I have a system, running Redhat's 2.6.9-67 kernel, using the bnx2 network driver, that shows packets dropped (RX-DRP) in netstat -i output. I have upgraded the kernel to 2.6.25.3 and tomorrow in production, I will find out whether the problem repeats itself. I can't repeat the problem under a test load with either kernel. In the past (with other drivers), I have noticed that these dropped packet counters are used for a variety of errors instead of one error type per counter. I have had to troubleshoot dropped packets by modifying the driver to print syslog messages for the less-likely causes, and increasing the counter for only one. I notice that the bnx2 driver with 2.6.25.3 has many performance counters (e.g. "rx_1024_to_1522_byte_packets"), but I can't find any userspace tool or file in /proc that exposes them. How am I supposed to get access to these? Is there any documentation describing Linux network interface performance counters? From how to save them for a driver writer, to how to get them, or what each counter is supposed to mean? As a sysadmin it is very useful for me to know if a packet was dropped because of a bad CRC or a system that was under extreme load. For a second I was excited that the driver seems to track a large number of performance counters. But I can't figure out how to get them, nor can I find any documentation on the topic. Thanks! -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-net" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
