NVME SSD disks not visible to ESXi or missing on Lenovo ThinkSystem servers after firmware upgrade

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

User upgraded NVMe firmware on a Lenovo server with Intel VMD enabled, then rebooted Server.

All the NVME disks are invisible after reboot.

 

Environment

Lenovo ThinkSystem servers

Cause

This is a known issue of Lenovo servers.

Please refer to Lenovo doc:

Chinese: https://support.lenovo.com/us/zc/solutions/ht506197-nvme-ssd-pci-device-will-be-invisible-when-intel-vmd-is-enabled-lenovo-thinksystem

English: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht506197-nvme-ssd-pci-device-will-be-invisible-when-intel-vmd-is-enabled-lenovo-thinksystem

Resolution

Disable VMD as per Lenovo instructions. 

Please refer to Lenovo's article above.