Advanced settings for HP NC-Series Broadcom 10 GbE Multifunction adapters

These advanced parameters are available for HP NC-Series Broadcom 10 GbE Multifunction Server Adapters.

Property. These adapter properties display only if they are supported by the selected adapter.

Some properties are not configurable if an adapter has FlexNIC enabled.

• 802.1p QoS Packet Tagging. Enables or disables IEEE 802.1p tagging to send network traffic with different priority levels.
  • Default = Disabled
  • Range = Disabled; Enabled
• Maximum Frame Size. Specifies the maximum number of bytes in a single packet. Larger frames can increase throughput and decrease CPU use by putting more data in each packet, thereby sending out fewer packets. This is equivalent to Jumbo Frames and must comply with switch limitations.
  • Default = 1514 Bytes
  • Range = 1324 Bytes; 1514 Bytes; 4088 Bytes
• Flow Control. The Flow Control property allows the user to enable or disable the receipt or transmission of PAUSE frames. PAUSE frames enable the adapter and the switch to control the transmit rate. The side that is receiving the PAUSE frame will momentarily stop transmitting. The recommended selection is Auto and it is the default setting. To disable Flow Control, select Disable from the Value list on the Advanced tab.
  • Auto. (Default) Auto detect flow control
  • Disable. PAUSE frame receipt and transmission is disabled
  • Tx PAUSE. PAUSE frame transmission is enabled
  • Rx PAUSE. PAUSE frame receipt is enabled
  • Rx/Tx PAUSE. PAUSE frame receipt and transmission is enabled
• Tx IP Checksum Offload. Offloads the task of computing the checksum for outgoing IP packets, thereby improving performance.
  • Default = Enabled
  • Range = Disabled; Enabled
• Rx IP Checksum Offload. Offloads the task of computing the checksum for incoming IP packets, thereby improving performance.
  • Default = Enabled
  • Range = Disabled; Enabled
• Tx TCP Checksum Offload. Offloads the task of computing the checksum for outgoing TCP or UDP packets, thereby improving performance.
  • Default = Enabled
  • Range = Disabled; Enabled
• Rx TCP Checksum Offload. Offloads the task of computing the checksum for incoming TCP or UDP packets, thereby improving performance.
  • Default = Enabled
  • Range = Disabled; Enabled
• Large Send Offload. Enables offloading of large TCP packets. Large send offload cannot be enabled on a port that has IPMI enabled (if IPMI is supported for your adapter).
  • Default = Enabled
  • Range = Disabled; Enabled
• Number of Tx Descriptors. Specifies the number of descriptors to allocate per Transmit Control Block (TCB). This value directly affects the number of map registers allocated for the adapter (the higher the number, the more map registers are allocated).
  • Default = 750
  • Range = 50-5000
• Number of Rx Descriptors. In high network load situations, increasing receive descriptors can increase performance. The tradeoff is that this also increases the amount of system memory used by the driver. If too few receive descriptors are used, performance suffers. If too many receive descriptors are used, the driver unnecessarily consumes memory resources.
  • Default = 200
  • Range = 200-400
• TCP Offload Engine (TOE). Enables the offloading of TCP connections to HP Multifunction Server Adapters.
  • Default = Enabled
  • Range = Disabled; Enabled
    • TOE is disabled system wide by default in the operating system. TOE must be enabled system-wide for it to work on the adapter itself. To enable TOE in the operating system, execute the "netsh int ip set chimney enabled" command.
    • For systems running Windows Server 2003 (SP1) or Windows Server 2003 x64 (SP1), you must upgrade to Service Pack 2 or later.
    • TOE will not work with the following features enabled: Windows Firewall; Internet Protocol security (IPsec); Internet Protocol Network Address Translation (IPNAT); third-party firewalls; and NDIS 5.1 intermediate drivers. Download article number KB912222 from the Microsoft website for more information.
• Receive-Side Scaling. Enables dynamic load balancing of incoming traffic across CPUs.
  • Default = Enabled
  • Range = Disabled; Enabled
    • RSS is disabled system wide by default in the operating system. RSS must be enabled system-wide for it to work on the adapter itself. To enable RSS in the operating system:
    1. Click Start > Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
    2. Locate the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
    3. Right-click EnableRSS, and then click Modify.
    4. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
    5. Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the server.
    • If the operating system recognizes less than four CPUs, RSS is not enabled.
    • For systems running Windows Server 2003 (SP1) or Windows Server 2003 x64 (SP1), you must upgrade to Service Pack 2 or later.