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E-Series Systems

Set up NVMe over Fibre Channel on the host side

Contributors netapp-driley NetAppZacharyWambold netapp-jolieg
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NVMe initiator configuration in a Fibre Channel environment includes installing and configuring the nvme-cli package and for enabling the NVMe/FC initiator on the host.

About this task

The following procedure is for RHEL 7, RHEL 8, RHEL 9, SLES 12, and SLES 15 using Broadcom Emulex or QLogic NVMe/FC capable FC HBAs. For more information on which versions of these OS’s or HBA’s are supported, consult the NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool.

Steps

  1. Install the nvme-cli package:

    SLES 12 or SLES 15

    # zypper install nvme-cli

    RHEL 7, RHEL 8 or RHEL 9

    # yum install nvme-cli

    1. For RHEL 7 only, download and install an external Broadcom Autoconnect script for NVMe/FC connections through the Broadcom website. Enter the keyword Autoconnect Script File for Inbox NVMe over FC Drivers and choose the latest version specific to your OS.

    2. For Qlogic, modify /lib/systemd/system/nvmefc-boot-connections.service after installing the Broadcom NVMe/FC autoconnect script to contain the following:

      [Unit]
Description=Auto-connect to subsystems on FC-NVME devices found during boot

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c "echo add > /sys/class/fc/fc_udev_device/nvme_discovery"

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

  2. Enable and start the nvmefc-boot-connections service.

    systemctl enable nvmefc-boot-connections.service
    systemctl start nvmefc-boot-connections.service

Host-side setup for Emulex HBAs:

Note The following steps are for Emulex HBAs only.

  1. Set lpfc_enable_fc4_type to 3 to enable SLES12 SP4 as an NVMe/FC initiator.

    # cat /etc/modprobe.d/lpfc.conf
options lpfc lpfc_enable_fc4_type=3

  2. Re-build the initrd to get the Emulex change and the boot parameter change.

    # dracut --force

  3. Reboot the host to load the changes to the Ipfc driver.

    # reboot

    The host is rebooted and the NVMe/FC initiator is enabled on the host.

    Note After completing the host-side setup, connection of the NVMe over Fibre Channel ports occur automatically.