Switch Intel Driver Versions¶

Introduction ¶

The system supports both in-tree and out-of-tree versions of the Intel ice, i40e, and iavf drivers. On initial installation, the system uses the default out-of-tree driver version. This sections describes how to switch between the in-tree and out-of-tree driver versions.

Warning

The NIC firmware (NVM) has to align with one of the selected driver listed below.

Out-of-tree drivers (default)
- ice: 1.14.9.2 / Required NVM/firmware: 4.20 (Intel E810)
- i40e: 2.25.7 / Required NVM/firmware: 9.00
- iavf: 4.11.1
In-tree drivers
- ice: Same as 6.6.7 kernel in-tree driver / Required NVM/firmware: 4.20
- i40e: Same as 6.6.7 kernel in-tree driver / Required NVM/firmware: 9.00
- iavf: Same as 6.6.7 kernel in-tree driver

Switch between the In-tree and Out-of-tree Driver Versions ¶

The out_of_tree_drivers service parameter can be used to switch between the in-tree and out-of-tree versions of a given driver.

Switch to In-tree Driver Versions ¶

The system can be switched to the in-tree versions of ice, i40e, and iavf drivers using any of the following two mechanisms.

Before installation, specify the out_of_tree_drivers service parameter to none in the deployment config file.

serviceParameters:
        - service: platform
          section: kernel
          paramname: out_of_tree_drivers
          paramvalue: "none"

After installation, modify the out_of_tree_drivers service parameter to none and apply the configuration using the steps mentioned in Apply Driver Configuration.
```
~(keystone_admin)$ system service-parameter-modify platform kernel out_of_tree_drivers=none
```

Switch to Out-of-tree Driver Versions ¶

To use the out-of-tree drivers, set the out-of-tree drivers you want to load in the out_of_tree_drivers service parameter and apply the configuration using the steps mentioned in Apply Driver Configuration. You can set all the supported drivers, or only specific ones.

Set all out-of-tree drivers:

~(keystone_admin)$ system service-parameter-modify platform kernel out_of_tree_drivers=ice,i40e,iavf

Set specified out-of-tree drivers:

To set only ice and i40e, but not iavf (in this case, the iavf is in the in-tree driver):
```
~(keystone_admin)$ system service-parameter-modify platform kernel out_of_tree_drivers=ice,i40e
```
To set iavf and ice, but not i40e:
```
~(keystone_admin)$ system service-parameter-modify platform kernel out_of_tree_drivers=ice,iavf
```
You can set any permutation or combination of ice, i40e, and iavf in the out_of_tree_drivers service parameter. Any driver not explicitly set using the out_of_tree_drivers service parameter will use its in-tree version.

Apply Driver Configuration ¶

To apply the service parameter change, all the hosts need to be locked and unlocked. Use the following commands for each host depending on the deployed configuration:

For AIO-SX deployments:

~(keystone_admin)$ system host-lock controller-0
~(keystone_admin)$ system host-unlock controller-0

For AIO-DX and standards deployments, after controller-1 is locked/unlocked, swact controller-0 to make controller-1 the active node. The next set of commands are executed on the controller-0 node:

~(keystone_admin)$ system host-lock controller-1
~(keystone_admin)$ system host-unlock controller-1
~(keystone_admin)$ system host-swact controller-0

On controller-1, after controller-0 is locked/unlocked swact controller-1 to go back to controller-0 as the active node. The next set of commands are executed on the controller-1 node:

~(keystone_admin)$ system host-lock controller-0
~(keystone_admin)$ system host-unlock controller-0
~(keystone_admin)$ system host-swact controller-1

All the remaining nodes in the deployment need to be locked/unlocked, one at a time. Use the following commands (replace worker-0 with the name of the node being locked/unlocked):

~(keystone_admin)$ system host-lock worker-0
~(keystone_admin)$ system host-unlock worker-0

Note

You must wait for the node to enter the locked state prior to unlocking.

To verify the current Intel driver version use ethtool -i on the desired Intel network interface. For example:

~(keystone_admin)$ ethtool -i ens785f0 | egrep '^(driver|version):'
driver: i40e
version: 6.6.40-stx.3

Backup and Restore ¶

If a backup and restore is performed, after unlocking the host during a restore operation, the system is configured to the driver version at the time of the backup.