Help me identify this NIC

[Papa]

What NIC do I have?
While migrating my data for "In the Fire Safe" long term backup, I found my data transfer rate not at all what I would expect.
Looked things over and tried to identify the NIC (onboard to the mobo) to determine if I needed to bypass this and use another.
Here is what I read from IFCONFIG;

re0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500​

options=8209b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,LINKSTATE>​

ether d8:bb:c1:8e:d9:fc​

inet 192.168.100.90 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.100.255​

media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)​

status: active​

nd6 options=9<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED>​

I do have another NIC installed for the VLAN to my backup TrueNas machine which is fine. I have room on the board for another card, want to verify what I have first.

BTW - the NAS runs great, except for this. I do well, but a few things I need help with.

Happy Trails
L

 

[WN1X]

The obvious question is...what model motherboard is this using?

 

[Papa]

If that was an easy to get to answer I would already have it. Some things arent "on-Site".

 

[WN1X]

Well, if the device name is re0, I would guess it is a Realtek NIC...a replacement NIC is your best option.

 

[jgreco]

re0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500

It's a Realtek based ethernet chipset. We could look at the dmesg output to identify which one, but I think you've already adequately established it's sucking. The classic solution to these on the forums is to recommend replacing or supplementing it with an Intel Desktop CT ethernet card, paying careful attention to make sure you get a legitimate one and not an Amazon or eBay knock-off version. You should expect to pay about $35 for a legitimate one.

 

[Papa]

It's a Realtek based ethernet chipset. We could look at the dmesg output to identify which one, but I think you've already adequately established it's sucking.

Your correct Jgreco - turns out it's an RTL8111E NIC. While looking for documentation on the MoBo we stumbled on the sales receipt. I just ordered an INTEL EXPI9402PT PRO/1000 Dual Port, and will change out the single with this. I take it that when I swap them out the system will see the different NIC and set it up (driver wise) - Or is there more to it than that? I know there will be setup changes, that's a given, but what more am I looking at? I'm open for guidance.

Thanks

 

[jgreco]

Your correct Jgreco - turns out it's an RTL8111E NIC. While looking for documentation on the MoBo we stumbled on the sales receipt. I just ordered an INTEL EXPI9402PT PRO/1000 Dual Port, and will change out the single with this. I take it that when I swap them out the system will see the different NIC and set it up (driver wise) - Or is there more to it than that? I know there will be setup changes, that's a given, but what more am I looking at? I'm open for guidance.

Thanks

Drivers are built into the kernel. There's no "set it up" to speak of, it's not like Windows. It will probe at boot time. For a dual card based on the 82571 chipset, this will show up as interfaces "em0" and "em1".

Before you do this install, go into the network settings and make a note of any special settings you may have assigned to the re0 interface. It may be that it is set up for DHCP. If so, then this is probably easy, just move the ethernet cable in re0 over to em0 and see what happens. If there is custom ("static") configuration to re0, you may want to clear that out and then populate that information into the em0 interface.

 

[Papa]

Thanks Jgreco - I built a test sandbox to test changing out the NIC. It did work some-what as you described - with a little putzing around, but it did work. If someone knows of a written or straight forward way to replace a NIC I would appreciate a link.

I built the sandbox just for trying a few new things, to ensure I have enough knowledge before I try it on one of my production machines.

Happy Trails

 

[jgreco]

If someone knows of a written or straight forward way to replace a NIC I would appreciate a link.

Doesn't really exist. The process is going to be specific to your system, because it depends on your setup. For example, some people use DHCP for interface configuration (bad idea), which will typically make this somewhat easier, while others have multiple ethernet interfaces. Some people use bound IPv4 addresses on their filesharing protocols, while some others have IPv6 set up. If you have jails or VM's, you may also have bridging set up, and the upstream device of the bridge will need to be adjusted. If you have VLAN's set up, then you might have to rearrange the parent device settings for the subinterfaces. There are so many possibilities and interactions available for network interfaces that there is no guaranteed path to success, it is best to walk through the system and document what exists before you start, and then make sure you have equivalency after the replacement.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Without even remotely wanting to dismiss what @jgreco listed as potential issues, I would look at this from a slightly differently angle. This seems to be a non-critical system. So you could basically plug the new NIC into your machine, disable the built-in NIC via the BIOS, and then take it from there step by step.

 

[Papa]

Without even remotely wanting to dismiss what @jgreco listed as potential issues, I would look at this from a slightly differently angle. This seems to be a non-critical system. So you could basically plug the new NIC into your machine, disable the built-in NIC via the BIOS, and then take it from there step by step.

Thanks Chris and JG. Chris, your description above is precicely what I did - successfully I might add. The only outside the box item I have running on that NAS is SyncThing. I'll need to look at how that is interfaced. Good to have a sandbox.

 

[Papa]

And after all that - the motherboard would not recognize the new card due to the location of the LSI Raid Card. Oh well...

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

As a note, it's a Micro-Star NIC (MAC d8:bb:c1:xx:xx:xx).
Micro-Star International is commonly known as MSi.
MSi uses a variety of chipsets including Intel and Realtek, depending on the price-point they're trying to hit.

re0 is an Ethernet interface using the Realtek driver, so the NIC should be using a Realtek chipset. Depending on the Realtek chipset, the system can be really rough/buggy, though recent chipsets seem to work "well" ...depending.

Realtek firmware isn't always a strong-point either, so in various situations the firmware can be problematic.

The bottom line is to look at the suggested hardware guide for what's known to be really, really stable (avoiding most edge cases), as stability is likely the reason you're using TrueNAS.

BIOS settings might overcome the card placement issue, as both LSI and Intel cards are generally known to be quite stable.

 

[Papa]

re0 is an Ethernet interface using the Realtek driver.
Depending on the Realtek chipset, the system can be really rough/buggy, though recent chipsets seem to work "well" ...depending.

Realtek firmware isn't always a strong-point either, so in various situations the firmware can be problematic.

I intended to turn off the onboard card and use either a dual card or two intel cards. However, the dual intel card wasn't liked by the MoBo, no idea why, it must be the chipset. The setup also ignored the second intel card. I initially installed a second NIC at install, and it works fine. I have been using it on VLAN 2 for my replication tasks. When things slow down for me, I will convert the intel card to be my primary and the Realtek for my replication tasks. Right now insulation and sheetrock in my new woodworking shop takes priority.

After installing and working with literally hundreds of PCs and motherboards in my 25 years as a tech before my retirement, I found a few anomalies such as this, which doesn’t surprise me. If the server wasn’t in use and online, I would dig into it deeper.

Sometimes good enough – is good enough.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

This is pretty basic though to try to solve this: Did you update the firmware on the NIC, mainboard, and LSI HBA?

 

[Papa]

Short answer no. Long answer >>

The firmware was all updated durring the server build.

I learned a very long time ago NOT to update firmware on a working server unless you have proof positive the upgrade will fix the issue.
25 years of riding the IT Rodeo circuit instills a “Gibbs Gut” feeling to leave well enough alone.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Without knowing when the server was built or what firmware you're running, I'd suspect firmware incompatibility. Turning off the Realtek card in BIOS->PCIe Enable/Disable might solve the problem, if not I'd look at which firmware driver the NIC, HBA, and MB are using, do an Internet search to see if others had issues, make sure I have a copy of each currently running firmware, then upgrade one at a time to the latest firmware starting with the most easily replaceable item (in case it gets bricked).

I'd also be using a jump-drive with System Rescue to do the heavy lifting and testing, reducing the chance of corrupting the in-production OS while also eliminating it as a potential source of the problem.

However, not knowing your exact situation this is only a generic analysis, so I respect you may want to choose a different path.