I have a Dell R620 server running CentOS 6.3, the server came with a 82599 card, recently I bought a second 82599 card and installed it but NICs' status are down. I confirm the card is detected, from the connected switch I found the NICs are "UP" before it boots into CentOS, ethtool output shows that it is not using ixgbe driver, I wonder if there is a limit of how many card/NICs ixgbe support.
[root@abcd ~]# lspci | grep 82599
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
05:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
05:10.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
05:10.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
05:10.2 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
05:10.3 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
42:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
42:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
42:10.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
42:10.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
42:10.2 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
42:10.3 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
The status of the new NICs
[root@abcd~]# ip link show em3
4: em3: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN qlen 1000
link/ether d4:ae:52:b0:fc:4f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
[root@abcd~]# ip link show em4
5: em4: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN qlen 1000
link/ether d4:ae:52:b0:fc:50 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
The new interfaces are not using ixbge driver:
[root@abcd~]# ethtool -i em3
driver: tg3
version: 3.122
firmware-version: FFV7.2.20 bc 5720-v1.25
bus-info: 0000:02:00.0
[root@abcd~]# ethtool -i em4
driver: tg3
version: 3.122
firmware-version: FFV7.2.20 bc 5720-v1.25
bus-info: 0000:02:00.1