sfc driver fails to load in RHEL 7 with SFC9140 cards after a kernel update

Issue

• After updating to RHEL 7.3 (kernel 3.10.0-514.el7) the Solarflare NICs no longer appear and the sfc module reports the following in the dmesg logs:

  [   37.067635] sfc 0000:81:00.3 (unregistered net_device): Solarflare NIC detected
  [   37.070309] sfc 0000:81:00.3 (unregistered net_device): Part Number : SFN7xx4F
  [   37.070937] sfc 0000:81:00.3: enabling device (0140 -> 0143)
  [   47.071633] sfc 0000:81:00.3 (unregistered net_device): MC command 0x6 inlen 4 mode 0 timed out
  [   47.073255] sfc 0000:81:00.3 (unregistered net_device): MC command 0x6 inlen 4 failed rc=-110 (raw=0) arg=0
  [   47.073937] sfc 0000:81:00.3 (unregistered net_device): failed to create NIC
  [   47.074680] sfc: probe of 0000:81:00.3 failed with error -110
  

• Booting the system with an older, previously functioning kernel, shows the same error.