Linux bnxt_en driver (RSS context delete logic): RSS contexts are not always freed in firmware when the driver deletes

Impact

RSS contexts are not always freed in firmware when the driver deletes them, leaving stale VNIC state on the adapter. Stale receive-steering state on a NIC is worth flagging in a multi-tenant context: RSS contexts and their VNICs determine which queues — and therefore which owner — receives which packets, and leaked contexts are exactly the kind of residue that should not survive a tenant teardown.

Who can reach it

Local, via repeated RSS context create/delete cycles from the host.

What to do

Kernel/driver upgrade plus host reboot. On bare-metal handoff, a cold power cycle of the NIC clears residual adapter state regardless of driver version — worth doing between tenants anyway.

References