VMware ESXi installation and configuration for NVMe over Fibre Channel hosts

VMware ESXi contains two levels of connectivity.

The first level of VMware ESXi is the host (ESXi machine), which is the actual server that includes the host bus adapter and the NVMe SCSI support. The host manages both hardware resource and virtualized components by using the GUI and CLI (esxcli).

The other level includes one or more guest virtual machines with an operating system. The virtual machines detect the defined volumes as VMware datastores and can read or write to them.

Configuring the ESXi operating system

You must configure the VMware ESXi 8.0 and up operating system before you can connect hosts that run VMware ESXi datastores with the system.

Before you configure the host operating system, the following tasks must be completed:
  • Your system must be installed.
  • You must install the appropriate host bus adapters and ensure that the latest drivers and firmware are applied.

After the prerequisite tasks are complete, use the following general steps to configure your host.

  1. Make sure you use Emulex Gen6 HBA minimal supported versions.
    • Driver version: 12.4.293.2
    • Firmware version: 12.4.243.17
    Enter the following command to verify: 
    esxcli storage san fc list
  2. Make sure that FC-NVMe is enabled by setting lpfc_enable_fc4_type to 3.
    To change the value, enter the following command:
    
esxcli system module parameters set -m lpfc -p lpfc_enable_fc4_type=3
  3. Make sure all port of the ESXi hosts and system ports are zoned correctly. To see the WWPNs of FC-NVMe, enter the following command: 
    esxcli storage core adapter list

    The NVMe WWPNs have the driver name lpfc.

  4. Define the host object by using the NQN identifiers for each physical ESXi host in the VMware vSphere cluster. You can find the NQN by entering the following command:
    esxcli nvme info get
  5. If more than one physical ESXi host is present in the vSphere cluster, create a host cluster and add each ESXi host object as a member.
  6. After you create volumes on the system and map them to the host, do VMware storage rescan.If rescan does not work, try resetting the Fibre Channel ports. To reset the ports, enter the following command: 
    esxcli storage san fc reset -A <HBA name>
  7. Create VMware datastores based on the system mapped volumes.