Dell PowerFlex 4.5.x Install and Upgrade Guide

Configure NVMe initiators on hosts for VMware ESXi-based systems

For systems using NVMe over TCP technology, configure the NVMe initiator on all hosts that access PowerFlex storage. This procedure is provided as an example only. See VMware documentation for detailed instructions about configuring NVMe initiators for NVMe over TCP topologies.

1. Configure at least three vSwitches: one for management, and two for data (for example: data1 and data2)
2. Configure the VMkernel on each data vSwitch:
   1. In the command line, add the NVMeTCP tag to the data VMkernels. For example:

      esxcli network ip interface tag add -t NVMeTCP -i vmk1
      esxcli network ip interface tag add -t NVMeTCP -i vmk2

   2. Verify that the NVMeTCP tag was added:

      esxcli network ip interface tag get -i vmk1

      The returned output should include the following:

      Tags: NVMeTCP

   3. Enable NVMeTCP on the data vSwitch uplink network adapters:

      esxcli nvme fabrics enable -p TCP -d vmnic4
      esxcli nvme fabrics enable -p TCP -d vmnic5

   4. Verify that NVMeTCP was enabled on the network adapters:

      esxcli nvme adapter list

      Output similar to the following should be returned:

      Adapter  Adapter Qualified Name           Transport Type  Driver   Associated Devices
      
      -------  -------------------------------  --------------  -------  ------------------
      
      vmhba64  aqn:nvmetcp:ec-f4-bb-d4-95-18-T  TCP             nvmetcp  vmnic4
      vmhba65  aqn:nvmetcp:ec-f4-bb-d4-95-18-T  TCP             nvmetcp  vmnic5

3. Get the ESXi NQN of each ESXi node, and make a note of each one. You need this information when configuring the NVMe targets with PowerFlex Manager.

    esxcli nvme info get

   Output similar to the following should be returned:

   Host NQN:nqn.2014-08.com.xyz.lab.sio:nvme:sio-dcoe-116AW-13

4. Perform the following actions:
   1. Add NVMe host to PowerFlex.
   2. Create volume.
   3. Map volume.
      For more information, see the Dell PowerFlex 4.5.x Administration Guide and Dell PowerFlex 4.5.x CLI Reference Guide.