NVMe/FC Host Configuration for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 with ONTAP

12/19/2023 Contributors

You can configure NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC) on hosts running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 and ONTAP as the target.

NVMe/FC is supported on ONTAP 9.6 or later for the following versions of SLES:

SLES15 SP1

SLES15 SP1 host can run both NVMe/FC, & FCP traffic through the same fibre channel initiator adapter ports. See the Hardware Universe for a list of supported FC adapters and controllers.

For the most current list of supported configurations & versions, see the NetApp Interoperability Matrix.
Native NVMe/FC auto-connect scripts are included in the nvme-cli package. You can use the native inbox lpfc driver on SLES15 SP1.

Known limitations

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

Enable NVMe/FC on SLES15 SP1

Upgrade to the recommended SLES15 SP2 MU kernel
Upgrade to the recommended nvme-cli MU version.

This nvme-cli package contains the native NVMe/FC auto-connect scripts, so you do not need to install the external NVMe/FC auto-connect scripts provided by Broadcom on the SLES15 SP1 host. This package also includes the ONTAP udev rule which enables round-robin load balancing for NVMe multipath, and the NetApp plug-in for ONTAP devices.
```
# rpm -qa | grep nvme-cli
nvme-cli-1.8.1-6.9.1.x86_64
```

On the SLES15 SP1 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. For example:

# cat /etc/nvme/hostnqn
nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:75953f3b-77fe-4e03-bf3c-09d5a156fbcd

*> vserver nvme subsystem host show -vserver vs_nvme_10
Vserver Subsystem Host NQN
------- --------- -------------------------------------- -----------
sles_117_nvme_ss_10_0
nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:75953f3b-77fe-4e03-bf3c-09d5a156fbcd

Reboot 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

Verify that you are using the recommended Broadcom lpfc firmware and native inbox driver versions.

# cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/fwrev
12.4.243.17, sil-4.2.c
12.4.243.17, sil-4.2.c

# cat /sys/module/lpfc/version
0:12.6.0.0

Verify that lpfc_enable_fc4_type is set to 3.

# cat /sys/module/lpfc/parameters/lpfc_enable_fc4_type
3

Verify that the initiator ports are up and running.

# cat /sys/class/fc_host/host*/port_name
0x10000090fae0ec61
0x10000090fae0ec62

# cat /sys/class/fc_host/host*/port_state
Online
Online

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

# cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/nvme_info
NVME Initiator Enabled
XRI Dist lpfc0 Total 6144 NVME 2947 SCSI 2977 ELS 250
NVME LPORT lpfc0 WWPN x10000090fae0ec61 WWNN x20000090fae0ec61 DID x012000 ONLINE
NVME RPORT WWPN x202d00a098c80f09 WWNN x202c00a098c80f09 DID x010201 TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE
NVME RPORT WWPN x203100a098c80f09 WWNN x202c00a098c80f09 DID x010601 TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE
NVME Statistics
…

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

Verify that the namespaces are created.

# nvme list
Node SN Model Namespace Usage Format FW Rev
---------------- -------------------- -----------------------
/dev/nvme0n1 80BADBKnB/JvAAAAAAAC NetApp ONTAP Controller 1 53.69 GB / 53.69 GB 4 KiB + 0 B FFFFFFFF

Verify the status of the ANA paths.

# nvme list-subsys/dev/nvme0n1
Nvme-subsysf0 – NQN=nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.341541339b9511e8a9b500a098c80f09:subsystem.sles_117_nvme_ss_10_0
\
+- nvme0 fc traddr=nn-0x202c00a098c80f09:pn-0x202d00a098c80f09 host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fae0ec61:pn-0x10000090fae0ec61 live optimized
+- nvme1 fc traddr=nn-0x207300a098dfdd91:pn-0x207600a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b1c1204:pn-0x100000109b1c1204 live inaccessible
+- nvme2 fc traddr=nn-0x207300a098dfdd91:pn-0x207500a098dfdd91 host_traddr=nn-0x200000109b1c1205:pn-0x100000109b1c1205 live optimized
+- nvme3 fc traddr=nn-0x207300a098dfdd91:pn-0x207700a098dfdd91 host traddr=nn-0x200000109b1c1205:pn-0x100000109b1c1205 live inaccessible

Verify the NetApp plug-in for ONTAP devices.

# nvme netapp ontapdevices -o column
Device   Vserver  Namespace Path             NSID   UUID   Size
-------  -------- -------------------------  ------ ----- -----
/dev/nvme0n1   vs_nvme_10       /vol/sles_117_vol_10_0/sles_117_ns_10_0    1        55baf453-f629-4a18-9364-b6aee3f50dad   53.69GB

# nvme netapp ontapdevices -o json
{
   "ONTAPdevices" : [
   {
        Device" : "/dev/nvme0n1",
        "Vserver" : "vs_nvme_10",
        "Namespace_Path" : "/vol/sles_117_vol_10_0/sles_117_ns_10_0",
         "NSID" : 1,
         "UUID" : "55baf453-f629-4a18-9364-b6aee3f50dad",
         "Size" : "53.69GB",
         "LBA_Data_Size" : 4096,
         "Namespace_Size" : 13107200
    }
]

== Known issues

There are no known issues.

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

ONTAP reports an MDTS (Max Data Transfer Size) of 8 in the Identify Controller data which means the maximum I/O request size can be up to 1MB. However, 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.

Steps

Set the lpfc_sg_seg_cnt parameter to 256.

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/lpfc.conf
options lpfc lpfc_sg_seg_cnt=256

Run a dracut -f command, and reboot the host.

Verify that lpfc_sg_seg_cnt is 256.

# cat /sys/module/lpfc/parameters/lpfc_sg_seg_cnt
256

This is not applicable to Qlogic NVMe/FC hosts.

LPFC Verbose Logging

Set the lpfc driver for NVMe/FC.