Running the vm-support command causes CNA FCoE links to be down in ESXi 5.1, 5.5 and 6.0 host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• After running the vm-support command causes FCoE links to be down for several mintues.
• The ESXi host is using a CNA card connected to the switch.
• This issue is also seen when the DSwitch LLDP mode is set to Both and Advertise.
• In the /var/log/vmkernel.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  2015-09-02T11:14:39.175Z cpu8:33564)WARNING: lpfc: lpfc_sli4_async_fip_evt:5683: 3:2718 Clear Virtual Link Received for VPI 0x100 tag 0x4 2015-09-02T11:14:39.176Z cpu23:33554)WARNING: lpfc: lpfc_sli4_async_fip_evt:5683: 1:2718 Clear Virtual Link Received for VPI 0x100 tag 0x4
  
  Note: This log excerpt is an example. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Cause

This issue is caused by the a script in the vm-support command forcing the ESXi host to advertise LLDP frames. This issue also appears when enabling DSwitch LLDP mode to Both and Advertise also advertising LLDP frames. After the LLDP frame is received on the switch it will perform a CVL (Clear Virtual Link) causing the FCoE links to be in a down state for several minutes.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting ESXi 5.1, 5.5 and 6.0.

 

This issue is resolved in:

• ESXi 6.0 Patch 3, available at VMware Downloads. 
• ESXi 5.5 Update 3, available at VMware Downloads. 

Currently, there is no resolution for ESXi 5.1.

Workaround:

To work around this issue for ESXi 5.5 / ESXi 5.1:

• Do not set the DSwitch LLDP option to Both or Advertise.
• Disable lldpnetmap so it is not called when running vm-support.
   
  1. Connect to the ESXi host using an SSH session. For more information, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x and 6.0 (2004746).
  2. Run this command to disable change the permissions on the /etc/vmware/vm-support/network.mfx file:
     
     chmod 755 /etc/vmware/vm-support/network.mfx
      
  3. Open the /etc/vmware/vm-support/network.mfx file in a text editor: 
     
     vi /etc/vmware/vm-support/network.mfx
      
  4. Comment out the run IGNORE_ERROR /sbin/lldpnetmap line:
     
     For example:
     
     % Manifest name: base % Manifest group: Network % Manifest default: Enabled % Manifest tag: networking # action Options file/command run - /usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -l run - /usr/sbin/esxcfg-vmknic -l run - /usr/sbin/vmkping -D -v run IGNORE_ERROR /usr/lib/vmware/vm-support/bin/nicinfo.sh # run IGNORE_ERROR /sbin/lldpnetmap run IGNORE_ERROR /sbin/summarize-dvfilter
     
     Note: This change does not persist across reboots.
      
  5. Save the changes and exit.

Additional Information

How to download patches in Customer Connect
Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x and 6.x