Tag Archives: Intel Network

Dell issue with Intel NIC cards

Posted by pcortis on

Last update – 24th April 2013

A customer needed a small cluster for around 10 virtual machines so we decided to go for a design I’ll be talking about in future blog. The hardware requirements for this cluster were 2 rack-mount servers where each server has as much as possible hot-swap hard drive. An RFQ was created and Dell won with the R510. Price was good and has 12 hot swappable 3.5” front HDD bays. Part of the RFQ was for the nics to be Intel and no OS installed.

The servers arrived, and the first thing was to install Windows Server 2008 R2 to become the Hyper-Visor. I literally spent 3 days and nights trying to do this, but the servers were just slow, dead slow, unbelievable slow. At times, it took hours to copy the windows installation files. The Dell agents in Malta were also baffled with this issue. I called them several times during these 3 days. Effectively I took the servers to there offices, where immediate attention was given, particularly by Stefan and Brian, however all the team was on the ball. Less then 24 hours, Brian found this Microsoft KB – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2383674.

So if one removes the Intel network cards that Dell supplied installed, Install Windows Server 2008 R2, update the Intel network cards drives from Microsoft and then plug in the Intel network cards, everything works fine. On the other hand, the same Intel NICs works well on other systems

My guess is that at PCI-E level, the Intel NIC and the Dell Perc (that’s how Dell names the LSI raid controller) compete between themselves to become master. This is not proven but a guess from my side.

That fine, but I would expect that when Dell are building a server and the put in Intel network cards, the minimum is to place a note “If installing Windows Server 2008 R2, please read this web post before installing”.

Recently I was installing the Windows Server 2012 on a different, but still R510 server and I did not encounter this issue. Neither installing Windows Server 2012 on the R710. I love and use the Dell R510, mainly because I can have 12, front hot swapable 3.5″ drive bays, which makes it ideal for storage. The new R720xd is the new offering from Dell that has 12 x 3.5″ or 24 x 2.5″, front hot swapable drive bays, Intel processors, can be ordered with Intel on-board NIC, which makes it ideal as a Storage Server.