If you have a server that has a Broadcom Ethernet adapter in it,
install this update.
If you have recently upgraded your server from 2003 RTM/SP1 to 2003 SP2, and it is acting strangely, please read this KB article too. You might be running into the now well-known Scalable Networking Pack (
SNP) problems with Server 2003 SP2.
Actually, I dare say, install this update on every 2003 SP2 server you have unless you know 100% that your Ethernet drivers support TCP Offloading Engine (TOE), and Receive-Side-Scaling (RSS) correctly. The
latest Broadcom drivers do, but the older drivers have burned so many people that I’d still be tempted to just do a blanket disable of SNP on all Server 2003 SP2 servers.
The only place I have seen SNP be a win with Server 2003 is when it is used with the Compute Cluster Server 2003 on 1GB/10GB networks, otherwise it tends to cause more harm than good. In theory, it should reduce CPU overhead and improve network performance, but in practice, it does the opposite for most of the systems out there.
The actual SNP code is solid in 2003, but there are way too many poorly written network drivers still out in the wild. With Vista and Server 2008, the network drivers have matured so that SNP is stable and helpful. The TCP/IP stack has been rewritten to support the “multi-headed-ness” of the NDIS stack, whereas 2003 and before traditionally have had one CPU dedicated to all network adapters. SNP unfortunately opened up a can of worms with race conditions and SMP-unfriendly driver code when it was bundled with Server 2003 SP2. It reminds me of the horrible blue screens I used to get when I was trying to use a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live on my SMP workstation many years ago.
If you are interested in the most recent Broadcom drivers for all operating systems, plus the BACS (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite), IBM has a nice generic reference driver download package/ISO image
here.
You can always go to Broadcom’s site just for the core driver update too, but the BACS is typically supported through the OEM of your server, unfortunately.
