Why are packet drops observed against 'rx_fifo_errors' parameter in the output of 'ethtool -S <interface>' ?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • The ethtool -S <interface> output shows receive fifo errors. Also reported are rx_queue_<n>_drops, the sum of which is equal to the rx_fifo_errors value.

    # ethtool -S eth0 | egrep 'rx_fifo|drops'
         rx_fifo_errors: 120674
         rx_queue_0_drops: 4032
         rx_queue_1_drops: 3036
         rx_queue_2_drops: 5904
         rx_queue_3_drops: 0
         rx_queue_4_drops: 228
         rx_queue_5_drops: 65656
         rx_queue_6_drops: 19267
         rx_queue_7_drops: 22551
    
    
    # ethtool -S eth0 | egrep drops | awk '{print $2}' | paste -s -d+ | bc
    120674
    

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

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