You can use NVMe with the InfiniBand network protocol.
Verify the Linux configuration is supported
To ensure reliable operation, you create an implementation plan and then use the NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT) to verify that the entire configuration is supported.
Configure IP addresses using DHCP
In this express method for configuring communications between the management station and the storage array, you use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to provide IP addresses. Each storage array has either one controller (simplex) or two controllers (duplex), and each controller has two storage management ports. Each management port will be assigned an IP address.
Install SANtricity Storage Manager for SMcli (SANtricity software version 11.53 or earlier)
When you install the SANtricity Storage Manager software on your management station, a graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface (CLI) are installed by default. These instructions assume that you will install the SANtricity Storage Manager GUI on a management station and not on the I/O host.
Configure subnet manager
Using an InfiniBand switch to run subnet manager might cause unexpected path loss during high loads. To avoid path loss, configure the subnet manager on one or more of your hosts using opensm.
Set up NVMe over InfiniBand on the host side
Configuring an NVMe initiator in an InfiniBand environment includes installing and configuring the infiniband, nvme-cli, and rdma packages, configuring initiator IP addresses, and setting up the NVMe-oF layer on the host.
Discover and connect to the storage from the host
Before making definitions of each host in SANtricity System Manager, you must discover the target controller ports from the host, and then establish NVMe connections.
Define a host
Using SANtricity System Manager, you define the hosts that send data to the storage array. Defining a host is one of the steps required to let the storage array know which hosts are attached to it and to allow I/O access to the volumes.
Assign a volume
You must assign a volume (namespace) to a host or host cluster so it can be used for I/O operations. This assignment grants a host or host cluster access to one or more namespaces in a storage array.
Display the volumes visible to the host
Use the SMdevices tool, part of the nvme-cli package, to view the volumes currently visible on the host. This is an alternative to the nvme list command.
Set up failover
Multipath software provides a redundant path to the storage array in case one of the physical paths is disrupted. There are currently two methods of multipathing available for NVMe, and which you will be using is going to be dependent on which OS version you are running. For RHEL 7 and SLES 12, device mapper multipath (DMMP) will be used. For SLES 15, a native NVMe multipathing solution will be used.
Accessing NVMe volumes
You can configure the I/O directed to the device target based on your version of SLES (SUSE Linux version).
Create filesystems
You create a file system on the namespace or native NVMe device and mount the filesystem.
Verify storage access on the host
Before using the namespace, you verify that the host can write data to the namespace and read it back.