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29.2. NVMe over fabrics using FC

The NVMe over Fibre Channel (FC-NVMe) is fully supported in initiator mode when used with certain Broadcom Emulex and Marvell Qlogic Fibre Channel adapters. As a system administrator, complete the tasks in the following sections to deploy the FC-NVMe:

29.2.1. Configuring the NVMe initiator for Broadcom adapters

Use this procedure to configure the NVMe initiator for Broadcom adapters client using the NVMe management command line interface (nvme-cli) tool.
  1. Install the nvme-cli tool:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # yum install nvme-cli
    This creates the hostnqn file in the /etc/nvme/ directory. The hostnqn file identifies the NVMe host. To generate a new hostnqn:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # nvme gen-hostnqn
  2. Create a /etc/modprobe.d/lpfc.conf file with the following content:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    options lpfc lpfc_enable_fc4_type=3
  3. Rebuild the initramfs image:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # dracut --force
  4. Reboot the host system to reconfigure the lpfc driver:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # systemctl reboot
  5. Find the WWNN and WWPN of the local and remote ports and use the output to find the subsystem NQN:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/nvme_info

NVME Initiator Enabled
XRI Dist lpfc0 Total 6144 IO 5894 ELS 250
NVME LPORT lpfc0 WWPN x10000090fae0b5f5 WWNN x20000090fae0b5f5 DID x010f00 ONLINE
NVME RPORT       WWPN x204700a098cbcac6 WWNN x204600a098cbcac6 DID x01050e TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE

NVME Statistics
LS: Xmt 000000000e Cmpl 000000000e Abort 00000000
LS XMIT: Err 00000000  CMPL: xb 00000000 Err 00000000
Total FCP Cmpl 00000000000008ea Issue 00000000000008ec OutIO 0000000000000002
    abort 00000000 noxri 00000000 nondlp 00000000 qdepth 00000000 wqerr 00000000 err 00000000
FCP CMPL: xb 00000000 Err 00000000
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # nvme discover --transport fc \ --traddr nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6 \ --host-traddr nn-0x20000090fae0b5f5:pn-0x10000090fae0b5f5

Discovery Log Number of Records 2, Generation counter 49530
=====Discovery Log Entry 0======
trtype:  fc
adrfam:  fibre-channel
subtype: nvme subsystem
treq:    not specified
portid:  0
trsvcid: none
subnqn: nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.e18bfca87d5e11e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.st14_nvme_ss_1_1
traddr:  nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6
    Replace nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6 with the traddr.
    Replace nn-0x20000090fae0b5f5:pn-0x10000090fae0b5f5 with the host_traddr.
  6. Connect to the NVMe target using the nvme-cli:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # nvme connect --transport fc --traddr nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6 --host-traddr nn-0x20000090fae0b5f5:pn-0x10000090fae0b5f5 -n nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.e18bfca87d5e11e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.st14_nvme_ss_1_1
    Replace nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6 with the traddr.
    Replace nn-0x20000090fae0b5f5:pn-0x10000090fae0b5f5 with the host_traddr.
    Replace nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.e18bfca87d5e11e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.st14_nvme_ss_1_1 with the subnqn.
  7. Verify the NVMe devices are currently connected:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # nvme list
Node             SN                   Model                                    Namespace Usage                      Format           FW Rev
---------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------- -------------------------- ---------------- --------
/dev/nvme0n1     80BgLFM7xMJbAAAAAAAC NetApp ONTAP Controller                  1         107.37  GB / 107.37  GB      4 KiB +  0 B   FFFFFFFF
# lsblk |grep nvme
  nvme0n1                     259:0    0   100G  0 disk

Additional resources

29.2.2. Configuring the NVMe initiator for QLogic adapters

Use this procedure to configure NVMe initiator for Qlogic adapters client using the NVMe management command line interface (nvme-cli) tool.
  1. Install the nvme-cli tool:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # yum install nvme-cli
    This creates the hostnqn file in the /etc/nvme/ directory. The hostnqn file identifies the NVMe host. To generate a new hostnqn:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # nvme gen-hostnqn
  2. Remove and reload the qla2xxx module:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # rmmod qla2xxx
# modprobe qla2xxx
  3. Find the WWNN and WWPN of the local and remote ports:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # dmesg |grep traddr
    [    6.139862] qla2xxx [0000:04:00.0]-ffff:0: register_localport: host-traddr=nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62 on portID:10700
[    6.241762] qla2xxx [0000:04:00.0]-2102:0: qla_nvme_register_remote: traddr=nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 PortID:01050d
    Using this host-traddr and traddr, find the subsystem NQN:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # nvme discover --transport fc --traddr nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 --host-traddr nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62

Discovery Log Number of Records 2, Generation counter 49530
=====Discovery Log Entry 0======
trtype:  fc
adrfam:  fibre-channel
subtype: nvme subsystem
treq:    not specified
portid:  0
trsvcid: none
subnqn:  nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.c9ecc9187b1111e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.vs_nvme_multipath_1_subsystem_468
traddr:  nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6
    Replace nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 with the traddr.
    Replace nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62 with the host_traddr.
  4. Connect to the NVMe target using the nvme-cli tool:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # nvme connect --transport fc --traddr nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 --host_traddr nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62 -n nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.c9ecc9187b1111e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.vs_nvme_multipath_1_subsystem_468
    Replace nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 with the traddr.
    Replace nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62 with the host_traddr.
    Replace nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.c9ecc9187b1111e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.vs_nvme_multipath_1_subsystem_468 with the subnqn.
  5. Verify the NVMe devices are currently connected:
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # nvme list
Node             SN                   Model                                    Namespace Usage                      Format           FW Rev
---------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------- -------------------------- ---------------- --------
/dev/nvme0n1     80BgLFM7xMJbAAAAAAAC NetApp ONTAP Controller                  1         107.37  GB / 107.37  GB      4 KiB +  0 B   FFFFFFFF
# lsblk |grep nvme
nvme0n1                     259:0    0   100G  0 disk

Additional resources

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