This article provides methods for disabling flow control on physical network interfaces used by an ESXi/ESX host.
Pause Frames are related to Ethernet flow control and are used to manage the pacing of data transmission on a network segment. Sometimes, a sending node (ESXi/ESX host, switch, and so on) may transmit data faster than another node can accept it. In this case, the overwhelmed network node can send pause frames back to the sender, pausing the transmission of traffic for a brief period of time.
If flow control is undesired in an environment, the support for flow control can be disabled for a given network interface or driver on the ESX/ESXi hosts. The method differs for different drivers.
List pause parameters of all NICs
#esxcli network nic pauseParams list
Set pause parameters for a NIC
#esxcli network nic pauseParams set
Cmd options:
-a|--auto=<bool> Enable/disable auto negotiation.
-n|--nic-name=<str> Name of NIC whose pause parameters should be set. (required)
-r|--rx=<bool> Enable/disable pause RX flow control.
-t|--tx=<bool> Enable/disable pause TX flow control.