Re: [PATCH net-next 0/3] net: ethtool: Track TX pause storm

[Mohsin Bashir <mohsin.bashr@gmail.com>]

> Eh, did you get AI to help write the full version? :) So much text :)
> 
>> - Does the 500ms hardware timer reset on "flapping" pause signals? If so,
>>    a stuttering storm might still crash the link partner (tx watchdog
>>    timeout).
> 
> Yes any discontinuity resets AFAIU, Mohsin keep me honest.
> 

Correct, stuttering resets the timer. A pause storm is only detected 
when we remain continuously in the PAUSE state for more than 500ms.

>> - If main case where we will run in to tx pause storm is OS crash, what
>>    instance will be able to read this stats? Are they preserved on reboot
>>    or kexec?
> 
> Good question! I was wondering the same thing. In the end I couldn't
> figure out which behavior would be less confusing. We want to make sure
> that the stat never increments on a live system, if the machines come
> out of boot with non-zero value some alerting system could fire.
> OTOH as you say we may want to know that it did happen while machine
> was out. So IDK. The fbnic implementation starts with 0.

Right, a non-zero stat would enable monitoring and alerting systems to 
detect anomalies.