[SunRay-Users] Gigabit Sun Ray switches revisited (stripes and hanging networkinterfaces)

[Rich Teer]

On Wed, 7 Oct 2009, Ivar Janmaat wrote:

> I thought I just could replace my 100 Mbit switch with a gigabit switch.
> Man was I wrong......
> 
> Setup:
> Gigabit network interface on Server.
> Sun Ray Server Software 4.2 ea 2
> Solaris Nevada Build 123
> Sitecom Network Gigabit Switch
> Linksys SLM2008 Gigabit Switch
> Linksys SRW2008 Gigabit Switch
> Sun Ray 270
> 
> Stress test:
> Open Eye of Gnome image viewer on the Sun Ray and click through about 30
> high resolution images
> 
> Situation 1:
> SR Server <-------> SR 270
> 
> This works perfect!
> 
> Situation 2:
> SR Server  <----> Gigabit switch <-----> SR 270
> 
> There is packet loss. The build up of the images is  hampering and I see
> stripes instead of blocks.

Yep, been there, suffered through that!  The solution I used was to add
this line to /etc/system:

set hires_tick = 1

and reboot.  The higher resolution clock means that packets are sent more
frequently and thus require less buffering in the switch.

> Workaround hangs server network interface!
> As suggested in earlier e-mails to the list I reduced the server port on
> the Linksys SLM2008 from auto-negotiate (1GB) to 100Mb fixed. This
> resulted in less striping but to my surprise the servers network
> interface died after clicking through about 20 pictures in Eye OG.  The
> same thing happened when I tried it with the Linksys SRW2008 switch.
> The only workable solution I found was on the SRW2008.
> It is: Leave the port setting "auto-negotiate" on "enable" but change
> the "admin advertisement" from "Max capability" to "100 Full" This will
> remove all striping and it does not hang up the network interface on the
> server.

I never mess with (i.e., disable) the auto-negotiate settings.  That way
lies bad ju-ju...  Just set the hi_res clock in /etc/system and rely on
autonegotiation, and it'll be fine.

-- 
Rich Teer, SCSA, SCNA, SCSECA

URLs: http://www.rite-group.com/rich
      http://www.linkedin.com/in/richteer