Hi,

If wake on lan is disabled in the NIC settings it will show false for supports wake on lan. You can enable WOL in the Broadcom NICs Boot Agent. During POST you may see a banner message for the Broadcom NICs. Press Ctrl-S, and it will let you enable the WOL option through that menu. If the banner is not there just press ctrl+s during the early part of post.

Hi Josh,

Thank you for the prompt reply!

I forgot to mention (sorry about that) that the BIOS and the NIC boot Agent setups were the first two things I verified. There were nothing related to the NIC configuration in the BIOS, as I expected when saw the Broadcom boot agent prompt.

This is a screenshot from the DRAC

As you can see, the feature is enabled on the agent level as well.

The only difference with the working server is the Firmware, as I specified in my initial post.

Do you have any idea how to proceed?

Greets,

Alex

Was the firmware from us or directly from Broadcom? Do you have a link to the update that you used?

That's the only one I found is from 12 Jan 2012:

www.dell.com/.../DriversDetails

Greets,

Alex

That looks like the latest 5708 firmware aside from the more generic versions that do not explicitly state 5708 support. Will it let you set WOL with ethtool? ethtool -s vmnic0 wol g

I gave it a try with two different tools - same negative result:

~ # esxcli network nic list
Name PCI Device Driver Link Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
------ ------------- ------ ---- ----- ------ ----------------- ---- -------------------------------------------
vmnic0 0000:005:00.0 bnx2 Up 1000 Full 00:18:8b:44:4f:a9 1500 Broadcom Corporation QLogic 5708 1000Base-T
vmnic1 0000:009:00.0 bnx2 Up 1000 Full 00:18:8b:44:4f:ab 1500 Broadcom Corporation QLogic 5708 1000Base-T
~ # esxcli network nic set -w g -n vmnic0
Not Support wol.
~ # ethtool -s vmnic0 wol g
Cannot set new wake-on-lan settings: Invalid argument
not setting wol
~ #

I'm pretty sure that the same Firmware should fix this problem, but I can't find it for download.

In the same moment I'm really curious why the new one is not supporting something well working before.

Do you have any other suggestions?

I am also looking for this solution

The old firmware versions can be found here. downloads.dell.com/.../poweredge-2950.html

Hi Josh,

I created a bundle from those Firmware files and prepared a bootable USB (Linux ISO) to facilitate the upgrade:

I was using manual mode from the media check start option.
The auto-update will go up to the highest available firmare version:

sh-4.1# cd /opt/dell/toolkit/systems/drm_files/
sh-4.1# ./apply_bundles.sh

Force scripts to update to lower version with '-f' option:

sh-4.1# cd /opt/dell/toolkit/systems/drm_files/repository/NetXtreme\ II\ BCM5780/
sh-4.1# sh NETW_FRMW_LX_R214709.BIN -q -f | tee /bundleapplicationlogs/apply_components.log
sh-4.1# reboot

next time just specify manually the next version BIN file:

sh-4.1# sh NETW_FRMW_LX_R246418.BIN -q | tee /bundleapplicationlogs/apply_components.log

As you can see, the lowest version is "4.6.8" - shown in the CLI as "bc 4.6.0":

NETW_FRMW_LX_R319248.BIN
~ # esxcli network nic get --nic-name=vmnic1
Advertised Auto Negotiation: true
Advertised Link Modes: 10baseT/Half, 10baseT/Full, 100baseT/Half, 100baseT/Full, 1000baseT/Full
<... omitted ...>
Driver Info:
Bus Info: 0000:09:00.0
Driver: bnx2
Firmware Version: 6.4.5 bc 5.0.7 UMP 1.1.9 <--- This is the highest version
Version: 2.2.5k.v50.1
Link Detected: true
<... omitted ...>
Supports Pause: true
Supports Wakeon: false <---
Transceiver: internal
Wakeon: None
~ #

NETW_FRMW_LX_R214709.BIN
~ # esxcli network nic get --nic-name=vmnic1
Advertised Auto Negotiation: true
Advertised Link Modes: 10baseT/Half, 10baseT/Full, 100baseT/Half, 100baseT/Full, 1000baseT/Full
<... omitted ...>
Driver Info:
Bus Info: 0000:09:00.0
Driver: bnx2
Firmware Version: 4.6.8 bc 4.6.0 UMP 1.1.9 <--- This is the lowest version
Version: 2.2.5k.v50.1
Link Detected: true
Link Status: Up
<... omitted ...>
Supports Pause: true
Supports Wakeon: false <---
Transceiver: internal
Wakeon: None
~ #

NETW_FRMW_LX_R239524.BIN
~ # esxcli network nic get --nic-name=vmnic1
Advertised Auto Negotiation: true
Advertised Link Modes: 10baseT/Half, 10baseT/Full, 100baseT/Half, 100baseT/Full, 1000baseT/Full
<... omitted ...>
Driver Info:
Bus Info: 0000:09:00.0
Driver: bnx2
Firmware Version: 5.0.9 bc 5.0.4 UMP 1.1.9 <---
Version: 2.2.5k.v50.1
Link Detected: true
<... omitted ...>
Supports Pause: true
Supports Wakeon: false <---
Transceiver: internal
Wakeon: None
~ #

...

How can I find the "bc 2.9.1"  firmware, used on the other PE2950?

Greets,

Alex

It seems like I found the reason ans it's not in the Firmware at all.
I'm going to share this here in order to serve somebody else in the future...

WOL is supported in Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 devices with silicon revisions of B2 or later.

To determine the silicon revision of one Broadcom NetXtreme II device, we can use the 'lspci' command on a linux box, where “10” = revision B0, “11” = revision B1, and “12” = revision B2.
For ESXi the 'lspci' is with very limited output, but we can use 'esxcli hardware pci list' to discover the details.

A verification on the PE2950 with working WOL is showing revision B2 (0x12):

~ # lspci | grep 5708
00:05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T [vmnic0]
00:09:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T [vmnic1]
~ # esxcli hardware pci list | sed -n "/0[5,9]:00.0/,/^$/p"
000:005:00.0
Address: 000:005:00.0
Segment: 0x0000
Bus: 0x05
Slot: 0x00
Function: 0x00
VMkernel Name: vmnic0
Vendor Name: Broadcom Corporation
Device Name: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T
Configured Owner: Unknown
Current Owner: VMkernel
Vendor ID: 0x14e4
Device ID: 0x164c
SubVendor ID: 0x1028
SubDevice ID: 0x01b2
Device Class: 0x0200
Device Class Name: Ethernet controller
Programming Interface: 0x00
Revision ID: 0x12
Interrupt Line: 0x0b
IRQ: 11
Interrupt Vector: 0xc0
PCI Pin: 0xb0
Spawned Bus: 0x00
Flags: 0x0201
Module ID: 19
Module Name: bnx2
Chassis: 0
Physical Slot: 0
Slot Description: Embedded NIC 1
Passthru Capable: false
Parent Device: PCI 0:4:0:0
Dependent Device: PCI 0:4:0:0
Reset Method: Bridge reset
FPT Sharable: false

000:009:00.0
Address: 000:009:00.0
Segment: 0x0000
Bus: 0x09
Slot: 0x00
Function: 0x00
VMkernel Name: vmnic1
Vendor Name: Broadcom Corporation
Device Name: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T
Configured Owner: Unknown
Current Owner: VMkernel
Vendor ID: 0x14e4
Device ID: 0x164c
SubVendor ID: 0x1028
SubDevice ID: 0x01b2
Device Class: 0x0200
Device Class Name: Ethernet controller
Programming Interface: 0x00
Revision ID: 0x12
Interrupt Line: 0x0b
IRQ: 11
Interrupt Vector: 0xb8
PCI Pin: 0x32
Spawned Bus: 0x00
Flags: 0x0201
Module ID: 19
Module Name: bnx2
Chassis: 0
Physical Slot: 0
Slot Description: Embedded NIC 2
Passthru Capable: false
Parent Device: PCI 0:8:0:0
Dependent Device: PCI 0:8:0:0
Reset Method: Bridge reset
FPT Sharable: false

~ #

A verification on the PE2950 with NO working WOL is showing revision B1 (0x11):

~ # lspci | grep 5708
00:05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation QLogic 5708 1000Base-T [vmnic0]
00:09:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation QLogic 5708 1000Base-T [vmnic1]
~ # esxcli hardware pci list | sed -n "/0[5,9]:00.0/,/^$/p"
000:005:00.0
Address: 000:005:00.0
Segment: 0x0000
Bus: 0x05
Slot: 0x00
Function: 0x00
VMkernel Name: vmnic0
Vendor Name: Broadcom Corporation
Device Name: QLogic 5708 1000Base-T
Configured Owner: Unknown
Current Owner: VMkernel
Vendor ID: 0x14e4
Device ID: 0x164c
SubVendor ID: 0x1028
SubDevice ID: 0x01b2
Device Class: 0x0200
Device Class Name: Ethernet controller
Programming Interface: 0x00
Revision ID: 0x11
Interrupt Line: 0x05
IRQ: 5
Interrupt Vector: 0xc0
PCI Pin: 0x00
Spawned Bus: 0x00
Flags: 0x0201
Module ID: 19
Module Name: bnx2
Chassis: 0
Physical Slot: 0
Slot Description: Embedded NIC 1
Passthru Capable: false
Parent Device: PCI 0:4:0:0
Dependent Device: PCI 0:4:0:0
Reset Method: Bridge reset
FPT Sharable: false

000:009:00.0
Address: 000:009:00.0
Segment: 0x0000
Bus: 0x09
Slot: 0x00
Function: 0x00
VMkernel Name: vmnic1
Vendor Name: Broadcom Corporation
Device Name: QLogic 5708 1000Base-T
Configured Owner: Unknown
Current Owner: VMkernel
Vendor ID: 0x14e4
Device ID: 0x164c
SubVendor ID: 0x1028
SubDevice ID: 0x01b2
Device Class: 0x0200
Device Class Name: Ethernet controller
Programming Interface: 0x00
Revision ID: 0x11
Interrupt Line: 0x05
IRQ: 5
Interrupt Vector: 0xb8
PCI Pin: 0x00
Spawned Bus: 0x00
Flags: 0x0201
Module ID: 19
Module Name: bnx2
Chassis: 0
Physical Slot: 0
Slot Description: Embedded NIC 2
Passthru Capable: false
Parent Device: PCI 0:8:0:0
Dependent Device: PCI 0:8:0:0
Reset Method: Bridge reset
FPT Sharable: false

~ #

Since the revision B1 is not supporting WOL, there are no way to see it working on this server.
However, in meanwhile I configured successfully the remote power management via IPMI ;-)

Thank you Josh for your prompt replies and kind cooperation!

Cheers,

Alex