IBM AIX 7.3 – Common Problem 80 – Diagnosis and Fix

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Network throughput drops with rising adapter error counts.

Environment & Reproduction

Seen on Virtual I/O backed ent adapters under EtherChannel load.

Root Cause Analysis

MTU mismatch, flow control, or SEA failover is dropping frames.

Quick Triage

Run entstat -d entX and look at Transmit/Receive Errors counters.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Check no -a output for tcp_sendspace and large_send settings.

Solution – Primary Fix

Reset SEA failover with chdev -l entX -a ha_mode=auto on VIOS.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Alternative: rebalance EtherChannel adapters with smit etherchannel.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Verify with netstat -v entX and entstat -d that errors stop rising.

Rollback Plan

Roll back chdev with the prior -a values if connectivity degrades.

Prevention & Hardening

Pin MTU and flow_ctrl across SEA, switch, and client LPAR profiles.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related: 0514-040 errors in errpt and EC_LINK_DOWN entries.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.3.

View all aix-7.3 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM Docs: Shared Ethernet Adapter and EtherChannel diagnostics.