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Synergy 3820C adapter with ESXi 6.5

 
nILZ
Occasional Visitor

Synergy 3820C adapter with ESXi 6.5

I am trying to get the Synergy 3820C adapter to work with ESXi 6.5. It's no problem with ESXi 6.0U2, there it works after I run: esxcli fcoe nic discover -n=vmnicX

When trying the same with ESXi 6.5 it just doesn't work. Driver is bnx2fc version 1.713.20.v60.4, Build: 2494585.

Using the HP branded ESXi iso's: www.hpe.com/info/esxidownload 

Server hardware is SY 480 Gen9

Supportmatrix says nothing about 3820C but i put the link here anyways: http://www.hpe.com/info/ossupport

 

ESXi 6.5 (not working):

[root@1000DC1-EX001:~] esxcli fcoe adapter list
vmhba33
Source MAC: 3a:d3:58:90:00:02
FCF MAC: 00:00:00:00:00:00
VNPort MAC: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Physical NIC: vmnic2
User Priority: 3
VLAN id: 0
VN2VN Mode Enabled: false

vmhba34
Source MAC: 3a:d3:58:90:00:03
FCF MAC: 00:00:00:00:00:00
VNPort MAC: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Physical NIC: vmnic3
User Priority: 3
VLAN id: 0
VN2VN Mode Enabled: false

ESXi 6.0U2, working:

vmhba32
Source MAC: 3a:d3:58:90:00:06
FCF MAC: 9c:dc:71:ac:41:1f
VNPort MAC: 0e:fc:01:01:07:01
Physical NIC: vmnic2
User Priority: 3
VLAN id: 4064
VN2VN Mode Enabled: false

vmhba33
Source MAC: 3a:d3:58:90:00:07
FCF MAC: 9c:dc:71:ac:1c:d8
VNPort MAC: 0e:fc:02:01:07:01
Physical NIC: vmnic3
User Priority: 3
VLAN id: 4065
VN2VN Mode Enabled: false

The VLAN id's is not set manually!

7 REPLIES 7
AngelaYang1
Occasional Visitor

Re: Get Started with HPE Synergy

Thanks for the question. Please go through HPE support to get the customer issue resolved.

HPE Support Center

http://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/scm/home?ac.admitted=1486659438601.125225703.1938120508

nILZ
Occasional Visitor

Re: Get Started with HPE Synergy

Got the answer from support, the 3820c isn't working under ESXi 6.5, they are working on a fix, unknown finished date for this fix. The only known workaround atm is running ESXi 6.0U2. I can confirm this is working, I installed from HP branded ISO. The official description of the problem is:

"3820 CNA does not respond (with a FCF discovery solicitation) to vlan notification from VC module and stuck in a loop sending vlan notification and also sending a 40 seconds FCF discover solicitation with invalid vlan id (1002)."

JLKT
Occasional Visitor

Re: Synergy 3820C adapter with ESXi 6.5

TMARIET
Visitor

Re: Synergy 3820C adapter with ESXi 6.5

hello 

I have 24 ESXi 6.5 u1 with almost same driver :  1.713.20.v60.5, Build: 2494585.

And it's work.

 

Thierry

DeepakAshwath
Advisor

Re: Synergy 3820C adapter with ESXi 6.5

Hi Thiery,

What is the firmware of the card 3820c CNA card, we too have ESXi 6.5 U1 and have only one link as link-up and the other link is link-down, we have done fcoe discover and enable using the esxcli commands but we are unable to get the second fcoe link up.

 

 

Thanks,

Deep

SG2728
Visitor

Re: Synergy 3820C adapter with ESXi 6.5

I am facing similar issue with ESXi 6.5 using same 3820 card. Can you please share the links to download firmware and drivers.

Thank you,

Sandeep Goli

PatrickLong
Trusted Contributor

Re: Synergy 3820C adapter with ESXi 6.5

The Synergy 3820c CNA adapter is based on the BCM 57840 chipset, and a version of the bnx2x driver is required in order to set this chipset to be FCOE discoverable as others have  mentioned in this post, as follows:

esxcli fcoe nic list
esxcli fcoe nic discover -n vmnicXX
esxcli fcoe nic discover -n vmnicYY

Now for the interesting part - in the latest Feb2018 HPE custom .6.5 iso VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-Update1-7388607-HPE-650.U1.10.2.0.23-Feb2018 they have completely REMOVED the bnx2x driver set and these 3820c adapters are now claimed by the Qlogic qlfe3 network driver - which does NOT support the discover command - the esxcli fcoe nic list command lists ALL EIGHT vmnics as available to be set to discoverable, and even if you select only the two adapters (identified by MAC address) that you intend to use for FCOE the ql3fe driver cannot set them as discoverable, ergo none of them can be made to show up as valid storage adapters.

What I did was install the Feb2018 custom iso, then upload and install the LATEST QLogic bnx2x driver set for ESXi 6.0 (there is no native bnx2x driver set for ESXi 6.5) which you can find here > https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI60-QLOGIC-BNX2X-271360V601&productId=572  . Injecting a 6.0 driver into a 6.5 installation is a completely valid thing to do - in fact if you look prior HPE custom 6.5 iso's they do exactly the same thing.  For example the VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-Update1-6765664-HPE-650.U1.9.6.5.1-Nov2017 custom iso loads older versions:

NIC:  net-bnx2x    2.713.10.v60.4-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585   QLogic     VMwareCertified
FC:  scsi-bnx2fc   1.713.20.v60.4-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585   QLogic     VMwareCertified

Note the v60 in the driver name., so don't let HPE try to tell you this is not a supported solution - they did it themselves prior to the February 2018 custom iso, and the official VMware I/O Compatibility Guide for these adpaters shows net-bnx2x as one of the correct drivers (in addition to the qlfe3 driver) for the NIC function of this CNA hardware under ESXi 6.5 U1::

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=45151&deviceCategory=io&details=1&partner=515&releases=367&keyword=382&deviceTypes=10&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

and scsi-bnx2fc is listed as the ONLY correct driver (qlfe3f is not even shown) for the FC function of this CNA hardware under ESXi 6.5 U1:

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=45151&deviceCategory=io&details=1&partner=515&releases=367&keyword=382&deviceTypes=10&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

All of this tells me that the Feb2018 custom iso cannot possibly have been tested as a new install media for HPE hardware with this CNA, either on Synergy OR on older Gen9 hardware like my BL460c blades which use the 630FLB CNA - also based on the same BCM57840 chipset.  HPE - I think it's high time for a customer advisory on this issue.... or better yet, issue a new custom 6.5 iso with the latest bnx2x 6.0 drivers included, or leverage Qlogic to add this discoverability functionality to a new version of the qlfe3 driver.

And if you needed ANOTHER reason not to use the supplied qlfe3\qlfe3f drivers included with the HPE Feb2018 custom iso for your 3820c CNA adapters (beyond the 'can't make FCOE storage adapters discoverable' reason already explained at length) well how about this one? Customer Advisory a00043875en_us released yesterday stating that  "enabling SR-IOV and creating virtual functions may lead to performance issues, causing the NIC driver to crash, followed by system unresponsiveness"  Advisory indicates that that this occurs under the qlfe3/qlfe3f drivers available on HPE Support site dated 2018.02..12 at https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=1008615171&swItemId=MTX_e3c77314ca014437970663c38a&swEnvOid=4184 , which are the same driver versions included in the HPE Feb2018 custom 6.5 .iso.