

SOLARFLARE XTREMESCALE X2 SERIES DRIVER PACKAGE


Package Version: v1.2.1.1004


Overview

This is the v1.2.1 Windows driver package for Solarflare XtremeScale X2
series network adapters.


Supported hardware platforms

The drivers, utilities and applications contained in this package
support the following adapters:

-   Solarflare XtremeScale X2522-25G Adapter
-   Solarflare XtremeScale X2522 (10G) Adapter
-   Solarflare XtremeScale X2541 Adapter
-   Solarflare XtremeScale X2542 Adapter


Supported operating systems

This package contains drivers and applications supporting either the
_Desktop Experience_ or _Server Core_ installation options of Windows
Server 2016 (version 1607, build 14393); _Nano Server_ installations are
not supported.


Contents

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  File                 Description
  -------------------- --------------------------------------------------
  readme.txt           This file.

  license.txt          Solarflare software license agreement

  sfn.inf sfn.sys      Solarflare XtremeScale X2 series network adapter
  sfn.cat              driver.

  sfn.man              An event instrumentation manifest describing the
                       driver's Windows Event Log channels and event
                       messages.

  sfn.wprp             A Windows Performance Recorder profile for
                       gathering driver analytic logging and performance
                       data.
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------


Installation

Unpack the driver package ZIP archive into a dedicated folder. From a
PowerShell prompt, type:

    Expand-Archive <DriverPackageArchivePath> -DestinationPath <DriverPackageFolderPath>

To install the driver and event instrumentation manifest, as a user with
local administrative privileges from an elevated PowerShell prompt,
type:

    Set-Location <DriverPackageFolderPath>
    pnputil.exe /add-driver sfn.inf /install
    wevtutil.exe install-manifest sfn.man /resourceFilePath:"${Env:SystemRoot}\system32\drivers\sfn.sys" /messageFilePath:"${Env:SystemRoot}\system32\drivers\sfn.sys"

To verify the expected driver version is installed and loaded, type:

    Get-NetAdapter |? DriverProvider -eq Solarflare | Format-Table -View Driver

Confirm that the output includes at least one Solarflare network
adapter, and the expected driver version is shown (i.e. 1.2.1.1004).


Known issues

For an up to date list of errata and workarounds please refer to the
known issues database at https://support.solarflare.com/.


Additional information

For detailed instructions of how to install and configure the Windows
drivers and applications please refer to the Windows chapter in the
"Solarflare Server Adapter User's Guide" (SF-103837-CD).


Support

Please contact your local Solarflare support representative or email
support@solarflare.com.


Change logs

Solarflare XtremeScale X2 Series Driver

v1.2.1.1004 --- Feature Release

FEATURES AND ENHANCEMENTS:

-   Support for X2541 and X2542 Adapters.
-   Support for Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC) offload.
-   Support the NDIS standardized network adapter configuration
    parameters to configure receive and transmit queue sizes:
    -   The 'Receive Buffers' configuration option sets number of
        receive packet buffers allocated for each RSS receive queue. An
        appropriate hardware receive queue size is chosen by the driver
        based on this setting. Increasing this value may improve receive
        performance and reduce occurrences of packet discards under
        heavy load, but consumes additional system memory. Setting this
        value higher than necessary can waste limited system resources,
        impact overall system performance and may cause the driver to
        fail initialization.
    -   The 'Transmit Buffers' configuration option sets the number of
        descriptors that can be queued simultaneously on each hardware
        transmit queue. An appropriate hardware transmit queue size is
        chosen by the driver based on this setting. As each packet may
        require multiple descriptors the number of packets that can be
        queued simultaneously may be lower than the queue size.
        Increasing this value may improve transmit performance, but also
        consumes more system resources.
-   Increased receive and transmit datapath performance (due to improved
    NUMA locality of memory allocations for hardware queues and receive
    packet buffers).
-   Additional MAC and datapath statistics are exposed via Windows
    Management Instrumentation (WMI).

FIXES:

-   Improve handling of memory allocation failures for event, receive or
    transmit queue common buffers. (WIN-393)
-   Fix an issue with receive queue refill that would result in all
    received packets being discarded once a receive queue has processed
    approximately 4.3 billion packets. (WIN-387)
-   Include the count of frames discarded due to hardware vFIFO overflow
    in the dropped receive buffer error count which is reported to NDIS
    via OID_GEN_STATISTICS and OID_GEN_RCV_ERROR queries. (WIN-377)
-   Fix an issue that could result in a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION (133) bug
    check when unblocking a transmit queue after it had become full.
    This issue is more likely to be triggered when using a smaller than
    default hardware transmit queue size, a high number of physical
    memory fragments per send request (such as when firmware assisted
    Large Send Offload is disabled) and extreme load. (WIN-367)
-   Reduce the time taken for network adapter disable, system restart
    and system shutdown by upto 5 seconds. (WIN-319)
-   Limit the number of receive indication events and send completion
    events processed in a single DPC reducing the possibility of a
    DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION (133) bug check. (WIN-214)

v1.0.0.1012 --- Feature Release

-   Initial release supporting X2522 (10G) and X2522-25G adapters.


Copyright

Copyright 2017-2019 Solarflare Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
