Bug ID 948985: Workaround to address Nitrox 3 compression engine hang

Last Modified: May 29, 2024

Affected Product(s):
BIG-IP LTM(all modules)

Known Affected Versions:
14.1.4, 14.1.4.1, 14.1.4.2, 14.1.4.3, 14.1.4.4, 14.1.4.5, 14.1.4.6, 14.1.5, 14.1.5.1, 14.1.5.2, 14.1.5.3, 14.1.5.4, 14.1.5.6

Fixed In:
17.0.0, 16.1.3.1, 15.1.6.1

Opened: Sep 27, 2020

Severity: 3-Major

Symptoms

Occasionally the Nitrox3 compression engine hangs. In /var/log/ltm: crit tmm[12404]: 01010025:2: Device error: n3-compress0 Nitrox 3, Hang Detected: compression device was reset (pci 02:00.1, discarded 1). crit tmm[12404]: 01010025:2: Device error: n3-compress0 Zip engine ctx eviction (comp_code=0): ctx dropped.

Impact

The Nitrox3 hardware compression system becomes unavailable, and the compression mode switches to software compression. This can lead to high CPU usage.

Conditions

The BIG-IP system uses Nitrox 3 hardware compression chips: 5xxx, 7xxx, 12250, and B2250. You can check if your platform has nitrox3 by running the following command: tmctl -w 200 compress -s provider provider -------- bzip2 lzo nitrox3 <-------- zlib

Workaround

Disable HTTP compression or use software compression.

Fix Information

Added db key compression.nitrox3.dispatchsize to control the request size.

Behavior Change

Guides & references

K10134038: F5 Bug Tracker Filter Names and Tips