Need help disabling hardware LLDP (C5X-EX)

Infrastructure & Networking Software And Drivers Mellanox OFED
1

Hi All

This should be easy to find but I’m struggling…

I have to disable hardware based LLDP so that I can use software LLDP on Rocky Linux 9.4 hosts that have mixed NIC cards in them (using ISC LLDP, all working)

The Connect5X-EX cards have LLDP enabled in hardware so are eating LLDP frames before being passed and not forwarding the software LLDP frames

I have installed the latest Mellanox drivers with tools but can’t seem to find how to do this simple function

Please advise

Cheers
Darren

2

Hello,
Thanks for writing us!

To disable hardware-based LLDP on ConnectX-5 EX cards so that you can use software-based LLDP on Rocky Linux 9.4 hosts, you need to use the mlxconfig tool that comes with the Mellanox drivers.

Here are the general steps you would follow to disable hardware-based LLDP using mlxconfig:

  1. Identify the Device: First, you need to identify the PCI device ID of the ConnectX-5 EX card. You can do this by running the lspci command and looking for the device in the output.
    lspci | grep -i Mel
  2. Check Current LLDP Configuration: Before making any changes, it’s a good idea to check the current LLDP configuration of the card. You can do this by running the following command:
mlxconfig -d <device_id> query | grep -i LLDP

You should get the settings for LLDP

        LLDP_NB_DCBX_P1                             True(1)        
        LLDP_NB_RX_MODE_P1                          True(1)          
        LLDP_NB_TX_MODE_P1                          True(1)          
        LLDP_NB_DCBX_P2                             True(1)        
        LLDP_NB_RX_MODE_P2                          True(1)          
        LLDP_NB_TX_MODE_P2                          True(1)

Replace <device_id> with the PCI device ID of your ConnectX-5 EX card.
3. Disable Hardware LLDP: To disable hardware LLDP, you would use the mlxconfig tool with the set parameter to modify the card’s configuration. The exact parameter to disable LLDP might vary based on the firmware version, but it generally looks something like this:

mlxconfig -d <device_id> set <Parameter>=0

Again, replace <device_id> with the PCI device ID of your ConnectX-5 EX card.
4. Apply Changes: After running the above command, you may need reboot the host or reset the network adapter for the changes to take effect.

Hope this helps!
Thanks and have a wonderful day!
Ilan.