Data Sheet

Ethernet Controller I210 —System Manageability
752
The NC filters pass-through packets according to their source MAC address. The NC tries to match that
source MAC address to one of the MAC addresses configured by the Set MAC Address command. As a
result, the BMC should enable network transmit only after configuring the MAC address.
It is recommended that the BMC complete all filtering configuration (especially MAC addresses) before
enabling the network transmit.
This feature can be used for fail-over scenarios. See Section 10.6.8.3.
10.6.5 Asynchronous Event Notifications
The asynchronous event notifications are unsolicited messages sent from the NC to the BMC to report
status changes (such as link change, operating system state change, etc.).
Recommendations:
• The BMC firmware designer should use AENs. To do so, the designer must take into account the
possibility that a NC-SI response frame (such as a frame with the NC-SI EtherType), arrives out-of-
context (not immediately after a command, but rather after an out-of-context AEN).
• To enable AENs, the BMC should first query which AENs are supported, using the Get Capabilities
command, then enable desired AEN(s) using the Enable AEN command, and only then enable the
channel using the Enable Channel command.
10.6.6 Querying Active Parameters
The BMC can use the Get Parameters command to query the current status of the operational
parameters.
10.6.7 Resets
In NC-SI there are two types of resets defined:
1. Synchronous entry into the initial state.
2. Asynchronous entry into the initial state.
Recommendations:
• It is very important that the BMC firmware designer keep in mind that following any type of reset,
all configurations are considered as lost and thus the BMC must re-configure everything.
• As an asynchronous entry into the initial state might not be reported and/or explicitly noticed, the
BMC should periodically poll the NC with NC-SI commands (such as Get Version ID, Get Parameters,
etc.) to verify that the channel is not in the initial state. Should the NC channel respond to the
command with a Clear Initial State Command Expected reason code, the BMC should consider the
channel (and most probably the entire NC package) as if it underwent a (possibly unexpected)
reset event. Thus, the BMC should re-configure the NC. See the NC-SI specification section on
Detecting Pass-through Traffic Interruption.
• The Intel recommended polling interval is 2-3 seconds.
For exact details on the resets, refer to NC-SI specification.