Using ethtool utility in Rocky9

[Dave1024]

Hi,

I used one of the commands as given below.

ethtool -L eth2 combined 2

The outcome is , netlink error: Device or resource busy

Which service I need to down before running ethtool command ?

Please guide me.

[iwalker]

Maybe explain what it is you are trying to achieve, rather than a particular command. Most likely it’s a command for old distributions, that in newer versions has alternatively functionality that does the same thing. That way, an alternative method can be suggested.

[Dave1024]

Hi,

I am trying to combine the irq interrupts in to core 2 from all other cores.

I have a cpu with 40 cores. My application read input from network. Hence irq interrupts are distributed through all 40 cores. This i combine in to core 2 and isolate it from user application.it will improve my input output operation.

[iwalker]

OK, I see in man ethtool this:

ethtool -L|–set-channels devname [rx N] [tx N] [other N] [combined N]

So it seems ethtool still has the functionality, I tried similar command on my Rocky9 install:

root@rocky9:~# ifconfig
ens33: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500

root@rocky9:~# ethtool -L ens33 combined 2
netlink error: Operation not supported

slightly different result to you. I’m wondering if the option is only possible on certain network cards and yours and mine don’t allow configuring that option.

According to this, certain ethtool options can be configured with nmcli, perhaps try that instead? Chapter 30. Configuring ethtool settings in NetworkManager connection profiles | Red Hat Product Documentation

Channel settings

A network interface manages its associated number of channels along with hardware settings and network drivers. All devices associated with a network interface communicate with each other through interrupt requests (IRQ). Each device queue holds pending IRQ and communicates with each other over a data line known as channel. Types of queues are associated with specific channel types. These channel types include:

• rx for receiving queues
• tx for transmit queues
• other for link interrupts or single root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV) coordination
• combined for hardware capacity-based multipurpose channels

[Dave1024]

Yes. I agree with your observation.

I made a modification to the command as given below.

nmcli con modify eth2 ethtool combined 2

Error: invalid property ‘combined’: ‘combined’

Do you have any other recommendations to accommodate the parameter ‘combined’?

[iwalker]

That’s because you used an invalid command. Did you read the documentation? In section 30.1 it gave an example on how to use and configure the features. Going by the example given:

nmcli con modify enp1s0 ethtool.feature-rx on ethtool.feature-tx off

I guess you would adapt it to something like:

nmcli con modify eth2 ethtool.feature-combined 2

but since they don’t give an explicit example for that, it’s just a guess based on the format and the parameters they allow. You may have to google more yourself to find explicit examples where people have attempted to do the same as you.

In fact, if you do man nm-settings-nmcli as also shown in the documentation and search for combined you will see:

ethtool.channels-combined

therefore on that basis:

nmcli con modify eth2 ethtool.channels-combined 2

would most likely be the command.

man nm-settings-nmcli

   ethtool setting
       Ethtool Ethernet Settings.

       Properties:

       ethtool.channels-combined
           Format: integer

           Valid values: 0 - 4294967295

       ethtool.channels-other
           Format: integer

           Valid values: 0 - 4294967295

       ethtool.channels-rx
           Format: integer

           Valid values: 0 - 4294967295

       ethtool.channels-tx
           Format: integer

           Valid values: 0 - 4294967295

as options to choose from.

[Dave1024]

I tried the command as given below

# nmcli con modify eth2 ethtool.feature-combined 2
Error: invalid property 'feature-combined': 'feature-combined' not among [feature-esp-hw-offload, feature-esp-tx-csum-hw-offload, feature-fcoe-mtu, feature-gro, feature-gso, feature-highdma, feature-hw-tc-offload, feature-l2-fwd-offload, feature-loopback, feature-lro, feature-macsec-hw-offload, feature-ntuple, feature-rx, feature-rxhash, feature-rxvlan, feature-rx-all, feature-rx-fcs, feature-rx-gro-hw, feature-rx-gro-list, feature-rx-udp-gro-forwarding, feature-rx-udp_tunnel-port-offload, feature-rx-vlan-filter, feature-rx-vlan-stag-filter, feature-rx-vlan-stag-hw-parse, feature-sg, feature-tls-hw-record, feature-tls-hw-rx-offload, feature-tls-hw-tx-offload, feature-tso, feature-tx, feature-txvlan, feature-tx-checksum-fcoe-crc, feature-tx-checksum-ipv4, feature-tx-checksum-ipv6, feature-tx-checksum-ip-generic, feature-tx-checksum-sctp, feature-tx-esp-segmentation, feature-tx-fcoe-segmentation, feature-tx-gre-csum-segmentation, feature-tx-gre-segmentation, feature-tx-gso-list, feature-tx-gso-partial, feature-tx-gso-robust, feature-tx-ipxip4-segmentation, feature-tx-ipxip6-segmentation, feature-tx-nocache-copy, feature-tx-scatter-gather, feature-tx-scatter-gather-fraglist, feature-tx-sctp-segmentation, feature-tx-tcp6-segmentation, feature-tx-tcp-ecn-segmentation, feature-tx-tcp-mangleid-segmentation, feature-tx-tcp-segmentation, feature-tx-tunnel-remcsum-segmentation, feature-tx-udp-segmentation, feature-tx-udp_tnl-csum-segmentation, feature-tx-udp_tnl-segmentation, feature-tx-vlan-stag-hw-insert, coalesce-adaptive-rx, coalesce-adaptive-tx, coalesce-pkt-rate-high, coalesce-pkt-rate-low, coalesce-rx-frames, coalesce-rx-frames-irq, coalesce-rx-frames-high, coalesce-rx-frames-low, coalesce-rx-usecs, coalesce-rx-usecs-irq, coalesce-rx-usecs-high, coalesce-rx-usecs-low, coalesce-sample-interval, coalesce-stats-block-usecs, coalesce-tx-frames, coalesce-tx-frames-irq, coalesce-tx-frames-high, coalesce-tx-frames-low, coalesce-tx-usecs, coalesce-tx-usecs-irq, coalesce-tx-usecs-high, coalesce-tx-usecs-low, pause-autoneg, pause-rx, pause-tx, ring-rx, ring-rx-jumbo, ring-rx-mini, ring-tx].

My version of tool is : nmcli tool, version 1.44.0-3.el9
What is your version ?

Also I tried below option

# nmcli con modify eth2 ethtool.channels-combined 2
Error: invalid property 'channels-combined': 'channels-combined' not among [feature-esp-hw-offload, feature-esp-tx-csum-hw-offload, feature-fcoe-mtu, feature-gro, feature-gso, feature-highdma, feature-hw-tc-offload, feature-l2-fwd-offload, feature-loopback, feature-lro, feature-macsec-hw-offload, feature-ntuple, feature-rx, feature-rxhash, feature-rxvlan, feature-rx-all, feature-rx-fcs, feature-rx-gro-hw, feature-rx-gro-list, feature-rx-udp-gro-forwarding, feature-rx-udp_tunnel-port-offload, feature-rx-vlan-filter, feature-rx-vlan-stag-filter, feature-rx-vlan-stag-hw-parse, feature-sg, feature-tls-hw-record, feature-tls-hw-rx-offload, feature-tls-hw-tx-offload, feature-tso, feature-tx, feature-txvlan, feature-tx-checksum-fcoe-crc, feature-tx-checksum-ipv4, feature-tx-checksum-ipv6, feature-tx-checksum-ip-generic, feature-tx-checksum-sctp, feature-tx-esp-segmentation, feature-tx-fcoe-segmentation, feature-tx-gre-csum-segmentation, feature-tx-gre-segmentation, feature-tx-gso-list, feature-tx-gso-partial, feature-tx-gso-robust, feature-tx-ipxip4-segmentation, feature-tx-ipxip6-segmentation, feature-tx-nocache-copy, feature-tx-scatter-gather, feature-tx-scatter-gather-fraglist, feature-tx-sctp-segmentation, feature-tx-tcp6-segmentation, feature-tx-tcp-ecn-segmentation, feature-tx-tcp-mangleid-segmentation, feature-tx-tcp-segmentation, feature-tx-tunnel-remcsum-segmentation, feature-tx-udp-segmentation, feature-tx-udp_tnl-csum-segmentation, feature-tx-udp_tnl-segmentation, feature-tx-vlan-stag-hw-insert, coalesce-adaptive-rx, coalesce-adaptive-tx, coalesce-pkt-rate-high, coalesce-pkt-rate-low, coalesce-rx-frames, coalesce-rx-frames-irq, coalesce-rx-frames-high, coalesce-rx-frames-low, coalesce-rx-usecs, coalesce-rx-usecs-irq, coalesce-rx-usecs-high, coalesce-rx-usecs-low, coalesce-sample-interval, coalesce-stats-block-usecs, coalesce-tx-frames, coalesce-tx-frames-irq, coalesce-tx-frames-high, coalesce-tx-frames-low, coalesce-tx-usecs, coalesce-tx-usecs-irq, coalesce-tx-usecs-high, coalesce-tx-usecs-low, pause-autoneg, pause-rx, pause-tx, ring-rx, ring-rx-jumbo, ring-rx-mini, ring-tx].

One more test I added :

Upgarde the NetworkManager & try

nmcli con modify eth2 ethtool.channels-combined 2

Error: Failed to modify connection 'eth2': failed to update connection: The ifcfg-rh plugin doesn't support property 'ethtool.channels-combined'. If you are modifying an existing connection profile saved in ifcfg-rh format, please migrate the connection to keyfile using 'nmcli connection migrate 3a73717e-65ab-93e8-b518-24f5af32dc0d' or via the Update2() D-Bus API and try again.

How can do this property setup.?

[jlehtone]

Upstream NetworkManager 1.46 did add:

• Support configuring ethtool channels property to configure NIC multiqueue

@Dave1024

My version of tool is : nmcli tool, version 1.44.0-3.el9

That was the first version for Rocky Linux 9.3. The 9.3 did get at least two (security?) updates.
The Rocky Linux 9.4 had NetworkManager (end hence nmcli) rebased to 1.46, and
The Rocky Linux 9.5 has NetworkManager rebased to 1.48.

Only the latest (9.5 content) of Rocky 9 is supported. Everybody is expected to dnf up to
keep their system up to date.

That explains your initial:

Error: invalid property ‘channels-combined’

---

@Dave1024

Upgarde the NetworkManager

Upgrade the whole system with dnf up. “Cherry-picking” is not supported.

---

@Dave1024

If you are modifying an existing connection profile saved in ifcfg-rh format, please migrate the connection to keyfile using

nmcli connection migrate 3a73717e-65ab-93e8-b518-24f5af32dc0d

That is a self-explanatory error message, isn’t it?

[Dave1024]

Hi All,
Even after using the nmcli command, I am facing an issue.

Here are my steps:

ethtool -l eth3

Channel parameters for eth3:
Pre-set maximums:
RX: 48
TX: 48
Other: 1
Combined: 48
Current hardware settings:
RX: 0
TX: 0
Other: 1
Combined: 48

nmcli conn modify eth3 ethtool.channels-combined 2

ethtool -l eth3
Channel parameters for eth3:
Pre-set maximums:
RX: 48
TX: 48
Other: 1
Combined: 48
Current hardware settings:
RX: 0
TX: 0
Other: 1
Combined: 48

Now combined channel is 48 which is equal to my processor cores.
How can I change it to a value 2.?

Additional info :

ethtool -i eth3

driver: ice
version: 5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3.x86_64
firmware-version: 4.40 0x8001ba1e 22.5.7
expansion-rom-version:
bus-info: 0000:8b:00.1
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: yes

[iwalker]

Can you use:

nmcli conn show eth3

instead, since any settings configured with nmcli will be shown there. Stop using ethtool, since it is not being configured with ethtool in the first place. It’s being configured with nmcli.

[jlehtone]

@iwalker

Stop using ethtool, since it is not being configured with ethtool in the first place. It’s being configured with nmcli.

I slightly disagree on that. The NetworkManager, FirewallD, DNF, etc “do the work” and thus ought to be consistently the method to modify the config. However, it should be ok to query the current status with ethtool, ip, rpm, etc – as long as one does not get confused by different identifiers.

---

In other words, one should see a change, which was made with nmcli, with nmcli and ethtool.
If nmcli does not show change in any way, then NM has an issue.
If nmcli does show change in saved config, but not in effective state, then why not/when should it take effect? On reboot?

[iwalker]

@jlehtone

I slightly disagree on that. The NetworkManager, FirewallD, DNF, etc “do the work” and thus ought to be consistently the method to modify the config. However, it should be ok to query the current status with ethtool, ip, rpm, etc – as long as one does not get confused by different identifiers.

Good point, I stand corrected the link here that I referenced previously: Chapter 30. Configuring ethtool settings in NetworkManager connection profiles | Red Hat Product Documentation seems to mention using:

ethtool -k eth3

to verify the settings. One would assume that the OP using ethtool -i eth3 therefore potentially is incorrect. It would be good to try it using the above command instead to see if there is a difference.