Intel® Ethernet Controller Products

Release Notes for Software Release 25.2

Intel Corporation

Revision 1.0
July 2020
630349-001
 Intel® Ethernet Controller Products
Release Notes for Software Release 25.2

Revision History

Revision Date Comments

1.0 July 2020 • Initial release (Intel Public).

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Intel® Ethernet Controller Products
Software Release 25.2

1.0 Overview
This document provides an overview of the changes introduced in the latest Intel® Ethernet controller/
adapter family of products. References to more detailed information are provided where necessary. The
information contained in this document is intended as supplemental information only; it should be used
in conjunction with the documentation provided for each component.
These release notes list the features supported in this software release, known issues, and issues that
were resolved during release development.

1.1 Supported Intel® Ethernet Controller Devices

Windows Driver Linux Driver FreeBSD Driver

Controller Family NVM Version
Version Version Version

Intel® Ethernet 800 Series 1.4.29.x 1.0.x 0.26.x 2.0x

®
Intel Ethernet 700 Series 1.12.177.x 2.12.x 1.12.x 8.00
®
Intel Ethernet 500 Series 4.1.197.x 5.8.x 3.3.x 3.01

Intel® Ethernet 300 Series 12.18.11.x 5.3.x 2.5.x N/A

Intel® Ethernet 200 Series 12.19.0.x 5.3.x 2.5.x N/A

®
Intel Ethernet Controller 82598 2.4.36.x 5.8.x 3.3.x N/A
®
Intel Ethernet Controller 8257x 9.16.10.x 5.3.x 2.5.x N/A

®
1. Intel Ethernet Controller X550.

For help identifying your network device and finding supported devices, click here:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005584/network-and-i-o/ethernet-
products.html

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Software Release 25.2

1.2 New Features

1.2.1 Hardware Support

Release New Hardware Support

®
• 25.2 • Intel Ethernet Controller E810-C
• Intel® Ethernet Controller E810-C for backplane
• Intel® Ethernet Controller E810-C for QSFP
• Intel® Ethernet Controller E810-C for SFP
• Intel® Ethernet Network Adapter E810-C-Q2
• Intel® Ethernet Network Adapter E810-XXV-4

1.2.2 Software Features

Release New Software Support

• 25.2 • The Intel® Ethernet Controller E810 supports up to 100Gb/s throughput for the mainstream market for a
variety of workloads used in Communications, Storage, Enterprise, Hybrid Cloud, Artificial Intelligence etc.
— Application Device Queues (ADQ) feature that reduces network jitter and provides better and more
predictable performance for latency-sensitive applications.
— Supports both iWARP and RoCEv2 RDMA, selectable via software per port for low latency and high
throughput workload.
• For X722 devices installed in a Linux system, added a mechanism to set Forward Error Correction (FEC) mode.

1.2.3 Removed Features

No previous features were removed for this release.

2.0 Fixed Issues

2.1 Intel® Ethernet 800 Series

This is the initial software release supporting the Intel® Ethernet 800 Series of products.

2.2 Intel® Ethernet 700 Series

2.2.1 General
• Fixed: MPLS (mpls-pay.pkg) and eCPRI (ecpri.pkg) DDP packages cannot be loaded.

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2.2.2 Linux Driver

• Fixed: More than 16 VLANs assigned to a Virtual Function (VF) in untrust mode are operational
• Fixed: Ethtool (via ethtool -m comand) and dmesg displays information that the SFP module is not
inserted on the platform where there is no SFP cage.
• Fixed: FEC mode setting is not available for Intel® Ethernet Controller X722 devices (via ethtool --
show-fec command).
• Fixed: VF is not operational when a number of queues has been changed without turning off the VF
first.
• Fixed: List of MAC addresses assigned to VF is removed after an Intel AVF driver reload.
• Fixed: Reloading the Intel AVF driver clears VF mirrors ingress settings while both Physical Function
(PF) and VF mirrors have been added.
• Fixed: Despite being added, PF egress or ingress mirrors still show as turned off.
• Fixed: Trunk settings have no effect on filtering traffic of host VLANs.
• Fixed: Allow broadcast (allow_bcast) option is not present in sysfs.

2.2.3 Linux RDMA Driver

• Fixed: In RedHat 8.1, the i40iw driver does not compile.

2.2.4 NVM Update Tool

• Fixed: The X722 adapter doesn't allow for updates through other physical ports when dummy
deviceId 0x37CC is detected at the first physical port. It's not possible to swap between different
OCP PHY modules.
• Fixed: On X710-T4L and X710-T4L for OCP 3.0 adapters, fast update executed by the NVM Update
Tool with RESET TYPE: PHY entry in config file ends with PHY reset failed information and exit code
18.

2.2.5 EFI Driver

• Fixed: Wake on LAN (WoL) settings can only be saved after a power cycle on X710 OCP3.0
adapters.

2.2.6 Virtualization
• Fixed: SR-IOV is disconnected when 2.5G or 5G speed is set on X710TLG GbE RJ45 PCIe adapters.

2.3 Intel® Ethernet 500 Series

2.3.1 EEupdate
• Fixed: EEupdate doesn't provide information that changes of device ID and MAC addresses are
locked.

2.3.2 QoS Windows

Fixed: Powershell command Get-NetAdapterQos does not show current setting after a firmware
transition from non-willing to willing.

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Software Release 25.2

2.4 Intel® Ethernet 300 Series

None for this release.

2.5 Intel® Ethernet 200 Series

2.5.1 EFI Driver

Fixed: Intel® Ethernet Controller I210 might not establish a link with probability of one failure per 1000
power cycles or even more. Such behavior can be observed only if power cycle is performed during D3
state.

3.0 Known Issues

3.1 Intel® Ethernet 800 Series

3.1.1 General
• The link might go down when Intel device drivers load using auto-speed (default) with non-
specification compliant modules. Manually setting the speed might recover the link.
• Poor receive performance and dropped packets.
Devices based on the Intel® Ethernet Controller 800 Series might exhibit poor receive performance
and dropped packets. The following might improve the situation:
— In your system's BIOS/UEFI settings, select the Performance profile.
• For Microsoft Windows Server* operating systems:
In the Power Options control panel, set the system to use the High Performance Profile.
• For Linux operating systems:
On RHEL 7.x/8.x, use the tuned power management tool to set the Latency-performance
profile.
• In other operating systems and environments, use the equivalent tool to set the equivalent
profile.
• For FreeBSD operating systems:
Do not modify the ACPI, P-state, or C-state system controls (sysctls) to values intended
to save power on the system.
• For VMWare ESX, instructions to set power management to High Performance in the
operating system can be found here:
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.resmgmt.doc/
GUID-F48D75C7-2461-4643-8A3A-B0383146F3AA.html#
GUID-F48D75C7-2461-4643-8A3A-B0383146F3AA
• Applications using E810 in a backplane configuration with no WoL, and no management during
power-up might experience no link, which is fixed by any form of reset.
• VXLAN switch creation on Windows Server 2019 Hyper V might fail.
• Some devices support auto-negotiation. Selecting this causes the device to advertise the value
stored in it’s NVM (usually disabled).

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• Intel does it's best to find and address interoperability issues, however there might be connectivity
issues with certain modules, cables or switches. Interoperating with devices that do not conform to
the relevant standards and specifications increases the likelihood of connectivity issues.
• At lower packet rates flow control and/or packet drops might be observed.
• In order for an Intel® Ethernet 800 Series based adapter to reach its full potential, you must install
it in a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot. Installing on fewer lanes (x8, x4, x2) and/or Gen3, Gen2 or Gen1,
impedes the full throughput of the device.

3.1.2 Linux Driver

• Adding a physical port to the Linux bridge might fail and result in Device or Resource Busy message
if SR-IOV is already enabled on a given port. To avoid this condition, create SR-IOV VFs after
assigning a physical port to a Linux bridge.
• When in an 8x10 configuration and using firmware LLDP, the 8TC to 4TC mapping in CEE mode does
not work.
• DPDK sample applications specify a packet size of 1518 bytes. At present the PF driver does not
take into account the extra 4 bytes needed if a port VLAN is configured. In this situation (when a
port VLAN is configured) full sized packets of 1500 do not reach the DPDK application. In order for
this to work properly, initialize the max packet length within the DPDK application to account for the
possible port VLAN (specify 1522 bytes).
• When using ice Linux driver and creating a flow director rule with ethtool the ethtool stat
fdir_sb_match might not increment even though traffic is received matching on that rule.
• Operating system traffic is not passed when using a VLAN over bridge topology. To workaround this
issue, set the rx_vlan_filter to off and traffic will resume as expected.
• Creating MACVLAN interfaces might result in Device or Resource Busy message if SR-IOV is already
enabled on a given port. To avoid this condition, create MACVLAN interfaces prior to enabling SR-
IOV feature.
• Current limitations of minimum Tx rate limiting on SR-IOV VFs:
— If DCB or ADQ are enabled on a PF then configuring minimum Tx rate limiting on SR-IOV VFs on
that PF is rejected.
— If both DCB and ADQ are disabled on a PF then configuring minimum Tx rate limiting on SR-IOV
VFs on that PF is allowed.
— If minimum Tx rate limiting on a PF is already configured for SR-IOV VFs and a DCB or ADQ
configuration is applied, then the PF then configuring minimum Tx rate limiting on SR-IOV VFs
on that PF is allowed.
— If minimum Tx rate limiting on a PF is already configured for SR-IOV VFs and a DCB or ADQ
configuration is applied, then the PF can no longer guarantee the minimum Tx rate limits set for
SR-IOV VFs.
— If minimum Tx rate limiting is configured on SR-IOV VFs across multiple ports that have an
aggregate bandwidth over 100Gbps, then the PFs cannot guarantee the minimum Tx rate limits
set for SR-IOV VFs.
• IEEE1588/PTP 1PPS does not work on Intel® E810 series adapters.

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Software Release 25.2

3.1.3 Linux RDMA Driver

• When using Intel MPI in Linux, Intel recommends to enable only one interface on your networking
device to avoid MPI application connectivity issues or hangs. This issue affects all Intel MPI
transports, including TCP and RDMA. To avoid the issue, use ifdown <interface> or ip link set
down <interface> to disable all network interfaces on your adapter except for the one used for
MPI. OpenMPI does not have this limitation.
• When using RoCEv2 on newer kernels, some iSER operations might experience errors related to
iSER's handling of work requests. To work around this issue, set the E810 fragment_count_limit
devlink parameter to 13. Refer to the Devlink Configuration section of the irdma driver README for
details on setting the devlink parameter.

3.1.4 Windows Driver

• When changing the Locally Administered Address the E810 reflects the updated address but the
switch might not show this address in its LLDP neighbors information.
• If the link is disabled on the link partner the E810 might not report the link is down after running
Powershell or DMIX. If you disable then enable the Windows driver the issue should resolve.
• If you change the DCB map on the link partner while RDMA is enabled it might cause a reset on the
device.

3.1.5 Windows RDMA Driver

• With a S2D storage cluster configuration running Windows Server 2019, high storage bandwidth
tests might result in a crash for a BSOD bug check code 1E (KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)
with smbdirect as the failed module. Customers should contact Microsoft* via the appropriate
support channel for a solution.

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Software Release 25.2

3.1.6 NVM Update Tool

• Updating using an external OROM (FLB file) and opting for delayed reboot in the config file is not
supported.
• In ESXi the device serial number appears as N/A.
• Intel recommends not enabling non-default modes (delayed reboot and selective preservation) with
this release. Generally when using these features errors might be reported; however, after a reboot
the update should have completed successfully.
• Reboot might fail after an update if the PRESERVATION entry has NONE or SELECTIVE in config file.
To workaround this issue, remove the entry and let the tool update using the default full
preservation option.

3.1.7 FreeBSD Driver

• When using the FreeBSD ice driver and the enable/disable LLDP agent status sysctl, enable/disable
on one port might enable/disable on other ports.

3.1.8 Manageability
• When using PLDM Type 2 monitoring and control messages to read thermal sensor information
there are several issues that will be observed:
— Module temperature value is incorrect
— Inserting modules post boot will not be detected
• When sending a Enable Channel NC-SI command when the device is in low power with link off, the
link is not turned on.
To workaround this issue, Send the Enable Channel command when in D0, or set the Set Link NC-SI
command to turn the link on.
• When using the PLDM Firmware Update, the update might fail if there is CORER / GLOBR during the
update as it resets the operation and the update need to be restarted. CORER/ GLOBR could be
caused by the device driver or tools running on the host.

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Software Release 25.2

3.2 Intel® Ethernet 700 Series

3.2.1 General
• Devices based on the Intel® Ethernet Controller XL710 (4x10 GbE, 1x40 GbE, 2x40 GbE) have an
expected total throughput for the entire device of 40 Gb/s in each direction.
• The first port of Intel® Ethernet Controller 700 Series based adapters display the correct branding
string. All other ports on the same device display a generic branding string.
• In order for an Intel® Ethernet Controller 700 Series based adapter to reach its full potential, you
must install it in a PCIe Gen3 x8 slot. Installing on fewer lanes (x8, x4, x2) and/or Gen2 or Gen1,
impedes the full throughput of the device.

3.2.2 Linux Driver

• On Kernel version 5.0.9 and higher, setting promiscuous mode on trusted VF leads to a periodic and
endless update of this mode.
• Maximum number of SR-IOV VFs is 62 (instead of 63) per port. This behavior is observed when the
RSS and VMDq settings are disabled. It might be observed only when using ESX-ixgben driver.
• When the second subordinate interface is added to the bonding, its MAC address becomes the same
as the first added subordinate and bond interface. Reloading the PF driver and creating VFs again is
needed to restore the MAC addresses.
• When two VF interfaces are in balance-tlb bonding mode, the ICMP traffic might be interrupted for
a few sequences.

3.2.3 Windows Driver

• On Windows Server 2012 R2 the host might suffer a BSOD after few modifying ANS team type with
tagged VLAN. It can be reproduced both with GUI or a Powershell command.

3.2.4 NVM Update Tool

• Minimum Security (Rollback) Revision (MinSREV) values and Security (Rollback) Revision (SREV)
are not reported in unified (hexadecimal) format via the NVM Update Tool.

3.2.5 PROSet
• On the multilingual Windows Server 2016 version Media Type and Negotiated Link Speed values in
the Identify Adapter tab might be shown in the Portuguese language.
• Start and Stop words are missing from the blinking button in the Identify Adapter tab. This
behavior is observed only if the German language has been chosen.
• Use Default button in the UI is missing from the Locally Administered Address tab.
• VLAN status might be presented as Link Down in the Teaming/VLANs tab whereas the status is
Enabled in the Windows Device Manager.

3.3 Intel® Ethernet 500 Series

None for this release.

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3.4 Intel® Ethernet 300 Series

3.4.1 Windows Driver

• WoL Magic Packets sent to the I350-T4 OCP3.0 adapter doesn't wake up certain platforms.

3.5 Intel® Ethernet 200 Series

None for this release.

3.6 Legacy Devices

Some older Intel® Ethernet adapters do not have full software support for the most recent versions of
Microsoft Windows*. Many older Intel Ethernet adapters have base drivers supplied by Microsoft
Windows. Lists of supported devices per operating system are available at:
http://www.intel.com/support/go/network/adapter/nicoscomp.htm

4.0 NVM Upgrade/Downgrade 800 Series/700 Series

and X550
Refer to the Feature Support Matrix (FSM) links listed in Related Documents for more detail. FSMs list
the exact feature support provided by the NVM and software device drivers for a given release.

5.0 Languages Supported

Note: Microsoft Windows and Windows Server Operating Systems.
This release supports the languages listed in the table that follows:

Languages

English Spanish
French Simplified Chinese
German Traditional Chinese
Italian Korean
Japanese Portuguese

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Software Release 25.2

6.0 Related Documents

Contact your Intel representative for technical support about Intel® Ethernet Series devices/adapters.

6.1 Feature Support Matrix

These documents contain additional details of features supported, operating system support, cable/
modules, etc.

Device Series Support Link

Intel® Ethernet 800 Series https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/630155

Intel® Ethernet 700 Series:

— X710/XXX710/XL710 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/332191
— X722 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/336882
— X710-TM4/AT2 and V710-AT2 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/619407

Intel® Ethernet 500 Series https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/335253

Intel® Ethernet 300 Series N/A

Intel® Ethernet 200 Series N/A

6.2 Specification Update

These documents provide the latest information on hardware errata as well as device marking
information, SKU information, etc.

Device Series Support Link

Intel® Ethernet 800 Series https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/616943

Intel® Ethernet 700 Series:

— X710/XXX710/XL710 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/331430
— X710-TM4/AT2 and V710-AT2 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/615119

Intel® Ethernet 500 Series

— X550 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/333717
— X540 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/515715

Intel® Ethernet 300 Series https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/333066

®
Intel Ethernet 200 Series
— I210 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/332763
— I211 https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getContent/333015

6.3 Software Download Package

The release software download package can be found at:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/products/36773/network-and-i-o/ethernet-
products.html

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