Topic: Network problems with a Dell Poweredge T40

[Peasant]

Hello,
Has anyone any experience of installing 10.0 on a Dell Poweredge T40? The reason I ask is that although it installed no problem, and going in to ifconfig shows that the two network cards I have installed are seen and listed as UP, I have no networking on either the wan card or the local card (ran the internet test from the console and it failed, and connecting a PC to the lan port either directly or using a switch and it can't get an IP address). I have tried disabling the on board card, and installing as server only, but still no joy. If I boot into Linux Mint from a USB stick both cards are seen and both work.
Thanks.
PS, I have double checked that I connected the right cables to the right NIC's

[ReetP]

Can you find out what cards they are and check that they load correctly? Wondering if they want some sort of firmware?

Log errors?

[Jean-Philippe Pialasse]

lspci could help here

[Peasant]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I haven't had the time to look at log files, but went back to basics first. The Dell only had one NIC, so I installed a PCI for the second NIC as I use SME in server/gateway mode. So I took this out, and reinstalled SME 10 in server only mode, and it worked fine. I then put in a PCIe network card, and installed again, but hit the same snag. Looks like I'll have to do some digging in the log files... wish me luck

[brianr]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I haven't had the time to look at log files, but went back to basics first. The Dell only had one NIC, so I installed a PCI for the second NIC as I use SME in server/gateway mode. So I took this out, and reinstalled SME 10 in server only mode, and it worked fine. I then put in a PCIe network card, and installed again, but hit the same snag. Looks like I'll have to do some digging in the log files... wish me luck

Sounds like some sort of incompatibility between the built in NIC and the PCI one you added.  Try another type?

Also try disabling the builtin NIC in the bios (if you can) and see if that makes the PCI one work.

[brianr]

Also:

https://www-poc.dell.com/community/PowerEdge-Hardware-General/Additional-NIC-for-T40-Poweredge/td-p/7799336

[Peasant]

... and now all of a sudden it has started working. I'll push on with the rest of the stuff I need to do to get a full production server up and running. I'll need to set up a VM to have a play to see if I can replicate this.

Brian, it was a different card I put in this time. It was doing exactly the same thing, but suddenly started working. The Internet test from the admin console still doesn't work, but I have Internet access from a PC using SME as its gateway.

[brianr]

The Internet test from the admin console still doesn't work,

Very strange  - are you using DHCP from the client PCs?

[Peasant]

Very strange  - are you using DHCP from the client PCs?

Yes. The setup I have at the moment is the internal network is handled by the built in card, and the PCIe card handles the Internet. It uses DHCP to get its connection from a router.

I'll need to have a think about how I'm going to test all this. The server is my own, so it's no great problem if I have to fiddle a bit.

[Peasant]

Additional - running the Internet test from the admin console on the server fails, but I can ping google.co.uk from the command line.

[brianr]

Additional - running the Internet test from the admin console on the server fails, but I can ping google.co.uk from the command line.

Even stranger.  How is DNS setup?

[Peasant]

DNS is just the standard - ie the server is its own dns server.

Here is an extract from messages. I noticed on my windows laptop that it was trying to connect, and failing, and this is shown here:

Code: [Select]

Oct  1 14:43:24 botham kernel: [  368.505475] e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
Oct  1 14:43:28 botham kernel: [  372.283993] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Down
Oct  1 14:43:29 botham kernel: [  373.918222] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx
Oct  1 14:43:29 botham kernel: [  373.918234] e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
Oct  1 14:43:30 botham kernel: [  374.900006] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Down
Oct  1 14:43:32 botham kernel: [  376.568480] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx
Oct  1 14:43:32 botham kernel: [  376.568484] e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
Oct  1 14:43:33 botham kernel: [  378.121004] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Down
Oct  1 14:43:35 botham kernel: [  379.771492] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx
Oct  1 14:43:35 botham kernel: [  379.771495] e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
Oct  1 14:43:37 botham kernel: [  381.474016] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Down
Oct  1 14:43:38 botham kernel: [  383.124503] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx
Oct  1 14:43:38 botham kernel: [  383.124507] e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
Oct  1 14:43:41 botham kernel: [  385.772024] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Down
Oct  1 14:43:43 botham kernel: [  387.421508] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx
Oct  1 14:43:43 botham kernel: [  387.421511] e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
Oct  1 14:43:46 botham kernel: [  390.423031] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Down
Oct  1 14:43:47 botham kernel: [  392.073486] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx
Oct  1 14:43:47 botham kernel: [  392.073490] e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
Oct  1 14:53:03 botham kernel: [  947.838458] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Down
Oct  1 14:53:05 botham kernel: [  949.489025] e1000e: eno1 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx
Oct  1 14:53:05 botham kernel: [  949.489028] e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
The reason the speed is only 100Mbps is because I only had a 100Mbps switch handy

[brianr]

That can only be hardware - the switch or the NIC or the cable.

[Peasant]

That can only be hardware - the switch or the NIC or the cable.

OK. I will have a go with other kit and report back. Thanks for the help so far. It's much appreciated.