I have two twins Proliant DL580 G3 with RHEL4U4 clustered with Oracle RAC with two nics working in each one.
All nics have the same firmware, driver and type of physical cable connected (Cat 5E). All ports of the switch have the same configuration but only one of the nics of only one server can negociate to 1Gbps.
The main difference between nic working 1Gbps and the rest is the others nics Support 1000baseT/Full but this mode is NOT Advertised.
I have readed similar posts but in this case, I have two twin boxes which only work one interface of one box... It's very rare.
Last night we change the cable in server is working Gigabit and use it for the server can't negotiate Gbit and we used the same switch port with no results....
�Any suggestion why this nic can't negotiate Gigabit?
for testing switch the cable of one of the ports where your adapter is not negotiating with the cable in the port that is negotiating ... if the other adapter works, it is a problem with the switch / switchport, if not it's an adapter problem. Did you try different switchport settings ? Do you experience any difference when setting the switchport to 1000/full rather than auto?
We did a lot of test about 3 hours with service lost because is heartbeat interface, we tried many many differents configuracions in switch and adapter side (auto,full, etc...) with no results... We use the same cable and switch port with adapter working properly and adapter never shows advertisment 1000.
In this case, we have more servers and only one adapter of one server supports and advertisment one card in 1000/full others, only supports without advertisment.
Support tell us upgrade of all components... but I don't want to make this upgrade because one server is working with the same level of firmwares/drivers and I wan't to know the root problem not only "customer please, upgrade and maybe works"
By the other hand, maybe I will ask for mother board change as these interfaces are integrated.
I will upgrade this "X-file" when I come back of my holidays
I have just made dump of working gigabit interface (1P) and the other not working interface (2P) and there are many differences. I show you only a part because is a bit long :