HPE SN1610E 32Gb 2p FC HBA Reported as Unknown in ESXi

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article addresses symptoms where HPE SN1610E 32Gb 2p Fibre Channel HBAs on HPE ProLiant Gen11 servers report an "Unknown" status within ESXi, leading to datastore accessibility issues. 

Symptoms:

• Both Fibre Channel adapters (vmhba0 and vmhba1) display as being in an "unknown" state when checking esxcli storage san fc list.

• All FC-connected devices (LUNs) transition into a dead or error state, resulting in an All Paths Down (APD) condition and inaccessible datastores.

• The vmkernel.log reports H:0x1 (physical disconnection) events simultaneously for both vmhba0 and vmhba1.

• Attempting to force a fabric login reset (e.g., esxcli storage san fc reset -A vmhba0) fails with the error: error sending LIP to FC devices ioctl failed, indicating the host bus adapter is unresponsive.

• The HPE iLO interface reports the HBA status as "Failed."

• HPE SN1610E 32Gb 2p FC HBA is a dual port HBA card with vmhba0 and vmhba1 on different ports and each connected to different fabric switches

• The issue may temporarily resolve after a host reboot but is prone to recurring.

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x/9.x, 

• Hardware: HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen11 (and other Gen11 models)

• HBA: HPE SN1610E 32Gb 2p FC HBA

Cause

This issue is caused by a physical hardware failure or hardware lockup of the HPE SN1610E 32Gb 2-port FC HBA PCIe card.

The simultaneous failure of both vmhba0 and vmhba1, despite being wired to entirely separate fabric switches (Switch A and Switch B) indicates a failure at the shared physical hardware layer (the single PCIe card with dual ports) rather than an isolated cable, SFP, or switch port issue.

Resolution

Engage the hardware vendor (HPE) to validate the physical card and arrange for a hardware replacement.

Additional Information

If the HBA status is not reported as failed by the iLO and no physical disconnection errors are observed, investigate potential driver or fabric-side issues, such as Registered State Change Notifications (RSCN) or transport-layer instability.