Release Text ============ Broadcom NetXtreme Software Copyright (c) 2000-2006 Broadcom Corporation All rights reserved. Version 2.6 (5/8/2006) *** Release Version Information Table for NetXtreme II software *** uxdiag v1.0.7 User Diagnostic software. mba v2.6.7 Broadcom Multiple Boot Agent [ PXE,RPL, and BOOTP ] ODI32 v2.6.1 Netware ODI32 Driver. ODI16 v1.04 Netware ODI16 Driver. bnx2 v1.4.36b Broadcom Linux Driver. bxdiag v2.6.16 Broadcom NetXtreme II GigE Diagnostic Driver b06bdrv v2.6.17 VBD driver for Windows 2003 and Windows 2000. l2nd_w2k v2.6.14 NDIS 5.0 driver for Windows 2000. l4nd_xp v2.6.14 NDIS 5.1/5.2 driver for Windows 2003 32/64 bits versions. l2 BASP v6.1.20 Broadcom Advanced Server Program (BASP) Driver NDIS2 v1.4.3 NDIS2 driver *** Release Version Information Table for NetXtreme software *** Product Version Windows 2000 Driver 8.48e* Windows Server 2003 IA32 Driver 8.48e* Windows Server 2003 x64 Driver 8.48e* DOS NDIS2 Driver 8.28 BASP Silent Config 6.1.5 Linux TG3 Driver 3.44j Netware ODI32 Driver 8.60 Netware ODI16 Driver 8.27 BASP for Netware 2.25 Netware SNMP 6.00 DOS Diagnostics 8.30 PXE 8.3.9 HTML User Guide for NetXtreme 2CS57XX-UM208-R HTML User Guide for NetXtreme II 2CS57XX-UM2000-D10 *** Release Version Information Table common for both NetXtreme and NetXtreme II software *** BACS v8.3.11 Broadcom Advanced Control Suite BASP v6.1.20 Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows SNMP v7.1.3 Broadcom SNMP Agent BMAPI v7.5.7 Broadcom Management Application Programming Interface CABW32 v6.1.8 Broadcom Cable Diagnostics dll SNMP Agent v7.1.4 Broadcom SNMP-Extensible-Agent CIM v6.3.1 Broadcom CIM for Windows DrvMgmtInst v8.26.02 Broadcom Driver and Management Applications Installer (Umbrella). *** Currently known issues and limitations with Broadcom NetXtreme 1 and 2 drivers and devices. *** 1. BASP (the Broadcom Advanced Server Program) will appear to be bound to all adapters in the system once loaded. This binding is normal and is used only to determine compatibility with BASP. The binding is not active, as indicated by the gray background of the selection box. This pre-binding will not interfere with bindings to other software protocols. 2. Lower receive throughput with TOE at 2KB network I/O size: Using Ixia's Chariot 6.20, the receive throughput at a network I/O size of 2K will be lower with TOE compared to non-TOE. This issue may be seen with web applications where network I/O size is generally in the range of 1 to 2 KB. 3. Lower throughput with TOE with IOMeter against EMC's AX100i:Applications like database or exchange may have impaired network performance with TOE enabled. Customer may disable TOE in this configuration to fix this issue. 4. Backup time using EMC's Networker Backup 7.3 may take longer when TOE is enabled on only one side of the client/server connection. When TOE is enabled on both sides the backup time has been shown to be less than with TOE disabled on both sides. CPU utilization in the case where TOE is enabled on both sides has been shown to be much lower than TOE disabled. 5. Customer may not see improvements with TOE when running web traffic with short-lived connections. When Webbench 5.0 uses short-lived connections to generate web traffic, TOE throughput is ~3% lower than non-TOE. CPU utilization is 100% in both cases. This is due to the fact that Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack and Broadcom NetXtreme II drivers aren't fully optimized to handle uploading and offloading of short-lived http connections. TOE demonstrates performance advantages with long-lived connections. 6. Double network counters using Perfmon: The Windows application, Perfmon, may report twice the number of bytes received/sec, bytes sent/sec, packets received/sec and packets sent/sec when monitoring a NetXtreme II device with TOE disabled. 7. The NetXtreme II drivers have two parts, the VBD driver and the NDIS Client driver. This combination of drivers can be used for WinPE installations as long as the WinPE image is built with the /PnP option. WinPE images that are booted with the -miniNT option will only load the NDIS driver so NetXtreme II network devices will not be functional in this environment. Use the -winpe option instead of the -minint option to boot WinPE when using NetXtreme II devices. 8. Specifying network settings for NetXtreme II devices using the Microsoft unattended answer file does not work using the PCI Bus/Device/Function designation to specify adapters. This is due to the NDIS personality of the NetXtreme II device being a virtual device which means it does not have a physical Bus/Device/Function address. MAC address designation does work and may be used in conjunction with Bus/Device/Function for a complete solution. A program called netset.exe from Microsoft, available in the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit, can also be used to apply network settings after the unattended install. Netset.ext uses the answer file to apply the network settings specified to the adapters in the system. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article 268781 for more information on netset.exe. 9. NetXtreme II devices support Jumbo Frames, but the interface for configuring them is not listed in the Windows Advanced Tab of the Network Interface properties. To configure Jumbo Frames, you must use the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite, BACS2. Running the InstallShield installer will allow the installation of BACS. 10. Windows network device teaming (aggregation of 2 or more networks interfaces into one logical interface) may encounter problems when the team is servicing multiple types of TCP/IP traffic and experiences high stress. If teamed networks encounter persistent issues when running multiple types of traffic, splitting that traffic between servers, such as moving email services or HTTP services, to different servers will alleviate this issue. 11. BACS2 is used to configure TOE when the Microsoft Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack (SNP hotfix) is installed. If a user clicks on the Configure button on the Resource Allocation tab of BACS, and unchecks the box next to NDIS with the intent of disabling TOE, then commits the change in BACS and then uninstalls the SNP hotfix, the network capability of the NetXtreme II device is locked and can not be used. To reenable the network function, reinstall SNP and use BACS2 to recheck the NDIS box. To properly disable TOE without locking the network function, do not uncheck the NDIS box, instead, uncheck the TCP/IP Offload Engine box directly below the NDIS box. 12. Under Windows 2000 Server, the NetXtreme II devices may display an option in their Advanced Tab in the network interface properties entitled "Receive Side Scaling". This option is only supported on the Windows Server 2003 family. This option does not have any affect on any settings and may be ignored. 13. Running the Dell Online Diagnostic tools under Linux simultaneously against more than one Broadcom NX1 or NX2 devices while the devices are bonded in a team may report failures. This is a bug in the diagnostic logic. Running ethtool diagnostics in the same scenario does not produce failures. It is recommended that the diagnostics be run on only one NIC at a time. Dell, Broadcom and Microsoft are currently working to fix these issues and will release updated network drivers and other required software as they become available.Download Driver Pack
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Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
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Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
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Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
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