Configuring Static IP port to Media type 1000baseT

[RAWelsh]

Scenario: I am running FreeNAS-11.3-U4.1 on an HPE Proliant Micro Server. From the network interface menu on FreeBSD, I can see both of the network ports that are on the server. The FreeNAS interface will only allow me to configure one port as DHCP, which means I need to configure the second port as a static IP address. I am able to do all of these functions. The server network adapter does support 1G ethernet on both ports. And both ports are active an communicating. The challenge is I am only able to get the static IP port to configure for 10baseT/UTP. I have been trying to use the options field in the Network Interface configuration tab to enable 1000baseT with no luck. Even if i add the argument string "media Ethernet 1000baseT" in the options field and test the changes, although the link stays up and running, the configuration changes never take effect. So, I have a list of questions:
1. Just to be sure, from the GUI in FreeNAS I am only able to set one network port (doesn't matter which) to DHCP. Is that correct? For me I can set either one to DHCP and either one will configure for DHCP and autoselect for speed negotiation and work fine on the network.
2. There is refernce in the FreeBSD documentation for ifconfig that mentions checking the hardware specific driver to make sure it supports the media type selection I am choosing. I am not sure in the FreeBSD environment where that driver would be. Can anyone point me in a direction on this?
3. Am I entering syntax properly in the Options field of the Network Interface configuration menu in FreeBSD. Although documentation states what the option field is for and refers back to BSD ifconfig man page, I am not sure I am actually entering the syntax properly.

The ultimate goal on my end is to have both ports operating at 1000baseT speed.

 

[Kcaj]

Assuming both ports are are plugged into 1GbE switch ports then setting “auto” on switch and FreeNAS should give desired results.

Have you checked the device FreeNAS is connect to?

 

[RAWelsh]

Hi Kcaj. This server is connected to the ports of a router. I have four ports on the router, and have rotated ports to different machines physically to make sure there isn't something peculiar that I am missing. All the ports configure and operate to 1G speeds. I have also configured a single computer to static IP addressing and moved it around as well, and the ports configure to 1G. I added one more test to the server and found my initial response description above to be incorrect, although when I did my initial testing, I thought for sure I was able to set the second port to DHCP and the first port to a static IP address. But today, when I tested, I swapped the second port that is running at 10M to DHCP just fine, tested it, but it still is configured to 10M. The first port, after disabling DHCP, would not allow me to configure for a static IP through the FreeNAS GUI. It always came back with an error stating the IP address was already assigned, although the IP address that was reporting back as error had the last octet of the IPV4 address set to 0 instead of the 223 I had entered. So, there is a more peculiar issue going on than what I first found. And this does seem to be off from what I saw the first time I went through this exercise. In any event, I am still looking for information on where the driver is for the hardware so I can go back and look at what the driver is set to. There may be something I need to fix there. And, I am still wondering what the syntax needs to be in the Options field in the network connections GUI to make sure I am entering this correct. If you can point me to some information on these two points, that would help.

Thanks.

 

[Redcoat]

There is reference in the FreeBSD documentation for ifconfig that mentions checking the hardware specific driver to make sure it supports the media type selection I am choosing. I am not sure in the FreeBSD environment where that driver would be. Can anyone point me in a direction on this?

The FreeBSD Hardware notes will identify the applicable driver for your hardware - see https://www.freebsd.org/releases/12.0R/hardware.html .
Then search for details on the specific driver.

 

[RAWelsh]

Hello Redcoat,

Thank you for the reference. I have found the appropriate driver reference for the chipset that is on the network interface card and can add a line to the loader to load the module. Before I do that, I have a some of additional questions:
1. Is there some way I can identify what the kernel has been compiled with? The driver I am looking for is the bge driver. I have searched a couple of areas on the drive (kernel directory for one) and have not found any file that has this.
2. In my search, I have not found any reference at all to the bge driver on the FreeNAS system, so how can I be sure the driver is there to load?
3. If the driver is not on the FreeNAS install, where do I go to find it?

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Redcoat]

@RAWelsh , I'm going to ping @Kris Moore here to redirect your questions to someone versed in the plumbing and get you some answers.

 

[JaimieV]

bge is very much built in to the default FreeNAS distro, has been for a long time - at least 9. I'm using it right now on my Dell, and before that on my Microservers.

Connecting two ports from your server to the one flat network is not generally a great idea. If you're trying to double the speed? That won't work. There are scenarios where it can be useful, but in general it only gives you grief and I'd very much recommend against it in a domestic environment.

Mind you, it shouldn't be doing the weird 10baseT thing either. Have you tried alternate cables?

My Microservers only had one bge port, but the Dell has four and I can connect all at 1gigE without any strangeness. Can you do a 'dmesg | grep bge' and then 'ifconfig' and paste what comes out?

 

[jgreco]

@RAWelsh , I'm going to ping @Kris Moore here to redirect your questions to someone versed in the plumbing and get you some answers.

Please don't do that. There are other people that can answer questions like this with at least as much knowledge and experience, and without drawing Kris away from improvements on TrueNAS.

Some of the chips supported by bge are somewhat marginal, but the HP MicroServer ones seem to be fine in my experience.

The usual issue here is that either the cable is bad or the device you're attaching to doesn't support gigabit.

Automatic negotiation is a stock feature of 1000baseT, but in the horror days of 10base and 100base, both speed and duplex needed to be configured because there was not a commonly implemented standard way to negotiate these.

You might try "media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex" for options to see if it links at 100Mbps. If so, you know that pins 1, 2, 3, and 6 (green pair and orange pair) work. 10 and 100Mbps only requires two pair. Gigabit requires four pair, and having a problem with the blue or brown pair will cause many chipsets to revert to 10 or 100Mbps.

 

[pschatz100]

@RAWelsh Have you tried switching network cables? I have had cables go bad, especially CAT 5e.

As has been commented, auto negotiation is a standard feature of 1000baseT - unless you have disabled it for some reason. If both ports work properly when they are set to DHCP, and you only have problems when setting a port to a static IP, then I would suggest that something is not being set correctly.