Symptoms
Packet sizes greater than 6144 might cause panic and reboot on BIG-IP 3600 and BIG-IP 1600 platforms. The panic results in log messages in ltm log:
- notice bge_fast_ifoutput: packet_data_compact failed to reduce pkt size below 4.
- notice panic: ifoutput: packet_data_compact failed to reduce pkt size below 4.
Impact
BIG-IP system operation is interrupted while the system reboots. Note that this error should never happen, but if it does, it indicates an underlying issue that needs investigation.
Conditions
This occurs on certain types of gigabit Ethernet interfaces, and only on BIG-IP 3600 and BIG-IP 1600 platforms. Typically, this is an indicator that something upstream is sending an invalid list of xfrags.
Workaround
Set MTU below 4000.
