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What is eNIC/ fNIC?

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Applies to

  • Flexpod
  • Cisco eNIC
  • Cisco fNIC
  • Ethernet driver for Cisco VIC
  • FCoE driver for Cisco VIC

Answer

What is eNIC, fNIC?

Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) drivers facilitate communication between supported operating systems and Cisco UCS VICs.
Cisco UCS VIC driver ISO bundles include an eNIC driver and an fNIC driver, where eNIC is the driver for the Cisco UCS VIC Ethernet NIC and fNIC is the driver for the Cisco UCS VIC Fibre Channel over Ethernet HBA. Fiber Channel NIC, also referred to as fNIC, is used by the ESX or Linux flavor of operating systems to communicate with the physical HBA card installed on the server. It is used to connect FC or iSCSI storage LUNs to hosts. The fNIC driver enables FCoE support for the Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card family of products.

Flexpod configuration should have the following minimum version of drivers:

Cisco eNIC 2.1.2.38 Ethernet driver for Cisco VIC
Cisco fNIC 1.5.0.20 FCoE driver for Cisco VIC
How to find the NIC driver version?
  • For ESX systems, run the following command:
    #vmkload_mod -s fnic for FCoE Cards

    vmkload_mod module information
    input file: /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/fnic
    Version: Version 1.5.0.8, Build: 472560

    #vmkload_mod -s enic for Ethenet cards
  • For Linux systems, run the following command:

    [root@linux-host]# dmesg | grep -i fnic
    $fnic: Cisco FCoE HBA Driver, ver 1.5.0.1

    [root@linux-host]# dmesg | grep -i enic

         You can also run cat /sys/module/enic/version for eNIC and cat /sys/module/fnic/version for fNIC

  • For Windows:
  1. Under Control Panel, go to Device Manager and right-click Cisco VIC Ethernet Interface
  2. Select Properties, click the Driver tab, and check the Driver Version.
How to validate supportability of the ENIC/FNIC driver version?
  • For latest ENIC/FNIC driver versions, see NetApp Interoperability Matrix

  • They can be found under the 'Storage Solution': 'FlexPod SAN' and 'Storage Area Network (SAN)' for 'Host HBA'

  • Example:
    Cisco UCS M81KR Virtual Interface Card CNA

    Driver = 1.5.0.1 (Inbox),
    Firmware = 2.0(2),
    Protocol = FCoE,

    Spec = Dual-port 10gE PCI-Express CNA, Cisco UCS System Firmware 2.0(2)

How to update the driver?

Related Links:

What are connectivity and best practices for NetApp storage?

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Additional Information

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