Advanced settings for HP NC-Series NetXen nx2 Multifunction adapters

These advanced parameters are available for HP NC-Series NetXen nx2 Mulifunction adapters.

Ethernet property. These adapter properties display only if the property is supported by the selected adapter. Some properties might not display if the 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 = Enabled
  • 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 = 1514 Bytes; 4088 Bytes; 8014 Bytes
• Flow Control. Specifies the type of flow control that is needed.
  • Default = Enabled
  • Range = Disabled; 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.
  • 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). Transmit Descriptors determine how many resources are allocated to transmit packets.
  • Default = 1024
  • Range = 1024; 2048
• 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. Receive Descriptors determine how many resources are allocated to receive packets.
  • Default = 8192
  • Range = 1024; 2048; 4096; 8192; 16384; 32768
• Number of Rx Descriptors (Jumbo). Receive Descriptors determine how many resources are allocated to receive packets. This property is only applicable if Max Frame Size is greater than 1500.
  • Default = 4096
  • Range = 1024; 2048; 4096; 8192
• 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.
    • TOE and RSS are incompatible on NetXen adapters. If RSS is already enabled and then you enable TOE, RSS is automatically disabled even though it may appear to be enabled. Likewise, if you enable TOE after RSS, RSS becomes disabled.
    • For systems running Windows Server 2003 (SP1) or Windows Server 2003 x64 (SP1), you must upgrade to Service Pack 2 or later.