Configure RHEL 8.4 for NVMe-oF with ONTAP storage

10/08/2025 Contributors

Red Hat Enterpirse Linux (RHEL) hosts support the NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC) and NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP) protocols with Asymmetric Namespace Access (ANA). ANA provides multipathing functionality equivalent to asymmetric logical unit access (ALUA) in iSCSI and FCP environments.

Learn how to configure NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) hosts for RHEL 8.4. For more support and feature information, see NVME-oF Overview.

NVMe-oF with RHEL 8.4 has the following known limitations:

SAN booting using the NVMe-oF protocol is not currently supported.
In-kernel NVMe multipath is disabled by default on NVMe-oF hosts in RHEL 8.4; you must enable it manually.
NVMe/TCP is available as a technology preview due to known issues.

Step 1: Optionally, enable SAN booting

You can configure your host to use SAN booting to simplify deployment and improve scalability. Use the Interoperability Matrix Tool to verify that your Linux OS, host bus adapter (HBA), HBA firmware, HBA boot BIOS, and ONTAP version support SAN booting.

Steps

Create a NVMe namespace and map it to the host.
Enable SAN booting in the server BIOS for the ports to which the SAN boot namespace is mapped.

For information on how to enable the HBA BIOS, see your vendor-specific documentation.
Reboot the host and verify that the OS is up and running.

Step 2: Verify the software version and NVMe configuration

Check that your system meets software requirements and verify NVMe package installations and host configuration.

Steps

Install RHEL 8.4 on the server. After the installation is complete, verify that you are running the required RHEL 8.4 kernel:
```
uname -r
```
Example RHEL kernel version:
```
4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64
```
Install the nvme-cli package:
```
rpm -qa|grep nvme-cli
```
The following example shows an nvme-cli package version:
```
nvme-cli-1.12-3.el8.x86_64
```
Install the libnvme package:
```
rpm -qa|grep libnvme
```
The following example shows an libnvme package version:
```
libnvme-1.0-1.el8.x86_64
```

Enable in-kernel NVMe multipath:

grubby --args=nvme_core.multipath=Y --update-kernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64

On the RHEL 8.4 host, check the hostnqn string at /etc/nvme/hostnqn:
```
cat /etc/nvme/hostnqn
```
The following example shows an hostnqn version:
```
nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:9ed5b327-b9fc-4cf5-97b3-1b5d986345d1
```

Verify that the hostnqn string matches the hostnqn string for the corresponding subsystem on the ONTAP array:

::> vserver nvme subsystem host show -vserver vs_fcnvme_141

Show example

Vserver     Subsystem          Host NQN
----------- --------------- ----------------------------------------------------------
vs_fcnvme_141   nvme_141_1    nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:9ed5b327-b9fc-4cf5-97b3-1b5d986345d1

If the hostnqn strings do not match, use the vserver modify command to update the hostnqn string on your corresponding ONTAP array subsystem to match the hostnqn string from /etc/nvme/hostnqn on the host.

Reboot the host.

To run both NVMe and SCSI traffic on the same host, NetApp recommends using the in-kernel NVMe multipath for ONTAP namespaces and dm-multipath for ONTAP LUNs. To prevent dm-multipath from claiming ONTAP namespace devices, exclude them by adding the enable_foreign setting to the /etc/multipath.conf file:

cat /etc/multipath.conf
defaults {
        enable_foreign     NONE
}

Restart the multipathd daemon by running a systemctl restart multipathd.

Step 3: Configure the NVMe/FC or NVMe/TCP

Configure NVMe/FC with Broadcom/Emulex or Marvell/QLogic adapters, or configure NVMe/TCP using manual discovery and connect operations.

FC - Broadcom/Emulex

Configure NVMe/FC for a Broadcom/Emulex adapter.

Steps

Verify that you are using the supported adapter model:

Display the model names:

cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/modelname

You should see output similar to:

LPe32002-M2
LPe32002-M2

Display the model descriptions:

cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/modeldesc

You should see output similar to:

Emulex LightPulse LPe32002-M2 2-Port 32Gb Fibre Channel Adapter
Emulex LightPulse LPe32002-M2 2-Port 32Gb Fibre Channel Adapter

Verify that you are using the recommended Broadcom lpfc firmware and inbox driver:
1. Display the firmware version:
  cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/fwrev
  The command returns the firmware versions:
  12.8.340.8, sli-4:2:c 12.8.340.8, sli-4:2:c
2. Display the inbox driver version:
  cat /sys/module/lpfc/version
  The following example shows a driver version:
  0:12.8.0.5
  For the current list of supported adapter driver and firmware versions, see the Interoperability Matrix Tool.
Verify that the expected output of lpfc_enable_fc4_type is set to 3:
```
cat /sys/module/lpfc/parameters/lpfc_enable_fc4_type
```
Verify that you can view your initiator ports:
```
cat /sys/class/fc_host/host*/port_name
```
You should see output similar to:
```
0x100000109b1c1204
0x100000109b1c1205
```
Verify that your initiator ports are online:
```
cat /sys/class/fc_host/host*/port_state
```
You should see the following output:
```
Online
Online
```

Verify that the NVMe/FC initiator ports are enabled and that the target ports are visible:

cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/nvme_info

Show example

NVME Initiator Enabled
XRI Dist lpfc0 Total 6144 IO 5894 ELS 250
NVME LPORT lpfc0 WWPN x100000109b1c1204 WWNN x200000109b1c1204 DID x011d00 ONLINE
NVME RPORT WWPN x203800a098dfdd91 WWNN x203700a098dfdd91 DID x010c07 TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE
NVME RPORT WWPN x203900a098dfdd91 WWNN x203700a098dfdd91 DID x011507 TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE

NVME Statistics
LS: Xmt 0000000f78 Cmpl 0000000f78 Abort 00000000
LS XMIT: Err 00000000 CMPL: xb 00000000 Err 00000000
Total FCP Cmpl 000000002fe29bba Issue 000000002fe29bc4 OutIO 000000000000000a
abort 00001bc7 noxri 00000000 nondlp 00000000 qdepth 00000000 wqerr 00000000 err 00000000
FCP CMPL: xb 00001e15 Err 0000d906

NVME Initiator Enabled
XRI Dist lpfc1 Total 6144 IO 5894 ELS 250
NVME LPORT lpfc1 WWPN x100000109b1c1205 WWNN x200000109b1c1205 DID x011900 ONLINE
NVME RPORT WWPN x203d00a098dfdd91 WWNN x203700a098dfdd91 DID x010007 TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE
NVME RPORT WWPN x203a00a098dfdd91 WWNN x203700a098dfdd91 DID x012a07 TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE

NVME Statistics
LS: Xmt 0000000fa8 Cmpl 0000000fa8 Abort 00000000
LS XMIT: Err 00000000 CMPL: xb 00000000 Err 00000000
Total FCP Cmpl 000000002e14f170 Issue 000000002e14f17a OutIO 000000000000000a
abort 000016bb noxri 00000000 nondlp 00000000 qdepth 00000000 wqerr 00000000 err 00000000
FCP CMPL: xb 00001f50 Err 0000d9f8

FC - Marvell/QLogic

Configure NVMe/FC for a Marvell/QLogic adapter.

Steps

Verify that you are using the supported adapter model, driver, and firmware versions:

cat /sys/class/fc_host/host*/symbolic_name

You should see output similar to:

QLE2742 FW:v9.06.02 DVR:v10.02.00.104-k
QLE2742 FW:v9.06.02 DVR:v10.02.00.104-k

Verify that ql2xnvmeenable is set. This enables the Marvell adapter to function as an NVMe/FC initiator:
```
cat /sys/module/qla2xxx/parameters/ql2xnvmeenable
```
The expected outptut is 1.

TCP

The NVMe/TCP protocol doesn't support the auto-connect operation. Instead, you can discover the NVMe/TCP subsystems and namespaces by performing the NVMe/TCP connect or connect-all operations manually.

Steps

Check that the initiator port can get the discovery log page data across the supported NVMe/TCP LIFs:

nvme discover -t tcp -w host-traddr -a traddr

Show example

nvme discover -t tcp -w 192.168.1.8 -a 192.168.1.51

Discovery Log Number of Records 10, Generation counter 119
=====Discovery Log Entry 0======
trtype: tcp
adrfam: ipv4
subtype: nvme subsystem
treq: not specified
portid: 0
trsvcid: 4420
subnqn: nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.56e362e9bb4f11ebbaded039ea165abc:subsystem.nvme_118_tcp_1
traddr: 192.168.2.56
sectype: none
=====Discovery Log Entry 1======
trtype: tcp
adrfam: ipv4
subtype: nvme subsystem
treq: not specified
portid: 1
trsvcid: 4420
subnqn: nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.56e362e9bb4f11ebbaded039ea165abc:subsystem.nvme_118_tcp_1
traddr: 192.168.1.51
sectype: none
=====Discovery Log Entry 2======
trtype: tcp
adrfam: ipv4
subtype: nvme subsystem
treq: not specified
portid: 0
trsvcid: 4420
subnqn: nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.56e362e9bb4f11ebbaded039ea165abc:subsystem.nvme_118_tcp_2
traddr: 192.168.2.56
sectype: none

Verify that the other NVMe/TCP initiator-target LIF combinations can successfully fetch discovery log page data:

nvme discover -t tcp -w host-traddr -a traddr

Show example

nvme discover -t tcp -w 192.168.1.8 -a 192.168.1.52
nvme discover -t tcp -w 192.168.2.9 -a 192.168.2.56
nvme discover -t tcp -w 192.168.2.9 -a 192.168.2.57

Run the nvme connect-all command across all the supported NVMe/TCP initiator-target LIFs across the nodes:

nvme connect-all -t tcp -w host-traddr -a traddr -1 1800

Show example

nvme connect-all -t tcp -w 192.168.1.8 -a 192.168.1.51 -l 1800
nvme connect-all -t tcp -w 192.168.1.8 -a 192.168.1.52 -l 1800
nvme connect-all -t tcp -w 192.168.2.9 -a 192.168.2.56 -l 1800
nvme connect-all -t tcp -w 192.168.2.9 -a 192.168.2.57 -l 1800

Step 4: Optionally, enable 1MB I/O for NVMe/FC

ONTAP reports a Max Data Transfer Size (MDTS) of 8 in the Identify Controller data. This means the maximum I/O request size can be up to 1MB. To issue I/O requests of size 1MB for a Broadcom NVMe/FC host, you should increase the lpfc value of the lpfc_sg_seg_cnt parameter to 256 from the default value of 64.

These steps don't apply to Qlogic NVMe/FC hosts.

Steps

Set the lpfc_sg_seg_cnt parameter to 256:
```
cat /etc/modprobe.d/lpfc.conf
```
You should see an output similar to the following example:
```
options lpfc lpfc_sg_seg_cnt=256
```
Run the dracut -f command, and reboot the host.

Verify that the value for lpfc_sg_seg_cnt is 256:

cat /sys/module/lpfc/parameters/lpfc_sg_seg_cnt

Step 5: Validate NVMe-oF

Verify that the in-kernel NVMe multipath status, ANA status, and ONTAP namespaces are correct for the NVMe-oF configuration.

Steps

Verify that the in-kernel NVMe multipath is enabled:
```
cat /sys/module/nvme_core/parameters/multipath
```
You should see the following output:
```
Y
```
Verify that the appropriate NVMe-oF settings (such as, model set to NetApp ONTAP Controller and load balancing iopolicy set to round-robin) for the respective ONTAP namespaces correctly reflect on the host:
1. Display the subsystems:
  cat /sys/class/nvme-subsystem/nvme-subsys*/model
  You should see the following output:
  NetApp ONTAP Controller NetApp ONTAP Controller
2. Display the policy:
  cat /sys/class/nvme-subsystem/nvme-subsys*/iopolicy
  You should see the following output:
  round-robin round-robin

Verify that the namespaces are created and correctly discovered on the host:

nvme list

Show example

Node         SN                   Model
---------------------------------------------------------
/dev/nvme4n1 81Ix2BVuekWcAAAAAAAB	NetApp ONTAP Controller


Namespace Usage    Format             FW             Rev
-----------------------------------------------------------
1                 21.47 GB / 21.47 GB	4 KiB + 0 B   FFFFFFFF

Verify that the controller state of each path is live and has the correct ANA status:

NVMe/FC

nvme list-subsys /dev/nvme1n1

Show example

nvme-subsys1 - NQN=nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.04ba0732530911ea8e8300a098dfdd91:subsystem.nvme_145_1
\
+- nvme2 fc traddr=nn-0x208100a098dfdd91:pn-0x208200a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b579d5f:pn-0x100000109b579d5f live non-optimized
+- nvme3 fc traddr=nn-0x208100a098dfdd91:pn-0x208500a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b579d5e:pn-0x100000109b579d5e live non-optimized
+- nvme4 fc traddr=nn-0x208100a098dfdd91:pn-0x208400a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b579d5e:pn-0x100000109b579d5e live optimized
+- nvme6 fc traddr=nn-0x208100a098dfdd91:pn-0x208300a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b579d5f:pn-0x100000109b579d5f live optimized

NVMe/TCP

nvme list-subsys /dev/nvme0n1

Show example

nvme-subsys0 - NQN=nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.37ba7d9cbfba11eba35dd039ea165514:subsystem.nvme_114_tcp_1
\
+- nvme0 tcp traddr=192.168.2.36 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.1.4 live optimized
+- nvme1 tcp traddr=192.168.1.31 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.1.4 live optimized
+- nvme10 tcp traddr=192.168.2.37 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.1.4 live non-optimized
+- nvme11 tcp traddr=192.168.1.32 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.1.4 live non-optimized
+- nvme20 tcp traddr=192.168.2.36 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.2.5 live optimized
+- nvme21 tcp traddr=192.168.1.31 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.2.5 live optimized
+- nvme30 tcp traddr=192.168.2.37 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.2.5 live non-optimized
+- nvme31 tcp traddr=192.168.1.32 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.2.5 live non-optimized

Verify that the NetApp plug-in displays the correct values for each ONTAP namespace device:

Column

nvme netapp ontapdevices -o column

Show example

Device       Vserver          Namespace Path
---------    -------          --------------------------------------------------
/dev/nvme1n1 vserver_fcnvme_145 /vol/fcnvme_145_vol_1_0_0/fcnvme_145_ns

NSID  UUID                                   Size
-------  ------------------------------     --------------------
1      23766b68-e261-444e-b378-2e84dbe0e5e1  85.90GB

JSON

nvme netapp ontapdevices -o json

Show example

{
"ONTAPdevices" : [
     {
       "Device" : "/dev/nvme1n1",
       "Vserver" : "vserver_fcnvme_145",
       "Namespace_Path" : "/vol/fcnvme_145_vol_1_0_0/fcnvme_145_ns",
       "NSID" : 1,
       "UUID" : "23766b68-e261-444e-b378-2e84dbe0e5e1",
       "Size" : "85.90GB",
       "LBA_Data_Size" : 4096,
       "Namespace_Size" : 20971520
     }
  ]
}

Step 6: Review the known issues

There are no known issues.

Configure RHEL 8.4 for NVMe-oF with ONTAP storage

Creating your file...

Step 1: Optionally, enable SAN booting

Step 2: Verify the software version and NVMe configuration

Step 3: Configure the NVMe/FC or NVMe/TCP

Step 4: Optionally, enable 1MB I/O for NVMe/FC

Step 5: Validate NVMe-oF

Step 6: Review the known issues