vSAN Health Service - Hardware Compatibility - Network(RDMA NIC: RoCE v2) driver/firmware is vSAN certified

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

This article explains the Hardware Compatibility - Network(RDMA NIC: RoCE v2) driver/firmware is vSAN certified check in the vSAN Health Service and provides details about why it might report an error.

Environment

vSAN 8.0U3 and higher

Resolution

Q. What does the Hardware Compatibility - Network(RDMA NIC: RoCE v2) driver/firmware is vSAN certified check do?

This health check checks whether the RDMA NIC's driver and firmware combination is certified by the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (VCG).

Note: This check is only applicable when RDMA is enabled on the vSAN cluster.

Q. What does it mean when it is in a warning state?

It means that the RDMA NIC's driver and firmware combination is not certified by the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (VCG).

Q. How does one troubleshoot and fix the warning state?

Upgrade the RDMA NIC with certified driver and firmware:

1. Update the latest vSAN HCL DB from the "vSAN HCL DB up-to-date" health to get the latest certified driver and firmware info for the RDMA NIC.
2. Go to the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (VCG) portal and search the VCG to get the certified driver and firmware info for the RDMA NIC, and update RDMA NIC's driver or firmware accordingly.
   
   Note: It's possible that the vendors could have already updated certified drivers and firmware, and have made them downloadable from their website. If VMware has not certified the drivers and firmware for vSAN (either because the certification has not happened or finished yet, or the device actually fails the certification), then it's not recommended by VMware to upgrade to drivers and firmware not on the vSAN HCL.