NVMe over TCP targets not visible in vSphere Client for every path.

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Note: In VMware vSphere environments, there is a distinct difference in how storage targets are identified and displayed when comparing legacy iSCSI (SCSI stack) and NVMe over TCP (NVMe stack). This article clarifies the architectural shift that results in empty "Target" details for NVMe-oF paths.

Symptoms:

In vSphere environments using NVMe over TCP, navigating to Host > Storage Adapters > Paths shows an empty "Target" list.
But, iSCSI devices correctly display IQN details under the "Target" list in the same view.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

This is expected architectural behavior due to the shift from the SCSI stack to the NVMe stack:

Protocol Stack: ESXi utilizes the native NVMe stack rather than the legacy SCSI mid-layer.
Identification: Devices use EUI/NGUID identifiers instead of NAA.
Connection Model: NVMe-oF replaces "Target IQN + Session" with a model based on Subsystems, Controllers, and Namespaces.
When discovering NVME over TCP devices, the vSphere Client and legacy esxcfg-mpath utility do not populate the "Target" metadata field because the device is managed via the High Performance Plug-in (HPP) as a local controller rather than a SCSI target.
UI Limitation: The legacy Paths view in the vSphere Client is designed for SCSI introspection and does not map NVMe Controller details into the "Target" field.

Cause Validation:

A comparison of esxcfg-mpath -b output highlights this difference:

Output of the command "esxcfg-mpath -b" for iscsi devices lists the iscsi target and adapter iqn:
naa.########### : TrueNAS iSCSI Disk (naa.###########)
vmhba65:C1:T0:L11 LUN:11 state:active iscsi Adapter: iqn.##################:esxi1 Target: IQN=iqn.##################:target-site1 Alias= Session=############ PortalTag=1
vmhba65:C2:T0:L11 LUN:11 state:active iscsi Adapter: iqn.##################:esxi1 Target: IQN=iqn.##################:target-site1 Alias= Session=############ PortalTag=1
But, output of the same command "esxcfg-mpath -b" for nvme over TCP devices do not list the target NQN.
eui.########### : NVMe TCP Disk (eui..###########)
vmhba66:C0:T0:L17 LUN:17 state:active Local HBA vmhba66 channel 0 target 0
vmhba66:C0:T1:L17 LUN:17 state:active Local HBA vmhba66 channel 0 target 1

Resolution

This is characteristically expected behavior for NVMe over TCP on ESXi. To further verify connectivity:

Navigate to Host > Configure > Storage > Storage Adapters.
Select the NVMe/TCP adapter and click the Controllers tab (this replaces the functionality of the "Targets" view for NVMe-oF).
Confirm the Controller status is Online.
Use the ESXi command line to verify the transport state:

- esxcli nvme adapter list:
  
  Adapter Adapter Qualified Name Transport Type Driver Associated Devices
  ------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- --------- ------------------
  vmhba66 aqn:#######:##-##-##-##-##-##-# TCP nvmetcp vmnic1
  vmhba65 aqn:#######:##-##-##-##-##-##-# TCP nvmetcp vmnic5
- esxcli nvme controller list:
  
  Name Controller Number Adapter Transport Type Is Online Controller Type Is VVOL Keep Alive Timeout IO Queue Number IO Queue Size
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- ------- -------------- --------- --------------- ------- ------------------ --------------- -------------
  nqn.####-##.###.###########:##########.#################vmhba66###.#.###.#:4420 263 vmhba66 TCP true I/O false 10 16 32
  nqn.####-##.###.###########:##########.#################vmhba66###.#.###.#:4420 264 vmhba66 TCP true I/O false 10 16 32