Cannot configure NPIV on a virtual machine

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Presenting an RDM to the virtual machine and enabling NPIV on the virtual machine does not create the vPort.
• After powering on the virtual machine, no vPort is created in the SCSI adapter file.
• In the vmkernel or messages log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.876Z cpu24:6171)<3>lpfc820 0000:0e:00.1: 1:(1):1825 Vport Created.
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.978Z cpu24:6171)WARNING: ScsiNpiv: 1348: Created vport for world 6172, vmhba2, rv 0
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.978Z cpu24:6171)ScsiNpiv: 1149: NPIV vport rescan complete, [0:5] (0x41000c14db40) [0x410017207f70] status=0xbad0003
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.978Z cpu24:6171)ScsiNpiv: 1149: NPIV vport rescan complete, [1:5] (0x41000c14b140) [0x410017207f70] status=0xbad0003
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.978Z cpu24:6171)WARNING: ScsiNpiv: 1806: Failed to Create vport for world 6172, vmhba2, rescan failed, status=bad0001
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.979Z cpu24:6171)LinScsiLLD: scsi_remove_host:857: Removed Host Adapter vmhba35
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.988Z cpu24:6171)<3>lpfc820 0000:0e:00.1: 1:(1):1828 Vport Deleted.
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.988Z cpu24:6171)ScsiNpiv: 1718: Physical Path : adapter=vmhba2, channel=0, target=1, lun=5
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.988Z cpu24:6171)<3>lpfc820 0000:0e:00.1: 1:0404 Config Param discovery-threads set to x1
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.988Z cpu24:6171)DMA: 524: DMA Engine 'vmhba36' created.
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.988Z cpu18:4817)ScsiAdapter: 2228: Unregistering adapter vmhba35
  2011-09-30T19:34:56.988Z cpu18:4817)DMA: 569: DMA Engine 'vmhba35' destroyed.

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Cause

This issue may occur if:

• On the fabric, the physical HBA adapter WWPN (in the ESX host) and vPort WWPN (for NPIV) are configured in different zones.
• The LUNs from the storage array are presented to the physical HBA adapter WWPN, but not to the vPort WWPN.

Note: The log output in the Symptoms section indicate that the vPort is created and is later deleted when the host does a rescan of the physical HBAs. vmhba36 is the vPort created on physical adapter vmhba2, but the LUN vmhba2:1:5 is not visible through the vPort vmhba36 . That is, the path vmhba36:1:5 does not reach the LUN. Because the ESX host is unable to find the vPort after the rescan, the vPort is deleted.

Resolution

To prevent this issue from occurring:

• Ensure that both the physical HBA adapter WWPN and vPort WWPN are configured in the same zone on the fabric.
• Ensure that the LUNs are presented to both the physical HBA adapter WWPNs and vPort WWPNs.

Additional Information

To check if the virtual machine is using NPIV:

1. Power on the virtual machine.
2. Go to the console of the host and navigate to /proc/scsi/adaptername/filename.
3. View the adapter file that was used for zoning and you should see an entry below vPort.