ixgbe> vlan addition and removal brings the interfaces down and up

[Igor Anishchuk]

Hi All,

I've been using Intel E10G42AFDA 10Gbit/s AF DA Dual Port adapters
with direct attach cables and there is one thing keeps bothering me.
I've been searching the Internet for any information with no luck. I
would also assume that the problem is widely known, and I found one
related PR kern/141285 but that one was closed unsolved.

When a VLAN interface is added or removed to from the ix interfaces
the parent interface is briefly brought down and up. This event is
visible for all applications and the switches. With my use case I add
and remove VLAN interfaces on the fly and the described behavior
causes undesired effects, especially for BGP daemons that are
configured to monitor one of permanent VLAN interfaces.

I use FreeBSD 7-STABLE and the behavior is the same with stock
drivers, with 2.2.3 and with 2.3.8 drivers downloaded from Intel web
site. I have attempted to disable -vlanhwtag, -vlanhwfilter and
-vlanhwtso with no effect.

Could someone help me to stop the cards behaving this way? I do not
mind some performance penalties, nor running in permanent promiscuous
mode. I just want the card to stay up all the time regardless of the
vlan interfaces attached to it.

Any help, links, patches are much appreciated.

Regards,

Igor Anishchuk