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Advanced Driver Options
Alacritech supports a number of advanced driver options which are described below:
Release 7 Driver Advanced Options
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Option: Jumbo Frame Size
Applies to: Release 7
Default Value: Disabled
Allowed Values: Disabled (1514), 9014, 16128
Description: Alacritech Ethernet frame size references refer to the ethernet header plus the MTU, but not the CRC. Technically, the actual frame size should include the CRC, so we should have the values listed as (1518), 9018, and 16132, or do like most other vendors and refer to the MTU sizes (1500), 9000, 16114. ...but we don't. Rest assured that our 9014 means an MTU of 9000.
Before enabling this option, make sure that jumbo frames are enabled on all switches between this host and the target host(s). Very few vendors support an MTU of > 9000, so this is the recommended setting if you enable jumbo frames.
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Option: Link Speed and Duplex
Applies to: Release 7
Default Value: Auto
Allowed Values:
Gig Copper: Auto, 1000 Full, 100 Full, 100 Half, 10 Full, 10 Half
Gig Fiber: Auto, 1000 Full
100MB Copper: Auto, 100 Full, 100 Half, 10 Full, 10 Half
Description: Alacritech strongly recommends that you leave your switch ports set to auto but if your switch is not set to auto, you must change the Alacritech port's link speed and duplex to match the switch setting.
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Option: TCP Checksum Offload
Applies to: Release 7
Default Value: Disabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows TCP checksums to be computed in hardware rather than by the host stack.
This setting only applies to what we refer to as Dumb NIC mode. This means that the Alacritech TCP Offload (Fast-Path) driver (atcp.sys) is either not installed, or is disabled on this interface. If you are running in dumb NIC mode, you may get better performance by enabling checksum offload.
With TCP Offload enabled, this setting is ignored.
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Option: Large Send Offload
Applies to: Release 7
Default Value: Disabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Also known as segmentation offload, this option allows the host to pass an entire send buffers worth of data to the card even it is larger than the current MTU. The card will then handle splitting it into TCP segments.
This setting only applies to what we refer to as Dumb NIC mode. This means that the Alacritech TCP Offload (Fast-Path) driver (atcp.sys) is either not installed, or is disabled on this interface. If you are running in dumb NIC mode, you may get better performance by enabling large send offload.
With TCP Offload enabled, this setting is ignored.
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Option: Tagged VLAN Identifier
Applies to: Release 7
Default Value: 1
Allowed Values: 1 - 4094
Description: Alacritech only supports membership in a single tagged VLAN. This value is the identifier for that VLAN.
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Option: VLAN Tagging
Applies to: Release 7
Default Value: Disabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows membership in a single tagged VLAN.
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Release 9.1.x.x Driver Advanced Options
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Option: Jumbo Frame Size
Applies to: Release 9.1 and later
Default Value: 1514
Allowed Values: 1514, 9014
Description: Alacritech Ethernet frame size references refer to the ethernet header plus the MTU, but not the CRC. Technically, the actual frame size should include the CRC, so we should have the values listed as (1518) and 9018, or do like most other vendors and refer to the MTU sizes (1500), 9000. ...but we don't. Rest assured that our 9014 means an MTU of 9000.
Before enabling this option, make sure that jumbo frames are enabled on all switches between this host and the target host(s).
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Option: Link Speed and Duplex
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Auto
Allowed Values:
Gig Copper: Auto, 1000 Full, 100 Full, 100 Half, 10 Full, 10 Half
Gig Fiber: Auto, 1000 Full
Description: Alacritech strongly recommends that you leave your switch ports set to auto but if your switch is not set to auto, you must change the Alacritech port's link speed and duplex to match the switch setting.
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Option: TCP Checksum Offload
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows TCP checksums to be computed in hardware rather than by the host stack.
This setting only applies if the connection is in host. If the connection is offloaded, TCP checksums are also offloaded.
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Option: TCP Offload
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows TCP traffic to be offloaded to hardware. This setting should only be disabled for diagnostic purposes. This setting replaces the "Alacritech TCP fastpath driver" setting in the network interface properties pane on the older non-SNP aware Alacritech drivers.
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Release 9.2.x.x Driver Advanced Options
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Option: IPv4 Checksum Offload
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows IPv4 checksums to be computed in hardware rather than by the host stack.
This setting only applies if the connection is in host. If the connection is offloaded, IPv4 checksums are also offloaded.
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Option: Jumbo Packet Size
Applies to: Release 9.1 and later
Default Value: 1514
Allowed Values: 1514, 9014
Description: Alacritech Ethernet MTU size references refer to the default ethernet header plus the MTU, but not the CRC. Technically, the MTU should not include the ethernet header, as the ethernet header size is not fixed if tagged frames are supported, so we should have the values listed as (1500) and 9000. ...but we don't. Rest assured that our 9014 really means an MTU of 9000.
Before enabling this option, make sure that jumbo frames are enabled on all switches between this host and the target host(s).
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Option: Link Speed and Duplex
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Auto
Allowed Values:
Gig Copper: Auto, 1000 Full, 100 Full, 100 Half, 10 Full, 10 Half
Gig Fiber: Auto, 1000 Full
Description: Alacritech strongly recommends that you leave your switch ports set to auto but if your switch is not set to auto, you must change the Alacritech port's link speed and duplex to match the switch setting.
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Option: Receive Side Scaling
Applies to: Release 9.2
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Enables or disables Receive Side Scaling
In the traditional Windows network stack, all network interrupts are processed by a single CPU. RSS allows network interrupts to be distributed across multiple CPUs. Whether or not this improves performance or not on Server 2003 is debatable.
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Option: TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4)
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows TCP checksums to be computed in hardware rather than by the host stack.
This setting only applies if the connection is in host. If the connection is offloaded, TCP checksums are also offloaded.
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Option: TCP Large Send Offload (v1)
Applies to: Release 9.2
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows large TCP sends to be offloaded to the network card.
This setting only applies if the connection is in host. If the connection is offloaded, all TCP is offloaded.
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9.3.x.x Driver Advanced Options
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Option: IPv4 Checksum Offload
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows IPv4 checksums to be computed in hardware rather than by the host stack.
This setting only applies if the connection is in host. If the connection is offloaded, IPv4 checksums are also offloaded.
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Option: Jumbo Packet Size
Applies to: Release 9.1 and later
Default Value: 1514
Allowed Values: 1514, 9014
Description: Alacritech Ethernet MTU size references refer to the default ethernet header plus the MTU, but not the CRC. Technically, the MTU should not include the ethernet header, as the ethernet header size is not fixed if tagged frames are supported, so we should have the values listed as (1500) and 9000. ...but we don't. Rest assured that our 9014 really means an MTU of 9000.
Before enabling this option, make sure that jumbo frames are enabled on all switches between this host and the target host(s).
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Option: Link Speed and Duplex
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Auto
Allowed Values:
Gig Copper: Auto, 1000 Full, 100 Full, 100 Half, 10 Full, 10 Half
Gig Fiber: Auto, 1000 Full
Description: Alacritech strongly recommends that you leave your switch ports set to auto but if your switch is not set to auto, you must change the Alacritech port's link speed and duplex to match the switch setting.
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Option: Receive Side Scaling
Applies to: Release 9.2 and later
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Enables or disables Receive Side Scaling
In the traditional Windows network stack, all network interrupts are processed by a single CPU. RSS allows network interrupts to be distributed across multiple CPUs. Whether or not this improves performance or not on Server 2003 is debatable.
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Option: TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4)
Applies to: Release 9
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows TCP checksums to be computed in hardware rather than by the host stack.
This setting only applies if the connection is in host. If the connection is offloaded, TCP checksums are also offloaded.
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Option: TCP Large Send Offload (v1)
Applies to: Release 9.2 and later
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows large TCP sends to be offloaded to the network card. LSO v1 supports a maximum segment offload size of 64kb
LSO v1 is supported for IPv4 only. This setting only applies if the connection is in host. If the connection is offloaded, all TCP is offloaded.
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Option: TCP Large Send Offload (v2)
Applies to: Release 9.3
Default Value: Enabled
Allowed Values: Disabled, Enabled
Description: Allows large TCP sends to be offloaded to the network card. LSO v2 supports a maximum segment offload size of 256kb.
LSO v2 is supported for IPv4 only. This setting only applies if the connection is in host. If the connection is offloaded, all TCP is offloaded.
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