Support for Chelsio T520-BT

[Lars Jensen]

Do you have more than one NIC in your FreeNAS server? Unless they are deliberately bridged, each needs setting up separately. The first NIC available on installation is, I think, automatically set to DHCP unless you choose a static IP. Additional NICs are not enabled at all, I think, though this is an n=1 observation. Unless you set up DHCP on the T520 in the GUI (or CLI for that matter) it will not be enabled at all. Though that shouldn't cause a crash, setting it up as fixed *or* explicitly DHCP would at least provide different conditions for the driver. I'd try both if you haven't already. Doing so shouldn't affect your other NIC(s).

Have multiple NICs. Tried both static and DHCP address. Both crashes. It seems like driver loads cxl0, but crashes when trying to activate cxl1 (if that's possible) ? See attached images...
See https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14441857/chelsio_1.jpg and https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14441857/chelsio_2.jpg

BTW I had to pull out the card to boot FreeNAS, if it's inserted it crashes.

 

[Arwen]

According to the specifications for T520-BT, you have 2 ports of 10GBase-T.
That may be a bit too much power for either your slot, or power supply. And
yes, I know it's a reach. But this card also has a very fancy off-load engine.

If you can, try the card in a simpler setup. For example, a desktop, (since the card
is copper cabling).

 

[Lars Jensen]

According to the specifications for T520-BT, you have 2 ports of 10GBase-T.
That may be a bit too much power for either your slot, or power supply. And
yes, I know it's a reach. But this card also has a very fancy off-load engine.

If you can, try the card in a simpler setup. For example, a desktop, (since the card
is copper cabling).

I don't have a desktop, but I have tried with only the T520-BT NIC installed, to check conflict with another card or a power issue, and also changed slots.
There's two of this powersupply installed in the Supermicro SC216 chassis: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14441857/powersupply.jpg
Recommended power is also installed (2 extra 8-pin connectors): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14441857/mbman.png

I'm still waiting for a response from Chelsio support.

 

[Lars Jensen]

I don't have a desktop, but I have tried with only the T520-BT NIC installed, to check conflict with another card or a power issue, and also changed slots.
There's two of this powersupply installed in the Supermicro SC216 chassis: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14441857/powersupply.jpg
Recommended power is also installed (2 extra 8-pin connectors): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14441857/mbman.png

I'm still waiting for a response from Chelsio support.

Tried to boot PC-BSD, FreeBSD 10.1 latest snapshot, both gave the same error as FreeNAS. Also tried booting Ubuntu 15.04 but it didn't find the Chelsio NIC during install (maybe it has to be manually configured)... Haven't heard from Chelsio support so I'll probably return the NIC soon.

 

[cyberjock]

Just wondering if you ever got a response on the T520-BT from Chelsio support.

 

[Lars Jensen]

Just wondering if you ever got a response on the T520-BT from Chelsio support.

No, didn't receive a response from Chelsio so ended up using a Intel X520 NIC instead which is working fine.

 

[Lars Jensen]

Quick update. Got the same card back from Chelsio with a mention that it's working... strange, so I have to try it in another server.

 

[Dennis.kulmosen]

Hi Lars,
Have you had the chance of trying this in another server? Plus have you tried it with the 9.3.1 branch?

 

[Lars Jensen]

Hi Lars,
Have you had the chance of trying this in another server? Plus have you tried it with the 9.3.1 branch? :)

Haven't tried another server, but did try 9.3.1 with the same result not working, see screenshot :-/

 

[paulatmig]

Sort of glad I'm not the only Supermicro user with this problem. I had two Chelsio T420's working fine for a while, then when trying to troubleshoot a infrequent hang issue, I tried replacing the 420s with 520-CRs. They powered on, green lights and all, but the motherboard would only recognize the devices if only one of them were plugged in at a time. The board didn't even recognize the cards when 2 were installed, no BIOS load or anything. I figured it had something to do with the new NICs having higher power requirements or something. Went back to using the T420s to be on the safe side.

 

[Scampicfx]

Hey there,

are there any updates / any more expierences with T520-BT?

 

[jgreco]

Sort of glad I'm not the only Supermicro user with this problem. I had two Chelsio T420's working fine for a while, then when trying to troubleshoot a infrequent hang issue, I tried replacing the 420s with 520-CRs. They powered on, green lights and all, but the motherboard would only recognize the devices if only one of them were plugged in at a time. The board didn't even recognize the cards when 2 were installed, no BIOS load or anything. I figured it had something to do with the new NICs having higher power requirements or something. Went back to using the T420s to be on the safe side.

The csiostor driver release notes suggest that only one adapter per host is supported, but that's for iSCSI use. I think I might have seen something about that for some of their other drivers too.