LLDP information missing on ESXi with Intel X710 adapters

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Observation of LLDP packets is expected in the packet capture on a vmnic at the UplinkSndKernel and UplinkRcvKernel capture points.
• When looking at Configure > Physical Adapters > vmnicN on a vSphere client, and select LLDP, it is noticed that "LLDP information is not available on this physical adapter".
• The team responsible for the physical switch connected to the vmnic has confirmed that the upstream switchport or switch is configured to send LLDP information.
• Intel X710 or XXV710 adapters are in use. This does not apply to Mellanox adapters.
• Virtual Distributed Switches (vDS) are in use. This does not apply to Virtual Standard Switch (VSS).
• This may apply to VxRail environments, although it is not exclusive to VxRail environments.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x
VMware vSphere ESX 9.x

Cause

• Each Intel Ethernet 700 Series Network Adapter has a built-in hardware LLDP engine, which is enabled by default.
• When the LLDP agent is enabled in firmware, the ESXi OS will not receive LLDP frames and Link Layer Discovery Protocol information will not be available on the physical adapter inside ESXi.
• LLDP is supported only on vDS (not vSS) and requires the 'Listen' or 'Both' mode to be enabled.  While LLDP packets may still be received when disabled, they will not be displayed in the vSphere UI unless one of these modes is enabled.

 

Resolution

1. Confirm that vmnics on the host are using the i40en driver:
   
   1. SSH with root privileges into the ESXi host.
   2. Enter command

      esxcli network nic list

   3. Example output:

      Name    PCI Device    Driver  Admin Status  Link Status  Speed  Duplex  MAC Address        MTU   Description
      ------  ------------  ------  ------------  -----------  -----  ------  -----------------  ----  -----------
      vmnic0  0000:1a:00.0  i40en   Up            Up           10000  Full    e4:43:4b:##:##:##  1500  Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GbE SFP+
      vmnic1  0000:1a:00.1  i40en   Up            Up           10000  Full    e4:43:4b:##:##:##  1500  Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GbE SFP+
      vmnic2  0000:01:00.0  igbn    Up            Down             0  Half    e4:43:4b:##:##:##  1500  Intel(R) I350 Gigabit Network Connection
      vmnic3  0000:01:00.1  igbn    Up            Down             0  Half    e4:43:4b:##:##:##  1500  Intel(R) I350 Gigabit Network Connection
      vmnic4  0000:5e:00.0  i40en   Up            Up           10000  Full    40:a6:b7:##:##:##  1500  Intel(R) Ethernet Controller XXV710 for 25GbE SFP28
      vmnic5  0000:5e:00.1  i40en   Up            Up           10000  Full    40:a6:b7:##:##:##  1500  Intel(R) Ethernet Controller XXV710 for 25GbE SFP28
      vmnic6  0000:d8:00.0  i40en   Up            Down             0  Half    40:a6:b7:##:##:##  1500  Intel(R) Ethernet Controller XXV710 for 25GbE SFP28
      vmnic7  0000:d8:00.1  i40en   Up            Down             0  Half    40:a6:b7:##:##:##  1500  Intel(R) Ethernet Controller XXV710 for 25GbE SFP28

2. Enter the following command, for dual-port adapters:

   esxcli system module parameters set -m i40en -p LLDP=0,0

   Note: For n number of i40en adapters, n number of 0's should be appended. In the above example, we have 6 x i40en adapters, hence we should have 6 x 0's in the above command.

   esxcli system module parameters set -m i40en -p LLDP=0,0,0,0,0,0

3. Place the ESXi host in Maintenance Mode to safely migrate all running workloads before initiating the reboot.
4. Reboot the ESXi host.
5. Expected result:  
   After the reboot, LLDP information should appear in the vSphere Client under Configure > Physical Adapters > vmnicN, where N represents a number such as 0, 1, 2, and so on.