Hello Peer,
did you find any solution to this problem? At the moment I'm also fighting the same issue with a NC523SFP 10Gig-Card mounted in a HP DL 360 G6.
I did a BIOS update of the mainboard to latest available release (07/02/2013) and also upgraded to ESX 5.1u2 (got the same issue with ESX 5.0).
The NIC is running firmware version 4.8.22 and the driver version is 5.1.171.
Each 10-15 seconds the link at both NIC ports (and switch ports too) go down and up.
Kind regards,
Timo
PS: maybe some can figure out any helpful information from the log:
~ # tail -f /var/log/vmkernel.log | grep vmnic2
2014-06-27T12:52:40.615Z cpu7:8224)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_netq_get_supported_feat:1617:Netq features supported : LRO,
2014-06-27T12:52:45.086Z cpu7:8224)<3>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_process_wait_event:743:Timelimit up.
2014-06-27T12:52:49.557Z cpu7:8224)<3>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_process_wait_event:743:Timelimit up.
2014-06-27T12:52:52.346Z cpu5:8655)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_health:7461:Adapter reset request received.
<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_peg_halt_status:6756:PEG_HALT_STATUS1: 0x0, PEG_HALT_STATUS2: 0x0.
2014-06-27T12:52:52.346Z cpu5:8655)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_detach:2402:Deleted Tx and Rx loopback filters.
2014-06-27T12:52:52.346Z cpu5:8655)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_disable_bus_master:1052:Disabled bus mastering.
2014-06-27T12:52:52.346Z cpu5:8655)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_free_rx_irq:2072:Freed vmnic2_rx[0]_sds[0] irq.
2014-06-27T12:52:52.346Z cpu5:8655)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_set_drv_state:6393:Gave acknowledgement for adapter reset.
2014-06-27T12:53:05.490Z cpu4:8640)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_options:1596:Dual XGb SFP+ LP, Chip rev: 0x54
2014-06-27T12:53:05.490Z cpu4:8640)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_options:1599:Firmware v4.8.22
2014-06-27T12:53:05.490Z cpu4:8640)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_options:1604:[legacy]
2014-06-27T12:53:05.491Z cpu5:8651)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_attach_work:7034:Re enabled bus mastering.
2014-06-27T12:53:05.620Z cpu5:8651)IRQ: 240: 0x81 <vmnic2_rx[0]_sds[0]> exclusive (entropy source), flags 0x10
2014-06-27T12:53:05.641Z cpu1:8193)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_advert_link_change:5617:NIC Link is up
2014-06-27T12:53:06.669Z cpu5:8224)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_netq_get_supported_feat:1617:Netq features supported : LRO,
2014-06-27T12:53:11.126Z cpu4:8224)<3>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_process_wait_event:743:Timelimit up.
2014-06-27T12:53:15.601Z cpu4:8224)<3>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_process_wait_event:743:Timelimit up.
2014-06-27T12:53:26.677Z cpu5:8651)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_health:7461:Adapter reset request received.
<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_peg_halt_status:6756:PEG_HALT_STATUS1: 0x0, PEG_HALT_STATUS2: 0x0.
2014-06-27T12:53:26.677Z cpu5:8651)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_detach:2402:Deleted Tx and Rx loopback filters.
2014-06-27T12:53:26.677Z cpu5:8651)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_disable_bus_master:1052:Disabled bus mastering.
2014-06-27T12:53:26.677Z cpu5:8651)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_free_rx_irq:2072:Freed vmnic2_rx[0]_sds[0] irq.
2014-06-27T12:53:26.677Z cpu5:8651)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_set_drv_state:6393:Gave acknowledgement for adapter reset.
2014-06-27T12:53:39.817Z cpu0:8652)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_options:1596:Dual XGb SFP+ LP, Chip rev: 0x54
2014-06-27T12:53:39.817Z cpu0:8652)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_options:1599:Firmware v4.8.22
2014-06-27T12:53:39.817Z cpu0:8652)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_options:1604:[legacy]
2014-06-27T12:53:39.818Z cpu1:8655)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_attach_work:7034:Re enabled bus mastering.
2014-06-27T12:53:40.052Z cpu1:8655)IRQ: 240: 0x81 <vmnic2_rx[0]_sds[0]> exclusive (entropy source), flags 0x10
2014-06-27T12:53:40.074Z cpu6:8205)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_advert_link_change:5617:NIC Link is up
2014-06-27T12:53:50.609Z cpu6:8224)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_netq_get_supported_feat:1617:Netq features supported : LRO,
2014-06-27T12:53:55.087Z cpu6:8224)<3>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_process_wait_event:743:Timelimit up.
2014-06-27T12:53:59.563Z cpu6:8224)<3>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_process_wait_event:743:Timelimit up.
2014-06-27T12:54:02.111Z cpu5:8642)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_dev_request_reset:6913:Changed the adapter dev_state to NEED_RESET.
2014-06-27T12:54:02.111Z cpu5:8642)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_health:7519:Adapter not in operational state(Heartbit Failure), resetting adapter.
<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_check_peg_halt_status:6756:PEG_HALT_STATUS1: 0x0, PEG_HALT_STATUS2: 0x0.
2014-06-27T12:54:02.111Z cpu1:8645)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_detach:2402:Deleted Tx and Rx loopback filters.
2014-06-27T12:54:02.111Z cpu1:8645)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_disable_bus_master:1052:Disabled bus mastering.
2014-06-27T12:54:02.111Z cpu1:8645)<6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.0: vmnic2:qlcnic_free_rx_irq:2072:Freed vmnic2_rx[0]_sds[0] irq.