vSAN Controller driver / firmware health check warning for NVMe enabled IO controllers

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

Providing a regression issue introduced in vSAN 8.0 and provides workaround.

Symptoms:

On vCenter Server 8.0, vSAN health check reports a false warning (like below) for ESX hosts with Intel VMD or any other NVMe enabled in the "Controller driver/firmware is VMware certified" check.

On vCenter Server 8.0, the cluster remediation cycle may be interrupted by vSAN health checking warning "Controller driver/firmware is VMware certified", in case the upgrading ESX host has Intel VMD or NVMe enabled controller.
 

 

 

Example :

 

In the above screenshot the Controller firmware version 52.32.3-6118 is supported as per Broadcom Compatibility Guide.

 

   Device Name: vmhba3:
   Device Display Name: Broadcom / LSI MegaRAID 12GSAS/PCIe Secure SAS39xx
   Used By VSAN: true
   PCI ID: 1000/10e2/1590/0328
   Driver Name: lsi_mr3
   Driver Version: 7.732.03.00-1OEM.800.1.0.20613240
   Max Supported Queue Depth: 5089

 

Environment

VMware vSAN 8.0 Update 2 [ vSAN OSA Cluster ]

Cause

There is a regression introduced in vCenter 8.0, which causes vSAN Health Service unable to get the certified driver versions from the HCL, even though the Intel VMD controller driver / firmware is certified to use with vSAN.

Resolution

The issue will be fixed in the future releases.

Workaround:

 

User can silence the "Controller driver/Firmware is VMware certified" health check to unblock the remediation process.

Additional Information

Note: This is not only related to the Intel VMD controllers but also to Samsung or any NVMe enabled controller. The driver and firmware were compatible with the 8.0U2, but still, it is reporting the warning.