Neterion/Exar X3100 Driver Disk - For XenServer 5.6 Feature Pack 1

Who Should Install This Driver Disk?

Customers running Citrix XenServer 5.6 Feature Pack 1 who wish to use Neterion Inc.'s X3100 Series 10GbE PCIe I/O Virtualized Server Adapter.

Issues Resolved In This Driver Disk

• Fix RX DMA stuck while resetting vpath of non-empty RX buffers.
• Fix Interrupt masking issue for short packet storm.
• Fix kernel crash if driver for privileged function is unloaded from Dom-0 when using SRIOV.

New Features In This Driver Disk

• Driver checks for the firmware and automatically upgrades to 1.8.1 if any mismatch is seen.
• Driver has option to flash the latest PXE image v3.5.0.1.
• Driver provides configuration options for functional modes: single function, multi function, SRIOV etc.
• Driver contains configuration options for port modes to support link failover, load balancing etc.

Installing the Driver Disk

Use the XenServer CLI to install this driver disk. Once the driver is installed, restart the server for the driver load. As with any software update, Citrix advises customers to back up their data before applying this driver disk.

Note that the attachment to this article is a zip file. It contains both the drive disk ISO mentioned below, and the source code for the driver. The zip file should be unzipped (to produce the driver disk ISO image), before carrying out the steps below. The source code file is not necessary for driver disk installation: it is provided to fulfill licensing obligations.

Also present in the zip file are two MD5 checksums.

The file with filename ending metadata.md5 contains the checksum of the driver disk's metadata. If, when you install the driver disk, you elect to verify the driver disk when prompted, you should check that the checksum presented by the installer is the same as that in the metadata MD5 checksum file included in this download.

Also present in the zip file is an MD5 checksum for the ISO image named vxge.iso.md5. This will allow you to verify that your download has been successful. This checksum is of the ISO only, and can be verified by following the instructions at CTX116166 - How To Verify Downloaded ISO Images

Installing as Part of a Clean XenServer Installation

1. Once you have selected your keyboard layout at the first installer prompt, you are presented with a welcome screen. At this point, press F9 on your keyboard, and insert the CD with the driver disk in it, or use one of the other methods such as installation over the network.
   
   Note that if installing over HTTP or FTP, the ISO image must be unpacked at that location (i.e. the installer expects to find the contents of the ISO at that network location, not the ISO itself).
   
   
2. The installer attempts to load the driver. If this is successful, you can continue with the installation as normal. Near the end of the installation, you are prompted to re-insert the driver disk (otherwise known as a XenServer supplemental pack) so that the driver can be installed onto disk. You must re-supply the driver disk at this point. Failure to do so means that the installation does not contain the new drivers. After this step, no further action is required.

If the installer fails to load the new driver from the driver disk, it is likely to be because an earlier version of the driver has already been loaded. In general, this is because a hardware component is present that is supported by the version of the driver that ships as part of XenServer (even if another component is present that requires a newer version of the driver). To avoid the existing driver being loaded, use the following procedure.

1. Reboot the host, leaving the XenServer installation CD-ROM in the drive.
2. At the boot: prompt, type:

   shell

3. You will now be presented with a command prompt. Type the following:
   

   rmmod vxge

   If this succeeds (i.e. there are no error messages printed), the installer's versions of the drivers have been unloaded. If error messages are presented, it is likely that other drivers depend on one or more of the drivers you are attempting to unload. If this is the case, contact Citrix Technical Support.
4. Type

   exit

   or press Control+D on your keyboard, to return to the installer.
5. Use the procedure described above to provide the driver disk to the installer, which should now load correctly.

Installing onto a Running XenServer System

This proccess requires a reboot of the Xenserver host. Before starting this process, ensure that your XenServer host is not hosting active Virtual Machines. You might have to migrate, suspend or stop virtual machines depending on your XenServer configuration. Also, WorkLoad Balancing (WLB) and High Availability (HA) should be disabled for any pool the XenServer host is part of to ensure that new virtual machines are not started on the host during this process.

1. Download the driver disk directly to the XenServer host to be updated (Citrix recommends storing it in the /tmp/ directory), or first download the file to an Internet-connected computer, and burn the ISO image to a CD.
2. Use XenCenter to access the XenServer host's console, or use secure shell (ssh) to log on directly.
3. Mount the driver disk image. The directory being mounted varies depending on whether the driver disk is still in ISO form, or was burnt to CD. For a CD-ROM, use:
   

   mkdir -p /mnt/tmp
   mount /dev/<path to cd-rom> /mnt/tmp
   cd /mnt/tmp/
   ./install.sh
   cd /
   umount /mnt/tmp

   If instead the ISO file is used, the steps are:
   

   mkdir -p /mnt/tmp
   mount /tmp/<path to ISO> /mnt/tmp -o loop,ro
   cd /mnt/tmp/
   ./install.sh
   cd /
   umount /mnt/tmp

4. To complete the installation, restart the host. This ensures that the drivers load correctly.

Files

Driver Disk Files

File Name	File MD5 Checksum
Metadata	343604715e19f1abc214dd3a79940960
vxge.iso	7eb097d80430806c8ea26951b5bd1ae7

Drivers Provided

Module Name	Version	RPM Name
vxge (Xen kernel)	2.5.1.22049	vxge-modules-xen-2.6.32.12-0.7.1.xs5.6.100.307.170586-2.5.1.22049-1.i386.rpm
vxge (Kdump kernel)	2.5.1.22049	vxge-modules-kdump-2.6.32.12-0.7.1.xs5.6.100.307.170586-2.5.1.22049-1.i386.rpm

More Information

For information on how to build driver disks, consult CTX124957 - XenServer 5.6 Supplemental Pack Guide.