Ethtool counters¶

Copyright: © 2023, NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.

Contents¶

Overview
Groups
Types
Descriptions

Overview¶

There are several counter groups based on where the counter is being counted. In addition, each group of counters may have different counter types.

These counter groups are based on which component in a networking setup, illustrated below, that they describe:

                                              ----------------------------------------
                                              |                                      |
----------------------------------------    ---------------------------------------- |
|              Hypervisor              |    |                  VM                  | |
|                                      |    |                                      | |
| -------------------  --------------- |    | -------------------  --------------- | |
| | Ethernet driver |  | RDMA driver | |    | | Ethernet driver |  | RDMA driver | | |
| -------------------  --------------- |    | -------------------  --------------- | |
|           |                 |        |    |           |                 |        | |
|           -------------------        |    |           -------------------        | |
|                   |                  |    |                   |                  |--
----------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
                    |                                           |
        -------------               -----------------------------
        |                           |
     ------                      ------ ------ ------         ------      ------      ------
-----| PF |----------------------| VF |-| VF |-| VF |-----  --| PF |--- --| PF |--- --| PF |---
|    ------                      ------ ------ ------    |  | ------  | | ------  | | ------  |
|                                                        |  |         | |         | |         |
|                                                        |  |         | |         | |         |
|                                                        |  |         | |         | |         |
| eSwitch                                                |  | eSwitch | | eSwitch | | eSwitch |
----------------------------------------------------------  ----------- ----------- -----------
           -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           |                                                                             |
           |                                                                             |
           | Uplink (no counters)                                                        |
           -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                   ---------------------------------------------------------------
                   |                                                             |
                   |                                                             |
                   | MPFS (no counters)                                          |
                   ---------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 |
                                                 |
                                                 | Port

Groups¶

Ring: Software counters populated by the driver stack.
Netdev: An aggregation of software ring counters.
vPort counters: Traffic counters and drops due to steering or no buffers. May indicate issues with NIC. These counters include Ethernet traffic counters (including Raw Ethernet) and RDMA/RoCE traffic counters.
Physical port counters: Counters that collect statistics about the PFs and VFs. May indicate issues with NIC, link, or network. This measuring point holds information on standardized counters like IEEE 802.3, RFC2863, RFC 2819, RFC 3635 and additional counters like flow control, FEC and more. Physical port counters are not exposed to virtual machines.
Priority Port Counters: A set of the physical port counters, per priority per port.

Types¶

Counters are divided into three types.

Traffic Informative Counters: Counters which count traffic. These counters can be used for load estimation or for general debug.
Traffic Acceleration Counters: Counters which count traffic that was accelerated by Mellanox driver or by hardware. The counters are an additional layer to the informative counter set, and the same traffic is counted in both informative and acceleration counters.

1(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28): Traffic acceleration counter.

Error Counters: Increment of these counters might indicate a problem. Each of these counters has an explanation and correction action.

Statistic can be fetched via the ip link or ethtool commands. ethtool provides more detailed information.:

ip –s link show <if-name>
ethtool -S <if-name>

Descriptions¶

XSK, PTP, and QoS counters that are similar to counters defined previously will not be separately listed. For example, ptp_tx[i]_packets will not be explicitly documented since tx[i]_packets describes the behavior of both counters, except ptp_tx[i]_packets is only counted when precision time protocol is used.

Ring / Netdev Counter¶

The following counters are available per ring or software port.

These counters provide information on the amount of traffic that was accelerated by the NIC. The counters are counting the accelerated traffic in addition to the standard counters which counts it (i.e. accelerated traffic is counted twice).

The counter names in the table below refers to both ring and port counters. The notation for ring counters includes the [i] index without the braces. The notation for port counters doesn’t include the [i]. A counter name rx[i]_packets will be printed as rx0_packets for ring 0 and rx_packets for the software port.

Ring / Software Port Counter Table¶
Counter	Description	Type
rx[i]_packets	The number of packets received on ring i.	Informative
rx[i]_bytes	The number of bytes received on ring i.	Informative
tx[i]_packets	The number of packets transmitted on ring i.	Informative
tx[i]_bytes	The number of bytes transmitted on ring i.	Informative
tx[i]_recover	The number of times the SQ was recovered.	Error
tx[i]_cqes	Number of CQEs events on SQ issued on ring i.	Informative
tx[i]_cqe_err	The number of error CQEs encountered on the SQ for ring i.	Error
tx[i]_tso_packets	The number of TSO packets transmitted on ring i 1.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tso_bytes	The number of TSO bytes transmitted on ring i 1.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tso_inner_packets	The number of TSO packets which are indicated to be carry internal encapsulation transmitted on ring i 1.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tso_inner_bytes	The number of TSO bytes which are indicated to be carry internal encapsulation transmitted on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_gro_packets	Number of received packets processed using hardware-accelerated GRO. The number of hardware GRO offloaded packets received on ring i.	Acceleration
rx[i]_gro_bytes	Number of received bytes processed using hardware-accelerated GRO. The number of hardware GRO offloaded bytes received on ring i.	Acceleration
rx[i]_gro_skbs	The number of receive SKBs constructed while performing hardware-accelerated GRO.	Informative
rx[i]_gro_match_packets	Number of received packets processed using hardware-accelerated GRO that met the flow table match criteria.	Informative
rx[i]_gro_large_hds	Number of receive packets using hardware-accelerated GRO that have large headers that require additional memory to be allocated.	Informative
rx[i]_lro_packets	The number of LRO packets received on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_lro_bytes	The number of LRO bytes received on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_ecn_mark	The number of received packets where the ECN mark was turned on.	Informative
rx_oversize_pkts_buffer	The number of dropped received packets due to length which arrived to RQ and exceed software buffer size allocated by the device for incoming traffic. It might imply that the device MTU is larger than the software buffers size.	Error
rx_oversize_pkts_sw_drop	Number of received packets dropped in software because the CQE data is larger than the MTU size.	Error
rx[i]_csum_unnecessary	Packets received with a CHECKSUM_UNNECESSARY on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_csum_unnecessary_inner	Packets received with inner encapsulation with a CHECKSUM_UNNECESSARY on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_csum_none	Packets received with a CHECKSUM_NONE on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_csum_complete	Packets received with a CHECKSUM_COMPLETE on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_csum_complete_tail	Number of received packets that had checksum calculation computed, potentially needed padding, and were able to do so with CHECKSUM_PARTIAL.	Informative
rx[i]_csum_complete_tail_slow	Number of received packets that need padding larger than eight bytes for the checksum.	Informative
tx[i]_csum_partial	Packets transmitted with a CHECKSUM_PARTIAL on ring i 1.	Acceleration
tx[i]_csum_partial_inner	Packets transmitted with inner encapsulation with a CHECKSUM_PARTIAL on ring i 1.	Acceleration
tx[i]_csum_none	Packets transmitted with no hardware checksum acceleration on ring i.	Informative
tx[i]_stopped / tx_queue_stopped 2	Events where SQ was full on ring i. If this counter is increased, check the amount of buffers allocated for transmission.	Informative
tx[i]_wake / tx_queue_wake 2	Events where SQ was full and has become not full on ring i.	Informative
tx[i]_dropped / tx_queue_dropped 2	Packets transmitted that were dropped due to DMA mapping failure on ring i. If this counter is increased, check the amount of buffers allocated for transmission.	Error
tx[i]_nop	The number of nop WQEs (empty WQEs) inserted to the SQ (related to ring i) due to the reach of the end of the cyclic buffer. When reaching near to the end of cyclic buffer the driver may add those empty WQEs to avoid handling a state the a WQE start in the end of the queue and ends in the beginning of the queue. This is a normal condition.	Informative
tx[i]_timestamps	Transmitted packets that were hardware timestamped at the device’s DMA layer.	Informative
tx[i]_added_vlan_packets	The number of packets sent where vlan tag insertion was offloaded to the hardware.	Acceleration
rx[i]_removed_vlan_packets	The number of packets received where vlan tag stripping was offloaded to the hardware.	Acceleration
rx[i]_wqe_err	The number of wrong opcodes received on ring i.	Error
rx[i]_mpwqe_frag	The number of WQEs that failed to allocate compound page and hence fragmented MPWQE’s (Multi Packet WQEs) were used on ring i. If this counter raise, it may suggest that there is no enough memory for large pages, the driver allocated fragmented pages. This is not abnormal condition.	Informative
rx[i]_mpwqe_filler_cqes	The number of filler CQEs events that were issued on ring i.	Informative
rx[i]_mpwqe_filler_strides	The number of strides consumed by filler CQEs on ring i.	Informative
tx[i]_mpwqe_blks	The number of send blocks processed from Multi-Packet WQEs (mpwqe).	Informative
tx[i]_mpwqe_pkts	The number of send packets processed from Multi-Packet WQEs (mpwqe).	Informative
rx[i]_cqe_compress_blks	The number of receive blocks with CQE compression on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_cqe_compress_pkts	The number of receive packets with CQE compression on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_arfs_add	The number of aRFS flow rules added to the device for direct RQ steering on ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_arfs_request_in	Number of flow rules that have been requested to move into ring i for direct RQ steering 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_arfs_request_out	Number of flow rules that have been requested to move out of ring i 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_arfs_expired	Number of flow rules that have been expired and removed 1.	Acceleration
rx[i]_arfs_err	Number of flow rules that failed to be added to the flow table.	Error
rx[i]_recover	The number of times the RQ was recovered.	Error
tx[i]_xmit_more	The number of packets sent with xmit_more indication set on the skbuff (no doorbell).	Acceleration
ch[i]_poll	The number of invocations of NAPI poll of channel i.	Informative
ch[i]_arm	The number of times the NAPI poll function completed and armed the completion queues on channel i.	Informative
ch[i]_aff_change	The number of times the NAPI poll function explicitly stopped execution on a CPU due to a change in affinity, on channel i.	Informative
ch[i]_events	The number of hard interrupt events on the completion queues of channel i.	Informative
ch[i]_eq_rearm	The number of times the EQ was recovered.	Error
ch[i]_force_irq	Number of times NAPI is triggered by XSK wakeups by posting a NOP to ICOSQ.	Acceleration
rx[i]_congst_umr	The number of times an outstanding UMR request is delayed due to congestion, on ring i.	Informative
rx_pp_alloc_fast	Number of successful fast path allocations.	Informative
rx_pp_alloc_slow	Number of slow path order-0 allocations.	Informative
rx_pp_alloc_slow_high_order	Number of slow path high order allocations.	Informative
rx_pp_alloc_empty	Counter is incremented when ptr ring is empty, so a slow path allocation was forced.	Informative
rx_pp_alloc_refill	Counter is incremented when an allocation which triggered a refill of the cache.	Informative
rx_pp_alloc_waive	Counter is incremented when pages obtained from the ptr ring that cannot be added to the cache due to a NUMA mismatch.	Informative
rx_pp_recycle_cached	Counter is incremented when recycling placed page in the page pool cache.	Informative
rx_pp_recycle_cache_full	Counter is incremented when page pool cache was full.	Informative
rx_pp_recycle_ring	Counter is incremented when page placed into the ptr ring.	Informative
rx_pp_recycle_ring_full	Counter is incremented when page released from page pool because the ptr ring was full.	Informative
rx_pp_recycle_released_ref	Counter is incremented when page released (and not recycled) because refcnt > 1.	Informative
rx[i]_xsk_buff_alloc_err	The number of times allocating an skb or XSK buffer failed in the XSK RQ context.	Error
rx[i]_xdp_tx_xmit	The number of packets forwarded back to the port due to XDP program XDP_TX action (bouncing). these packets are not counted by other software counters. These packets are counted by physical port and vPort counters.	Informative
rx[i]_xdp_tx_mpwqe	Number of multi-packet WQEs transmitted by the netdev and XDP_TX-ed by the netdev during the RQ context.	Acceleration
rx[i]_xdp_tx_inlnw	Number of WQE data segments transmitted where the data could be inlined in the WQE and then XDP_TX-ed during the RQ context.	Acceleration
rx[i]_xdp_tx_nops	Number of NOP WQEBBs (WQE building blocks) received posted to the XDP SQ.	Acceleration
rx[i]_xdp_tx_full	The number of packets that should have been forwarded back to the port due to XDP_TX action but were dropped due to full tx queue. These packets are not counted by other software counters. These packets are counted by physical port and vPort counters. You may open more rx queues and spread traffic rx over all queues and/or increase rx ring size.	Error
rx[i]_xdp_tx_err	The number of times an XDP_TX error such as frame too long and frame too short occurred on XDP_TX ring of RX ring.	Error
rx[i]_xdp_tx_cqes / rx_xdp_tx_cqe 2	The number of completions received on the CQ of the XDP_TX ring.	Informative
rx[i]_xdp_drop	The number of packets dropped due to XDP program XDP_DROP action. these packets are not counted by other software counters. These packets are counted by physical port and vPort counters.	Informative
rx[i]_xdp_redirect	The number of times an XDP redirect action was triggered on ring i.	Acceleration
tx[i]_xdp_xmit	The number of packets redirected to the interface(due to XDP redirect). These packets are not counted by other software counters. These packets are counted by physical port and vPort counters.	Informative
tx[i]_xdp_full	The number of packets redirected to the interface(due to XDP redirect), but were dropped due to full tx queue. these packets are not counted by other software counters. you may enlarge tx queues.	Informative
tx[i]_xdp_mpwqe	Number of multi-packet WQEs offloaded onto the NIC that were XDP_REDIRECT-ed from other netdevs.	Acceleration
tx[i]_xdp_inlnw	Number of WQE data segments where the data could be inlined in the WQE where the data segments were XDP_REDIRECT-ed from other netdevs.	Acceleration
tx[i]_xdp_nops	Number of NOP WQEBBs (WQE building blocks) posted to the SQ that were XDP_REDIRECT-ed from other netdevs.	Acceleration
tx[i]_xdp_err	The number of packets redirected to the interface(due to XDP redirect) but were dropped due to error such as frame too long and frame too short.	Error
tx[i]_xdp_cqes	The number of completions received for packets redirected to the interface(due to XDP redirect) on the CQ.	Informative
tx[i]_xsk_xmit	The number of packets transmitted using XSK zerocopy functionality.	Acceleration
tx[i]_xsk_mpwqe	Number of multi-packet WQEs offloaded onto the NIC that were XDP_REDIRECT-ed from other netdevs.	Acceleration
tx[i]_xsk_inlnw	Number of WQE data segments where the data could be inlined in the WQE that are transmitted using XSK zerocopy.	Acceleration
tx[i]_xsk_full	Number of times doorbell is rung in XSK zerocopy mode when SQ is full.	Error
tx[i]_xsk_err	Number of errors that occurred in XSK zerocopy mode such as if the data size is larger than the MTU size.	Error
tx[i]_xsk_cqes	Number of CQEs processed in XSK zerocopy mode.	Acceleration
tx_tls_ctx	Number of TLS TX HW offload contexts added to device for encryption.	Acceleration
tx_tls_del	Number of TLS TX HW offload contexts removed from device (connection closed).	Acceleration
tx_tls_pool_alloc	Number of times a unit of work is successfully allocated in the TLS HW offload pool.	Acceleration
tx_tls_pool_free	Number of times a unit of work is freed in the TLS HW offload pool.	Acceleration
rx_tls_ctx	Number of TLS RX HW offload contexts added to device for decryption.	Acceleration
rx_tls_del	Number of TLS RX HW offload contexts deleted from device (connection has finished).	Acceleration
rx[i]_tls_decrypted_packets	Number of successfully decrypted RX packets which were part of a TLS stream.	Acceleration
rx[i]_tls_decrypted_bytes	Number of TLS payload bytes in RX packets which were successfully decrypted.	Acceleration
rx[i]_tls_resync_req_pkt	Number of received TLS packets with a resync request.	Acceleration
rx[i]_tls_resync_req_start	Number of times the TLS async resync request was started.	Acceleration
rx[i]_tls_resync_req_end	Number of times the TLS async resync request properly ended with providing the HW tracked tcp-seq.	Acceleration
rx[i]_tls_resync_req_skip	Number of times the TLS async resync request procedure was started but not properly ended.	Error
rx[i]_tls_resync_res_ok	Number of times the TLS resync response call to the driver was successfully handled.	Acceleration
rx[i]_tls_resync_res_retry	Number of times the TLS resync response call to the driver was reattempted when ICOSQ is full.	Error
rx[i]_tls_resync_res_skip	Number of times the TLS resync response call to the driver was terminated unsuccessfully.	Error
rx[i]_tls_err	Number of times when CQE TLS offload was problematic.	Error
tx[i]_tls_encrypted_packets	The number of send packets that are TLS encrypted by the kernel.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tls_encrypted_bytes	The number of send bytes that are TLS encrypted by the kernel.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tls_ooo	Number of times out of order TLS SQE fragments were handled on ring i.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tls_dump_packets	Number of TLS decrypted packets copied over from NIC over DMA.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tls_dump_bytes	Number of TLS decrypted bytes copied over from NIC over DMA.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tls_resync_bytes	Number of TLS bytes requested to be resynchronized in order to be decrypted.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tls_skip_no_sync_data	Number of TLS send data that can safely be skipped / do not need to be decrypted.	Acceleration
tx[i]_tls_drop_no_sync_data	Number of TLS send data that were dropped due to retransmission of TLS data.	Acceleration
ptp_cq[i]_abort	Number of times a CQE has to be skipped in precision time protocol due to a skew between the port timestamp and CQE timestamp being greater than 128 seconds.	Error
ptp_cq[i]_abort_abs_diff_ns	Accumulation of time differences between the port timestamp and CQE timestamp when the difference is greater than 128 seconds in precision time protocol.	Error
ptp_cq[i]_late_cqe	Number of times a CQE has been delivered on the PTP timestamping CQ when the CQE was not expected since a certain amount of time had elapsed where the device typically ensures not posting the CQE.	Error
ptp_cq[i]_lost_cqe	Number of times a CQE is expected to not be delivered on the PTP timestamping CQE by the device due to a time delta elapsing. If such a CQE is somehow delivered, ptp_cq[i]_late_cqe is incremented.	Error

2(1,2,3,4): The corresponding ring and global counters do not share the same name (i.e. do not follow the common naming scheme).

vPort Counters¶

Counters on the NIC port that is connected to a eSwitch.

vPort Counter Table¶
Counter	Description	Type
rx_vport_unicast_packets	Unicast packets received, steered to a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
rx_vport_unicast_bytes	Unicast bytes received, steered to a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
tx_vport_unicast_packets	Unicast packets transmitted, steered from a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
tx_vport_unicast_bytes	Unicast bytes transmitted, steered from a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
rx_vport_multicast_packets	Multicast packets received, steered to a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
rx_vport_multicast_bytes	Multicast bytes received, steered to a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
tx_vport_multicast_packets	Multicast packets transmitted, steered from a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
tx_vport_multicast_bytes	Multicast bytes transmitted, steered from a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
rx_vport_broadcast_packets	Broadcast packets received, steered to a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
rx_vport_broadcast_bytes	Broadcast bytes received, steered to a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
tx_vport_broadcast_packets	Broadcast packets transmitted, steered from a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
tx_vport_broadcast_bytes	Broadcast bytes transmitted, steered from a port including Raw Ethernet QP/DPDK traffic, excluding RDMA traffic.	Informative
rx_vport_rdma_unicast_packets	RDMA unicast packets received, steered to a port (counters counts RoCE/UD/RC traffic) 1.	Acceleration
rx_vport_rdma_unicast_bytes	RDMA unicast bytes received, steered to a port (counters counts RoCE/UD/RC traffic) 1.	Acceleration
tx_vport_rdma_unicast_packets	RDMA unicast packets transmitted, steered from a port (counters counts RoCE/UD/RC traffic) 1.	Acceleration
tx_vport_rdma_unicast_bytes	RDMA unicast bytes transmitted, steered from a port (counters counts RoCE/UD/RC traffic) 1.	Acceleration
rx_vport_rdma_multicast_packets	RDMA multicast packets received, steered to a port (counters counts RoCE/UD/RC traffic) 1.	Acceleration
rx_vport_rdma_multicast_bytes	RDMA multicast bytes received, steered to a port (counters counts RoCE/UD/RC traffic) 1.	Acceleration
tx_vport_rdma_multicast_packets	RDMA multicast packets transmitted, steered from a port (counters counts RoCE/UD/RC traffic) 1.	Acceleration
tx_vport_rdma_multicast_bytes	RDMA multicast bytes transmitted, steered from a port (counters counts RoCE/UD/RC traffic) 1.	Acceleration
vport_loopback_packets	Unicast, multicast and broadcast packets that were loop-back (received and transmitted), IB/Eth 1.	Acceleration
vport_loopback_bytes	Unicast, multicast and broadcast bytes that were loop-back (received and transmitted), IB/Eth 1.	Acceleration
rx_steer_missed_packets	Number of packets that was received by the NIC, however was discarded because it did not match any flow in the NIC flow table.	Error
rx_packets	Representor only: packets received, that were handled by the hypervisor.	Informative
rx_bytes	Representor only: bytes received, that were handled by the hypervisor.	Informative
tx_packets	Representor only: packets transmitted, that were handled by the hypervisor.	Informative
tx_bytes	Representor only: bytes transmitted, that were handled by the hypervisor.	Informative
dev_internal_queue_oob	The number of dropped packets due to lack of receive WQEs for an internal device RQ.	Error

Physical Port Counters¶

The physical port counters are the counters on the external port connecting the adapter to the network. This measuring point holds information on standardized counters like IEEE 802.3, RFC2863, RFC 2819, RFC 3635 and additional counters like flow control, FEC and more.

Physical Port Counter Table¶
Counter	Description	Type
rx_packets_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port. This counter doesn’t include packets that were discarded due to FCS, frame size and similar errors.	Informative
tx_packets_phy	The number of packets transmitted on the physical port.	Informative
rx_bytes_phy	The number of bytes received on the physical port, including Ethernet header and FCS.	Informative
tx_bytes_phy	The number of bytes transmitted on the physical port.	Informative
rx_multicast_phy	The number of multicast packets received on the physical port.	Informative
tx_multicast_phy	The number of multicast packets transmitted on the physical port.	Informative
rx_broadcast_phy	The number of broadcast packets received on the physical port.	Informative
tx_broadcast_phy	The number of broadcast packets transmitted on the physical port.	Informative
rx_crc_errors_phy	The number of dropped received packets due to FCS (Frame Check Sequence) error on the physical port. If this counter is increased in high rate, check the link quality using rx_symbol_error_phy and rx_corrected_bits_phy counters below.	Error
rx_in_range_len_errors_phy	The number of received packets dropped due to length/type errors on a physical port.	Error
rx_out_of_range_len_phy	The number of received packets dropped due to length greater than allowed on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the peer connected to the adapter has a larger MTU configured. Using same MTU configuration shall resolve this issue.	Error
rx_oversize_pkts_phy	The number of dropped received packets due to length which exceed MTU size on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the peer connected to the adapter has a larger MTU configured. Using same MTU configuration shall resolve this issue.	Error
rx_symbol_err_phy	The number of received packets dropped due to physical coding errors (symbol errors) on a physical port.	Error
rx_mac_control_phy	The number of MAC control packets received on the physical port.	Informative
tx_mac_control_phy	The number of MAC control packets transmitted on the physical port.	Informative
rx_pause_ctrl_phy	The number of link layer pause packets received on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the network is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from to the adapter.	Informative
tx_pause_ctrl_phy	The number of link layer pause packets transmitted on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the NIC is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from the network.	Informative
rx_unsupported_op_phy	The number of MAC control packets received with unsupported opcode on a physical port.	Error
rx_discards_phy	The number of received packets dropped due to lack of buffers on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the adapter is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from the network.	Error
tx_discards_phy	The number of packets which were discarded on transmission, even no errors were detected. the drop might occur due to link in down state, head of line drop, pause from the network, etc.	Error
tx_errors_phy	The number of transmitted packets dropped due to a length which exceed MTU size on a physical port.	Error
rx_undersize_pkts_phy	The number of received packets dropped due to length which is shorter than 64 bytes on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the peer connected to the adapter has a non-standard MTU configured or malformed packet had arrived.	Error
rx_fragments_phy	The number of received packets dropped due to a length which is shorter than 64 bytes and has FCS error on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the peer connected to the adapter has a non-standard MTU configured.	Error
rx_jabbers_phy	The number of received packets d due to a length which is longer than 64 bytes and had FCS error on a physical port.	Error
rx_64_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 64 bytes.	Informative
rx_65_to_127_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 65 to 127 bytes.	Informative
rx_128_to_255_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 128 to 255 bytes.	Informative
rx_256_to_511_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 256 to 512 bytes.	Informative
rx_512_to_1023_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 512 to 1023 bytes.	Informative
rx_1024_to_1518_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 1024 to 1518 bytes.	Informative
rx_1519_to_2047_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 1519 to 2047 bytes.	Informative
rx_2048_to_4095_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 2048 to 4095 bytes.	Informative
rx_4096_to_8191_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 4096 to 8191 bytes.	Informative
rx_8192_to_10239_bytes_phy	The number of packets received on the physical port with size of 8192 to 10239 bytes.	Informative
link_down_events_phy	The number of times where the link operative state changed to down. In case this counter is increasing it may imply on port flapping. You may need to replace the cable/transceiver.	Error
rx_out_of_buffer	Number of times receive queue had no software buffers allocated for the adapter’s incoming traffic.	Error
module_bus_stuck	The number of times that module’s I²C bus (data or clock) short-wire was detected. You may need to replace the cable/transceiver.	Error
module_high_temp	The number of times that the module temperature was too high. If this issue persist, you may need to check the ambient temperature or replace the cable/transceiver module.	Error
module_bad_shorted	The number of times that the module cables were shorted. You may need to replace the cable/transceiver module.	Error
module_unplug	The number of times that module was ejected.	Informative
rx_buffer_passed_thres_phy	The number of events where the port receive buffer was over 85% full.	Informative
tx_pause_storm_warning_events	The number of times the device was sending pauses for a long period of time.	Informative
tx_pause_storm_error_events	The number of times the device was sending pauses for a long period of time, reaching time out and disabling transmission of pause frames. on the period where pause frames were disabled, drop could have been occurred.	Error
rx[i]_buff_alloc_err	Failed to allocate a buffer to received packet (or SKB) on ring i.	Error
rx_bits_phy	This counter provides information on the total amount of traffic that could have been received and can be used as a guideline to measure the ratio of errored traffic in rx_pcs_symbol_err_phy and rx_corrected_bits_phy.	Informative
rx_pcs_symbol_err_phy	This counter counts the number of symbol errors that wasn’t corrected by FEC correction algorithm or that FEC algorithm was not active on this interface. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the link between the NIC and the network is suffering from high BER, and that traffic is lost. You may need to replace the cable/transceiver. The error rate is the number of rx_pcs_symbol_err_phy divided by the number of rx_bits_phy on a specific time frame.	Error
rx_corrected_bits_phy	The number of corrected bits on this port according to active FEC (RS/FC). If this counter is increasing, it implies that the link between the NIC and the network is suffering from high BER. The corrected bit rate is the number of rx_corrected_bits_phy divided by the number of rx_bits_phy on a specific time frame.	Error
rx_err_lane_[l]_phy	This counter counts the number of physical raw errors per lane l index. The counter counts errors before FEC corrections. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the link between the NIC and the network is suffering from high BER, and that traffic might be lost. You may need to replace the cable/transceiver. Please check in accordance with rx_corrected_bits_phy.	Error
rx_global_pause	The number of pause packets received on the physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the network is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from the adapter. Note: This counter is only enabled when global pause mode is enabled.	Informative
rx_global_pause_duration	The duration of pause received (in microSec) on the physical port. The counter represents the time the port did not send any traffic. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the network is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from the adapter. Note: This counter is only enabled when global pause mode is enabled.	Informative
tx_global_pause	The number of pause packets transmitted on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the adapter is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from the network. Note: This counter is only enabled when global pause mode is enabled.	Informative
tx_global_pause_duration	The duration of pause transmitter (in microSec) on the physical port. Note: This counter is only enabled when global pause mode is enabled.	Informative
rx_global_pause_transition	The number of times a transition from Xoff to Xon on the physical port has occurred. Note: This counter is only enabled when global pause mode is enabled.	Informative
rx_if_down_packets	The number of received packets that were dropped due to interface down.	Informative

Priority Port Counters¶

The following counters are physical port counters that are counted per L2 priority (0-7).

Note: p in the counter name represents the priority.

Priority Port Counter Table¶
Counter	Description	Type
rx_prio[p]_bytes	The number of bytes received with priority p on the physical port.	Informative
rx_prio[p]_packets	The number of packets received with priority p on the physical port.	Informative
tx_prio[p]_bytes	The number of bytes transmitted on priority p on the physical port.	Informative
tx_prio[p]_packets	The number of packets transmitted on priority p on the physical port.	Informative
rx_prio[p]_pause	The number of pause packets received with priority p on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the network is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from the adapter. Note: This counter is available only if PFC was enabled on priority p.	Informative
rx_prio[p]_pause_duration	The duration of pause received (in microSec) on priority p on the physical port. The counter represents the time the port did not send any traffic on this priority. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the network is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from the adapter. Note: This counter is available only if PFC was enabled on priority p.	Informative
rx_prio[p]_pause_transition	The number of times a transition from Xoff to Xon on priority p on the physical port has occurred. Note: This counter is available only if PFC was enabled on priority p.	Informative
tx_prio[p]_pause	The number of pause packets transmitted on priority p on a physical port. If this counter is increasing, it implies that the adapter is congested and cannot absorb the traffic coming from the network. Note: This counter is available only if PFC was enabled on priority p.	Informative
tx_prio[p]_pause_duration	The duration of pause transmitter (in microSec) on priority p on the physical port. Note: This counter is available only if PFC was enabled on priority p.	Informative
rx_prio[p]_buf_discard	The number of packets discarded by device due to lack of per host receive buffers.	Informative
rx_prio[p]_cong_discard	The number of packets discarded by device due to per host congestion.	Informative
rx_prio[p]_marked	The number of packets ecn marked by device due to per host congestion.	Informative
rx_prio[p]_discards	The number of packets discarded by device due to lack of receive buffers.	Informative

Device Counters¶

Device Counter Table¶
Counter	Description	Type
rx_pci_signal_integrity	Counts physical layer PCIe signal integrity errors, the number of transitions to recovery due to Framing errors and CRC (dlp and tlp). If this counter is raising, try moving the adapter card to a different slot to rule out a bad PCI slot. Validate that you are running with the latest firmware available and latest server BIOS version.	Error
tx_pci_signal_integrity	Counts physical layer PCIe signal integrity errors, the number of transition to recovery initiated by the other side (moving to recovery due to getting TS/EIEOS). If this counter is raising, try moving the adapter card to a different slot to rule out a bad PCI slot. Validate that you are running with the latest firmware available and latest server BIOS version.	Error
outbound_pci_buffer_overflow	The number of packets dropped due to pci buffer overflow. If this counter is raising in high rate, it might indicate that the receive traffic rate for a host is larger than the PCIe bus and therefore a congestion occurs.	Informative
outbound_pci_stalled_rd	The percentage (in the range 0...100) of time within the last second that the NIC had outbound non-posted reads requests but could not perform the operation due to insufficient posted credits.	Informative
outbound_pci_stalled_wr	The percentage (in the range 0...100) of time within the last second that the NIC had outbound posted writes requests but could not perform the operation due to insufficient posted credits.	Informative
outbound_pci_stalled_rd_events	The number of seconds where outbound_pci_stalled_rd was above 30%.	Informative
outbound_pci_stalled_wr_events	The number of seconds where outbound_pci_stalled_wr was above 30%.	Informative
dev_out_of_buffer	The number of times the device owned queue had not enough buffers allocated.	Error

The Linux Kernel

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