Intel X7xx NICs flapping due to TX hang error

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• A VM generates packets that are considered malicious by Intel X7xx NICs due to their size being under 64 bytes which will hang the TX queue and cause a network flap in the environment
• i40en Driver is older than 2.7.2.0
• The following error is found in vmkernel.log under /var/run/log/
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] cpu01:2103224)WARNING: TX hang detected! Reset Uplink 1

 

Environment

• ESXi 7.x, 8.x

Resolution

• This is fixed with Intel driver i40en 2.7.2.0 

Finding IO Drivers in the Broadcom Support Portal