Managing iSER devices created on deprecated driver for RDMA HW

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Helps users clean-up iSER object(s) that were created on deprecated devices prior to ESXi upgrade to 8.x.

Symptoms:

Users will see placeholder iSER vmhba(s) created on RDMA devices with deprecated device drivers like below when storage adapters are listed

  # esxcli storage core adapter list

HBA Name	Driver	Link State	UID	Capabilities	Description
vmhba64	iser	link-n/a	unknown.vmhba64	Second Level Lun ID	() Unknown

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.0

Cause

nmlx4 RDMA device driver deprecation combined with lack of iSER specific config manager support.

Resolution

Once ESXi is upgraded to 8.x, subsequent upgrades will not need this procedure.

Workaround:

Before ESXi upgrade is initiated, users must make note of all virtual RDMA (vmrdmaXX) devices whose corresponding RDMA NIC's driver is being deprecated in the upgraded version.

# esxcli rdma device list
   

Name	Driver	State	MTU	Speed	Paired Link	Description
vmrdma0	nmlx4_rdma	Active	1024	40 Gbps	vmnic6	MT27520 Family [ConnectX-3 Pro]
vmrdma1	nmlx4_rdma	Active	1024	40 Gbps	vmnic1000602	MT27520 Family [ConnectX-3 Pro]
vmrdma4	nmlx5_rdma	Active	1024	100 Gbps	vmnic4	MT27800 Family [ConnectX-5 PCIe 3.0]
vmrdma5	nmlx5_rdma	Active	1024	100 Gbps	vmnic5	MT27800 Family [ConnectX-5 PCIe 3.0]

Once ESXi is upgraded to 8.x. users can clean up placeholder iSER vmhba(s) using procedure below.

List storage adapters on the host

# esxcli storage core adapter list

HBA Name	Driver	Link State	UID	Capabilities	Description
vmhba66	iser	link-n/a	unknown.vmhba66	Second Level Lun ID	() Unknown
vmhba67	iser	link-n/a	unknown.vmhba67	Second Level Lun ID	() Unknown
vmhba68	iser	online	iqn.2018-10.com.vmware:iser-dell-02:iser1	Second Level Lun ID	VMware iSCSI over RDMA (iSER) Adapter
vmhba69	iser	online	iqn.2018-10.com.vmware:iser-dell-02:iser2	Second Level Lun ID	VMware iSCSI over RDMA (iSER) Adapter

Delete each iSER device with unknown UID and Description
    esxcli rdma iser delete -d vmrdma0
    esxcli rdma iser delete -d vmrdma1

Then, confirm that clean up is complete
  # esxcli storage core adapter list
    

HBA Name	Driver	Link State	UID	Capabilities	Description
vmhba68	iser	online	iqn.2018-10.com.vmware:iser-dell-02:iser1	Second Level Lun ID	VMware iSCSI over RDMA(iSER) Adapter
vmhba69	iser	online	iqn.2018-10.com.vmware:iser-dell-02:iser2	Second Level Lun ID	VMware iSCSI over RDMA (iSER) Adapter