NVMe/FC Host Configuration for Oracle Linux 8.2 with ONTAP

07/29/2024 Contributors

You can configure NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC) on initiator hosts running Oracle Linux 8.2 and ONTAP as the target.

Supportability

NVMe/FC is supported on ONTAP 9.6 or later for Oracle Linux 8.2. The Oracle Linux 8.2 host can run both NVMe/FC and FCP traffic through the same fibre channel (FC) initiator adapter ports. See the Hardware Universe for a list of supported FC adapters and controllers. For the most current list of supported configurations see the NetApp Interoperability Matrix.

You can use the configuration settings provided in this document to configure cloud clients connected to Cloud Volumes ONTAP and Amazon FSx for ONTAP.

Known limitations

SAN booting using the NVMe-oF protocol is currently not supported.

Enable NVMe/FC

Install Oracle Linux 8.2 on the server.
After the installation is complete, verify that you are running the supported Unbreakable Enterprise kernel. See the NetApp Interoperability Matrix.
```
# uname -r
5.4.17-2011.1.2.el8uek.x86_64
```
Upgrade the nvme-cli package. The native nvme-cli package contains the NVMe/FC auto-connect scripts, ONTAP udev rule which enables round-robin load balancing for NVMe Multipath as well as the NetApp plug-in for ONTAP namespaces.
```
# rpm -qa|grep nvme-cli
nvme-cli-1.9-5.el8.x86_64
```

On the Oracle Linux 8.2 host, check the host NQN string at /etc/nvme/hostnqn and verify that it matches the host NQN string for the corresponding subsystem on the ONTAP array.

# cat /etc/nvme/hostnqn
nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:9ed5b327-b9fc-4cf5-97b3-1b5d986345d1

::> vserver nvme subsystem host show -vserver vs_ol_nvme
Vserver  Subsystem Host NQN
----------- --------------- ----------------------------------------------------------
vs_ol_nvme
              nvme_ss_ol_1
                                 nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:9ed5b327-b9fc-4cf5-97b3-1b5d986345d1

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

Configure the Broadcom FC Adapter for NVMe/FC

Verify that you are using the supported adapter. For the most current list of supported adapters, see the NetApp Interoperability Matrix.

# cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/modelname
LPe32002-M2
LPe32002-M2

# cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/modeldesc
Emulex LightPulse LPe32002-M2 2-Port 32Gb Fibre Channel Adapter
Emulex LightPulse LPe32002-M2 2-Port 32Gb Fibre Channel Adapter

NVMe support in lpfc is already enabled by default:
```
# cat /sys/module/lpfc/parameters/lpfc_enable_fc4_type
3
```
Newer lpfc drivers (both inbox and outbox) have lpfc_enable_fc4_type default set to 3. Therefore, you do not need to set this explicitly in the /etc/modprobe.d/lpfc.conf.

Verify that the NVMe/FC initiator ports are enabled and able to see the target ports, and all are up and running.

In the example below, only a single initiator port has been enabled and connected with two target LIFs as seen in the below output:

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

Validate NVMe/FC

Verify the following NVMe/FC settings.
```
# cat /sys/module/nvme_core/parameters/multipath
Y
```
```
# cat /sys/class/nvme-subsystem/nvme-subsys*/model
NetApp ONTAP Controller
NetApp ONTAP Controller
```
```
# cat /sys/class/nvme-subsystem/nvme-subsys*/iopolicy
round-robin
round-robin
```
In the above example, two namespaces are mapped to the Oracle Linux 8.2 ANA host. These are visible through four target LIFs: two local node LIFs and two other partner/remote node LIFs. This setup shows as two ANA Optimized and two ANA Inaccessible paths for each namespace on the host.

Verify that the namespaces are created.

# nvme list
Node                  SN                                            Model                                                Namespace Usage                            Format         FW Rev
--------------------   ---------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- ----------------- ------------------------------- ---------------- ---------------
/dev/nvme0n1     814vWBNRwf9HAAAAAAAB  NetApp ONTAP Controller                1                  85.90 GB / 85.90 GB     4 KiB + 0 B   FFFFFFFF
/dev/nvme0n2     814vWBNRwf9HAAAAAAAB  NetApp ONTAP Controller                2                  85.90 GB / 85.90 GB     4 KiB + 0 B   FFFFFFFF
/dev/nvme0n3     814vWBNRwf9HAAAAAAAB  NetApp ONTAP Controller                3                  85.90 GB / 85.90 GB     4 KiB + 0 B   FFFFFFFF

Verify the status of the ANA paths.

# nvme list-subsys /dev/nvme0n1
nvme-subsys0 - NQN=nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.5f5f2c4aa73b11e9967e00a098df41bd:subsystem.nvme_ss_ol_1
\
+- nvme0 fc traddr=nn-0x203700a098dfdd91:pn-0x203800a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b1c1204:pn-0x100000109b1c1204 live inaccessible
+- nvme1 fc traddr=nn-0x203700a098dfdd91:pn-0x203900a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b1c1204:pn-0x100000109b1c1204 live inaccessible
+- nvme2 fc traddr=nn-0x203700a098dfdd91:pn-0x203a00a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b1c1205:pn-0x100000109b1c1205 live optimized
+- nvme3 fc traddr=nn-0x203700a098dfdd91:pn-0x203d00a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b1c1205:pn-0x100000109b1c1205 live optimized

Verify the NetApp plug-in for ONTAP devices.

# nvme netapp ontapdevices -o column
Device                 Vserver                         Namespace Path                                                          NSID    UUID                                                             Size
----------------------- ------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------
/dev/nvme0n1      vs_ol_nvme            /vol/ol_nvme_vol_1_1_0/ol_nvme_ns              1          72b887b1-5fb6-47b8-be0b-33326e2542e2   85.90GB
/dev/nvme0n2      vs_ol_nvme            /vol/ol_nvme_vol_1_0_0/ol_nvme_ns              2          04bf9f6e-9031-40ea-99c7-a1a61b2d7d08    85.90GB
/dev/nvme0n3      vs_ol_nvme            /vol/ol_nvme_vol_1_1_1/ol_nvme_ns              3          264823b1-8e03-4155-80dd-e904237014a4  85.90GB

# nvme netapp ontapdevices -o json
{
"ONTAPdevices" : [
    {
        "Device" : "/dev/nvme0n1",
        "Vserver" : "vs_ol_nvme",
        "Namespace_Path" : "/vol/ol_nvme_vol_1_1_0/ol_nvme_ns",
        "NSID" : 1,
        "UUID" : "72b887b1-5fb6-47b8-be0b-33326e2542e2",
        "Size" : "85.90GB",
        "LBA_Data_Size" : 4096,
        "Namespace_Size" : 20971520
    },
    {
        "Device" : "/dev/nvme0n2",
        "Vserver" : "vs_ol_nvme",
        "Namespace_Path" : "/vol/ol_nvme_vol_1_0_0/ol_nvme_ns",
        "NSID" : 2,
        "UUID" : "04bf9f6e-9031-40ea-99c7-a1a61b2d7d08",
        "Size" : "85.90GB",
        "LBA_Data_Size" : 4096,
        "Namespace_Size" : 20971520
      },
      {
         "Device" : "/dev/nvme0n3",
         "Vserver" : "vs_ol_nvme",
         "Namespace_Path" : "/vol/ol_nvme_vol_1_1_1/ol_nvme_ns",
         "NSID" : 3,
         "UUID" : "264823b1-8e03-4155-80dd-e904237014a4",
         "Size" : "85.90GB",
         "LBA_Data_Size" : 4096,
         "Namespace_Size" : 20971520
       },
  ]
}

Enable 1MB I/O size for Broadcom NVMe/FC

ONTAP reports an MDTS (Max Data Transfer Size) 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 1 MB for a Broadcom NVMe/FC host, you must increase the lpfc value of the lpfc_sg_seg_cnt parameter to 256 from the default value of 64.

The following 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

Example output

options lpfc lpfc_sg_seg_cnt=256

Run the dracut -f command, and reboot the host:
Verify that lpfc_sg_seg_cnt is 256:
```
cat /sys/module/lpfc/parameters/lpfc_sg_seg_cnt
```
The expected value is 256.