Unable to see LUNs that have underlying 4k drives

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

ESXi does not detect LUNs (Logical disks) backed by 4k NVMe drives.

Environment

ESXi All Versions

Cause

LUNs from external storage array with 4Kn (4k Native) sector size is currently not supported

Resolution

Some storage arrays have the ability to present the 4K drives in 512e (512 Emulation) mode. Please check with your storage vendor if this is possible with your storage.

512e SSDs/NVMe drives are supported starting ESXi 6.5 with VMFS 6. For more information, please see FAQ: Support statement for 512e and 4K Native drives for VMware vSphere and vSAN