Configure RHEL 8.8 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 8.8. For more support and feature information, see NVME-oF Overview.

NVMe-oF with RHEL 8.8 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 8.8; 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 8.8 on the server. After the installation is complete, verify that you are running the required RHEL 8.8 kernel:
```
uname -r
```
Example RHEL kernel version:
```
4.18.0-477.10.1.el8_8.x86_64
```
Install the nvme-cli package:
```
rpm -qa|grep nvme-cli
```
The following example shows an nvme-cli package version:
```
nvme-cli-1.16-7.el8.x86_64
```
Install the libnvme package:
```
rpm -qa|grep libnvme
```
The following example shows an libnvme package version:
```
libnvme-1.4-3.el8.x86_64
```

Enable in-kernel NVMe multipath:

grubby --args=nvme_core.multipath=Y --update-kernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-477.10.1.el8_8.x86_64

On the RHEL 8.8 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:f6517cae-3133-11e8-bbff-7ed30aef123f
```

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

::> vserver nvme subsystem host show -vserver vs_fcnvme_141

Show example

Vserver     Subsystem          Host NQN
----------- --------------- ----------------------------------------------------------
vs_nvme161   rhel_161_LPe32002    nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:f6517cae-3133-11e8-bbff-7ed30aef123f

If the hostnqn strings do not match, use the vserver modify command to update the hostnqn string on your corresponding ONTAP storage system 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
}

Step 3: Configure NVMe/FC and 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 the following example:
```
LPe32002-M2
LPe32002-M2
```

Display the model descriptions:

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

You should see output similar to the following example:

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:
  14.0.639.18, sli-4:2:c 14.0.639.18, sli-4:2:c
2. Display the inbox driver version:
  cat /sys/module/lpfc/version
  The following example shows a driver version:
  0:14.0.0.18
For the current list of supported adapter driver and firmware versions, see the Interoperability Matrix Tool.

Verify that 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 the following example:
```
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 x10000090fae0ec88 WWNN x20000090fae0ec88 DID x0a1300 ONLINE
NVME RPORT       WWPN x2049d039ea36a105 WWNN x2048d039ea36a105 DID x0a0c0a TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE
NVME RPORT       WWPN x204bd039ea36a105 WWNN x2048d039ea36a105 DID x0a100a TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE

NVME Statistics
LS: Xmt 0000000134 Cmpl 0000000134 Abort 00000000
LS XMIT: Err 00000000  CMPL: xb 00000000 Err 00000000
Total FCP Cmpl 000000000825e567 Issue 000000000825d7ed OutIO fffffffffffff286
abort 0000027c noxri 00000000 nondlp 00000a02 qdepth 00000000 wqerr 00000000 err 00000000
FCP CMPL: xb 00000782 Err 000130fa

NVME Initiator Enabled
XRI Dist lpfc1 Total 6144 IO 5894 ELS 250
NVME LPORT lpfc1 WWPN x10000090fae0ec89 WWNN x20000090fae0ec89 DID x0a1200 ONLINE
NVME RPORT       WWPN x204ad039ea36a105 WWNN x2048d039ea36a105 DID x0a080a TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE
NVME RPORT       WWPN x204cd039ea36a105 WWNN x2048d039ea36a105 DID x0a090a TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE

NVME Statistics
LS: Xmt 0000000134 Cmpl 0000000134 Abort 00000000
LS XMIT: Err 00000000  CMPL: xb 00000000 Err 00000000
Total FCP Cmpl 000000000826ced5 Issue 000000000826c226 OutIO fffffffffffff351
        abort 0000029d noxri 00000000 nondlp 000008df qdepth 00000000 wqerr 00000000 err 00000000
FCP CMPL: xb 00000821 Err 00012fcd

FC - Marvell/QLogic

Configure NVMe/FC for a Marvell/QLogic adapter.

Steps

Verify that you are using the supported adapter driver and firmware versions:
```
cat /sys/class/fc_host/host*/symbolic_name
```
The following example shows driver and firmware versions:
```
QLE2772 FW:v9.10.11 DVR:v10.02.07.900-k-debug
QLE2772 FW:v9.10.11 DVR:v10.02.07.900-k-debug
```
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 output 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 192.168.111.79 -a 192.168.111.14

Discovery Log Number of Records 8, Generation counter 10
=====Discovery Log Entry 0======
trtype:  tcp
adrfam:  ipv4
subtype: unrecognized
treq:    not specified
portid:  0
trsvcid: 8009
subnqn:  nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.154a5833c78c11ecb069d039ea359e4b:discovery
traddr:  192.168.211.15
sectype: none
=====Discovery Log Entry 1======
trtype:  tcp
adrfam:  ipv4
subtype: unrecognized
treq:    not specified
portid:  1
trsvcid: 8009
subnqn:  nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.154a5833c78c11ecb069d039ea359e4b:discovery
traddr:  192.168.111.15
sectype: none
=====Discovery Log Entry 2======
trtype:  tcp
adrfam:  ipv4
subtype: unrecognized
treq:    not specified
portid:  2
trsvcid: 8009
subnqn:  nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.154a5833c78c11ecb069d039ea359e4b:discovery
traddr:  192.168.211.14
sectype: none

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

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

Show example

nvme discover -t tcp -w 192.168.111.79 -a 192.168.111.14
nvme discover -t tcp -w 192.168.111.79 -a 192.168.111.15
nvme discover -t tcp -w 192.168.211.79 -a 192.168.211.14
nvme discover -t tcp -w 192.168.211.79 -a 192.168.211.15

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 192.168.111.79 -a 192.168.111.14 -l 1800
nvme connect-all -t tcp -w 192.168.111.79 -a 192.168.111.15 -l 1800
nvme connect-all -t tcp -w 192.168.211.79 -a 192.168.211.14 -l 1800
nvme connect-all -t tcp -w 192.168.211.79 -a 192.168.211.15 -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/nvme3n1

Show example

nvme-subsys3 - NQN=nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.ab4fa6a5ba8b11ecbe3dd039ea359e4b:subsystem.rhel_161_Lpe32002
\
 +- nvme0 fc traddr=nn-0x2048d039ea36a105:pn-0x204cd039ea36a105 host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fae0ec89:pn-0x10000090fae0ec89 live non-optimized
 +- nvme1 fc traddr=nn-0x2048d039ea36a105:pn-0x204ad039ea36a105 host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fae0ec89:pn-0x10000090fae0ec89 live optimized
 +- nvme2 fc traddr=nn-0x2048d039ea36a105:pn-0x204bd039ea36a105 host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fae0ec88:pn-0x10000090fae0ec88 live non-optimized
 +- nvme4 fc traddr=nn-0x2048d039ea36a105:pn-0x2049d039ea36a105 host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fae0ec88:pn-0x10000090fae0ec88 live optimized

NVMe/TCP

nvme list-subsys /dev/nvme0n1

Show example

nvme-subsys0 - NQN=nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.154a5833c78c11ecb069d039ea359e4b:subsystem.rhel_tcp_165
\
 +- nvme0 tcp traddr=192.168.111.15 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.111.79 live non-optimized
 +- nvme1 tcp traddr=192.168.111.14 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.111.79 live optimized
 +- nvme2 tcp traddr=192.168.211.15 trsvcid=4420 host_traddr=192.168.211.79 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/nvme0n1 vs_tcp           /vol/vol1/ns1



NSID       UUID                                   Size
------------------------------------------------------------
1          338d73ce-b5a8-4847-9cc9-b127c75d8855	21.47GB

JSON

nvme netapp ontapdevices -o json

Show example

{
  "ONTAPdevices" : [
    {
      "Device" : "/dev/nvme0n1",
      "Vserver" : "vs_tcp79",
      "Namespace_Path" : "/vol/vol1/ns1",
      "NSID" : 1,
      "UUID" : "338d73ce-b5a8-4847-9cc9-b127c75d8855",
      "Size" : "21.47GB",
      "LBA_Data_Size" : 4096,
      "Namespace_Size" : 5242880
    },
]

}

Step 6: Review the known issues

These are the known issues:

NetApp Bug ID	Title	Description
1479047	RHEL 8.8 NVMe-oF hosts create duplicate persistent discovery controllers (PDCs)	On NVMe-oF hosts, you can use the "nvme discover -p" command to create PDCs. When this command is used, only one PDC should be created per initiator-target combination. However, if you are running RHEL 8.8 on an NVMe-oF host, a duplicate PDC is created each time "nvme discover -p" is executed. This leads to unnecessary usage of resources on both the host and the target.

NetApp Bug ID

Title

Description

1479047

RHEL 8.8 NVMe-oF hosts create duplicate persistent discovery controllers (PDCs)

On NVMe-oF hosts, you can use the "nvme discover -p" command to create PDCs. When this command is used, only one PDC should be created per initiator-target combination. However, if you are running RHEL 8.8 on an NVMe-oF host, a duplicate PDC is created each time "nvme discover -p" is executed. This leads to unnecessary usage of resources on both the host and the target.

Configure RHEL 8.8 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 NVMe/FC and NVMe/TCP

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

Step 5: Validate NVMe-oF

Step 6: Review the known issues