no memory for rx buffers

[robnas]

Hi,

Getting this issue from time to time, 'no memory for rx buffers'. My FreeBSD skills are not huge and what Google tells me is that could be some issues with the NIC. Could someone assist me?

/Rob

 

[ProtoSD]

Rob,

It sure would help us to help you if you could follow the rules and post details about your hardware.

 

[robnas]

ProtoSD, sorry! My hardware is:

- ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe

I think the LAN chipset is Marvell 88E8053

My FreeNAS version is 8.3.1

 

[ProtoSD]

Thanks Rob, sorry I had to nag you :o

I can't remember off the top of my head, but there *might* be a sysctl setting that will help. Have a look at this PFsense thread (also based on FreeBSD), it might get you going in the right direction. Perhaps Jgreco will jump in if he has an idea.

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=50256.0

 

[robnas]

OK, thanks! As i mentioned my linux/unix skills are very limited :-( I will look over the post in the pfsense forum.

 

[jgreco]

So that looks like an msk-based ("msk0") interface, then? The message you're getting is "initialization failed: no memory for Rx buffers"?

It suggests that msk_init is being called. That should happen at interface configuration or initialization. That shouldn't happen during routine operation. The things I can think of that might cause that would be puttering with network settings (requiring ifconfig to be called) or problems with the physical ethernet (which might possibly result in reinitialization) - link dropping and re-establishing, perhaps. There are a lot of dodgy ethernet chipsets out in the world, and the drivers for them are sometimes just as frustrating, which is why you find a real bias around here towards "server-grade" interfaces.

The manual page for msk indicates

Code:

LOADER TUNABLES
     Tunables can be set at the loader(8) prompt before booting the kernel or
     stored in loader.conf(5).

     hw.msk.msi_disable
             This tunable disables MSI support on the Ethernet hardware.  The
             default value is 0.

SYSCTL VARIABLES
     The following variables are available as both sysctl(8) variables and
     loader(8) tunables:

     dev.mskc.%d.process_limit
             Maximum amount of Rx events to be processed in the event loop
             before rescheduling a taskqueue.  The accepted range is 30 to
             256, the default value is 128 events.  The interface does not
             need to be brought down and up again before a change takes
             effect.

so you could go experiment and see if either of those matters. But I really have no specific insight into this, sorry.

 

[robnas]

Yes, the issue is "initialization failed: no memory for Rx buffers" And this appears after a while after my server starts. Have noticed if I copy large files to or from the server this appears! As I mentioned my unix skills are bad so I would more help how to try your suggestion

/Rob

 

[jgreco]

Think I can safely say it shouldn't be needing to initialize the msk driver if all you're doing is transferring data. What is the FreeNAS interface attached to? Switch, presumably?

 

[robnas]

Yes, to a gigabit switch.

 

[jgreco]

Replace the cable. When that doesn't help, I'd suggest you go buy an Intel EXPI9301CT for about $35, put it in, and then enjoy an ethernet interface that people rarely have any trouble with. But read on.

Since that board is a 2006-era board, it also supports standard PCI, and you might be able to find a sweet deal on eBay for an inexpensive Intel Pro/1000 ethernet adapter for it. 2006 was about when the market started moving aggressively towards PCI-e and now that it is 2013, a lot of people are hung with PCI stuff that doesn't "fit that new slot."

Our experience with boards of that era, especially the AMD stuff, is less than stellar, despite the fact that we were a heavy AMD shop at the time. It always seems to be the little details that are screwed up. We had some nice Tyan S2882 boards that had serious problems with their onboard LAN and SCSI because of bus timing issues, I've seen several Broadcom ethernet chipsets just up and quit (or break) in various ways... the list goes on for awhile... very frustrating. I'm mentioning this specifically because FreeBSD (and therefore FreeNAS) is fairly sensitive to hardware flakiness of any sort. So the problem here is to know whether this is a mainboard/chipset issue or a Marvell ethernet chipset/driver issue, and that's really hard to guess at. Adding on a different ethernet controller may work, but given that the mainboard is so old, it might not be worth the hassle.

 

[robnas]

Yes, I think also that a Intel NIC would be the best. Therefor another question, is it simple as this, just to install the Intel NIC and will FreeNas detect the new NIC? Would like to do this without any hustle.

 

[jgreco]

Almost. It will be detected automatically. The easiest way to set it up will be to use the FreeNAS console to unconfigure the existing interface and then set up the new interface with those same settings. I suggest a reboot after having done those steps, technically shouldn't be necessary, but I've seen too many odd things....

 

[robnas]

OK, installed a INTEL 1000 G NIC and i'm hopeful that this will work! Really easy to install a new NIC!

/Rob

PS. Thanks for the support, guys!

 

[jgreco]

Do let us know how it goes. Given the specifics, I'm *hoping* you luck out and it is just the ethernet chipset.

 

[robnas]

jgreco, the server works fine and I'm sure it was the NIC causing the issue! The Intel card works just fine! I would like to ask you a another question. When I start the server I need to choose option 2, start without ACPI (I think it's called). How can make the server always start without ACPI?

/Rob

 

[jgreco]

Glad that worked. Your system will probably be a bit faster too.

For ACPI, I would try adding

hint.acpi.0.disabled=1

under System->Tunables

but that's something you should probably only do if you have a backup of your FreeNAS config and can reload your USB stick if there's a problem.