HP Multifunction Network Adapters - Degraded Performance when TCP Offload Engine (TOE) is Enabled

Information

Customers experiencing this issue and some blue screens when TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) is enabled.

In one instance, Servers with TOE enabled Multifunction Adapters with speed/duplex at 1000Mbps work fine with workstations/desktops also with 1000Mbps connected adapters. If a workstation/desktop is working at 100Mbps, communications (file transfers) were slower.

Details

In order to have TOE on Windows 2003 Servers the following must be true:

Windows 2003 with SP1 systems must have the MS Scalable Networking Pack (SNP) installed.
Windows 2003 with SP2 has the MS Scalable Networking Pack (SNP) installed.

SCOPE:

Any HP Proliant Server configured with any HP NC-Series Multifunction Adapter* with TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) enabled:

HP NC370T PCI-X Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter
HP NC370F PCI-X Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter
HP NC380T PCI Express Dual Port Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter
HP BladeSystem Dual NC370i Multifunction Network Adapter
HP NC371i Integrated PCI-X Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter
HP NC374m PCI Express Multifunction Gigabit server adapter for HP BladeSystem
HP NC373m PCI Express Dual Port Multifunction Gigabit server adapter

NOTE: This has NOT been reported on 10GbE Multifunction Adapters (NC512m), please update as necessary.

RESOLUTION:

As a workaround, disable TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) of the Multifunction Adapter by opening the HP Network Configuration Utility (NCU), selecting the adapter, properties, advanced settings tab, select TCP Offload Engine and disable it (see attached picture).

Sometimes, forcing server to be 100Mbps (like other devices on network) also worked with this issue.

Engineering is aware of this issue and currently working it.