QLogic FastLinQ QL45xxx HBAs not detected after ESXi 9.1 installation

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• After installing or upgrading to ESXi 9.1 on HPE Synergy Gen 10 Plus hardware, QLogic FastLinQ QL45xxx series adapters do not appear as Storage HBAs.

• Running esxcli storage san fc list returns no output.

• Hardware is visible via lspci | grep -i qlogic but adapters are not claimed by a storage driver:
  0000: 2b:00.0 Ethernet controller: QLogic Corp. QLogic FastLinQ QL45xxx 10/25/50 GbE Ethernet Adapter
0000 : 2b: 00.1 Ethernet controller: QLogic Corp. QLogic FastLinQ QL45xxx 10/25/50 GbE Ethernet Adapter
0000 : 2b: 00.2 Ethernet controller: QLogic Corp. FastLinQ QL45000 Series 10/25/40/50GbE Controller (FCoE)
0000 : 2b: 00.3 Ethernet controller: QLogic Corp. FastLinQ QL45000 Series 10/25/40/50GbE Controller (FCoE)
0000: 2b: 00.6 Ethernet controller: QLogic Corp. QLogic FastLinQ QL45xxx 10/25/50 GbE Ethernet Adapter
0000 : 2b: 00.7 Ethernet controller: QLogic Corp. QLogic FastLinQ QL45xxx 10/25/50 GbE Ethernet Adapter

Environment

• VMware ESXi 9.1

Cause

• The ESXi 9.1 base installation image does not include the asynchronous qedf driver required to enable the Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) functionality for this specific adapter series.

Resolution

1. Download the matching Marvell/QLogic FastLinQ qedf component package from the hardware vendor (HPE).

2. Install the driver: Download and install async drivers in VMware ESXi

3. Verify the HBAs are online: esxcli storage san fc list