Duplicate HBA (SCSI and NVME) adapters are detected with the same node name and port name when using the qlnativefc drivers.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information that this is an expected behavior.

Symptoms:

• In ESXi 7.0 and later, the qlnativefc driver shows the same WWNN and WWPN for both NVMe and SCSI adapters in FC HBA devices, leading to what appears to be duplicate entries for HBAs.
  
  
• localcli storage core adapter list command shows following output: 

# localcli storage core adapter list 
vmhba3  qlnativefc_unstablelink-up   fc.xxxxxxxxxxxxacac:xxxxxxxxxxxxacac    (xxxx:xx:xx.0) QLogic Corp QLE2772 Dual Port 32GFC PCIe Gen4 x8 Adapter
vmhba4  qlnativefc_unstablelink-up   fc.yyyyyyyyyyyyacad:yyyyyyyyyyyyacad    (yyyy:yy:yy.1) QLogic Corp QLE2772 Dual Port 32GFC PCIe Gen4 x8 Adapter

vmhba64 qlnativefc_unstablelink-up   fc.xxxxxxxxxxxxacac:xxxxxxxxxxxxacac    (xxxx:xx:xx.0) QLogic Corp QLE2772 Dual Port 32GFC PCIe Gen4 x8 Adapter
vmhba65 qlnativefc_unstablelink-up   fc.yyyyyyyyyyyyacad:yyyyyyyyyyyyacad    (yyyy:yy:yy.1) QLogic Corp QLE2772 Dual Port 32GFC PCIe Gen4 x8 Adapter

• vmhba3 and vmhba4 are SCSI adapters.

• vmhba64 and vmhba65 are NVME adapters which shows same slots and same WWNN:WWPN

• You can also verify the WWNN for the NVME and the FC HBA using the below commands: 

  esxcli nvme adapter list

  Adapter  Adapter Qualified Name         Transport Type  Driver      Associated Devices
-------  ------------------------------ --------------  ----------  ------------------
vmhba64 aqn:qlnativefc:21####24##18#712 FC              qlnativefc

  esxcli storage san fc list
  FcDevice:
  Adapter: vmhba3
  Port ID: 000000
  Node Name: 20:##:##:24:##:18:#7:12
  Port Name: 21:##:##:24:##:18:#7:12
  Speed: 0 Gbps
  Port Type: LPort
  Port State: LINK DOWN
  Model Description: QLE2692 Dual Port 16Gb FC to PCIe Gen3 x8 Adapter
  Hardware Version:
  OptionROM Version: 3.62
  Firmware Version: 9.06.02 (d0d5)
  Driver Name: qlnativefc
Error getting field DriverVersion

Environment

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

Cause

Since the same port is used for both NVMe and SCSI adapters, the WWNN and WWPN are identical for these adapters. Therefore, the same WWNN and WWPN will be displayed.

Resolution

The system is functioning as expected, and this behavior is considered normal.

Additional Information

In order to change the default behavior NVMe needs to be disabled. Please find the steps for disabling and enabling the NVMe as per requirement 

 

Disable NVMe

1. To Disable NVMe set the parameter by running this command for qlnativefc :

# esxcfg-module -s 'ql2xnvmesupport=0' qlnativefc

2. Reboot the host to disables NVMe support. 

Note: FC NVMe adapter and NVMe LUN devices which connected to adapter will not be accessed.
 
When using the lpfc Driver, to work around this issue if you do not want to use NVMe devices:

1. Set the parameter by running this command:

# esxcli system module parameters set -m lpfc -p lpfc_enable_fc4_type=1

2. Reboot the host to disables NVMe support. 

Enable NVMe

When using the lpfc Driver, if you want to use NVMe devices (revert the changes back)
 
1. Set the parameter by running this command:

# esxcli system module parameters set -m lpfc -p lpfc_enable_fc4_type=0

2. Reboot the host to enable NVMe support. 

To Enable both FC and NVME support

# esxcli system module parameters set -m lpfc -p lpfc_enable_fc4_type=3