Unable to see LLDP information on ESXi hosts using Intel X710 (or any Intel 700 series) adapters with the i40en device driver

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.

Environment

Any ESXi host that contains vmnics which are Intel 700 series and use the i40en device driver.

Examples:  

Intel(R) Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GbE SFP+

Intel(R) Ethernet Controller XXV710 for 25GbE SFP28

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

Step 1: Confirm that vmnics on the host are using the i40en driver:

• SSH with root privileges into the ESXi host
• Command --> "esxcli network nic list"
• 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

Step 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

Step 3: Reboot the ESXi host

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.