair port is compatible with IEEE 802.3u-1995 standard. Cat 5 UTP.
The fiber card uses one-pair multimode fiber cable with duplex SC connectors.

Cable Distances: (HP A5172A Fiber Card)

Node-to-switch cable distance up to 412 m in half duplex mode.
Node-to-repeater cable distance up to 137 m in half duplex mode only.
Line speed is 100 Mbits/s half-duplex.

Communications Standards:

IEEE 802.3u-1995 Type 10Base-T (10Mbit/s).
IEEE 802.3u-1995 standard for Base-TX and FX (100-Mbit/s)

Hardware Regulatory Statements

This section contains hardware regulatory statements for the V-Class PCI 100Base-TX product (A3738A) and 100Base-FX product (A5172A) use in the United States, Canada, and the European community. Refer to your PCI 10/100Base-TX 9000 Quick Install card for product installation instructions.

FCC Statement (for U.S.A.)

Federal Communications Commission Radio Frequency Interference Statement




	WARNING! This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that might cause undesired operation. This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy, and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause interference, in which case the user at his own expense will be required to take whatever measures may be required to correct the interference. Hewlett-Packard's system certification tests were conducted with HP-supported peripheral devices and cables, such as those received with your system. Changes or modifications to this equipment not expressly approved by Hewlett-Packard could void the user's authority to operate the equipment.

Canada




	WARNING! This Class A digital apparatus meets all requirements of the Canadian Interference-Causing Equipment Regulations. Cet appareil numérique de la classe A respecte toutes les exigences du règlement sur le matériel brouilleur du Canada.

EMI and LED Safety (European Community)




	NOTE: This is a class A product. In a domestic environment, this product may cause radio interference, in which case you may be required to take adequate measures.

LED Safety - European Union - Optical Transceiver (A5172A only)




	NOTE: This optical transceiver meets LED AEL Class 1 requirements per EN 60825-1:1994(+A11) and EN 60825-2:1994.