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techca
Contributor
Contributor

NVMe driver question

NVMe organization release the first NVMe driver for ESXi 5.0.  Does anyone know how to install the open source driver in ESXi 5.0?

http://nvmevmklinuxdriver.sourceforge.net/

22 Replies
thasmots
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Also looking for an NVMe driver for 5.1u2 working with the Samsung XS1715 PCIe 400GB SSD (Dell R720)

No support on Dell or either VMware websites, and don't know how to install this NVMe open source driver

Any help appreciated

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DITGUY2012
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

We too are waiting for the drivers. Would be great to get these going. Are you all going to use the sourceforge drivers? I'm hesitant to give it's a production environment.

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ezequielcarson
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Were you able to get a working driver for the NVMe?

I have compiled the open source driver, it loads fine but it doesnt find any PCI device.

the LSPCI -v shows the NVM and the vendor and device id are fine

Txs

Ezeq.

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DITGUY2012
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have not no. I heard Samsung is going to come out with their own but still not sure I'd adopt it until VMware blesses it.

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arielsanchezmo1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I am also waiting anxiously for when the Intel P3700 is certified. I've reached out to Dell, Intel, and VMware, and so far there isn't information or a clear indication of when HCL certification will happen.

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ezequielcarson
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

I got an answer that NVme driver would be included in Vsphere 6

have you tried compiling the sourceforge driver?

Txs

Ezequiel

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arielsanchezmo1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

no - i don't have the hardware yet, but wanted to buy the intel p3700 instead of the micron. of course i can't if it won't work until whenever vsphere 6 ships.

thanks for pointing me to vsphere 6. i've opened a question for this in the beta community.

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ezequielcarson
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Great.

funny, I have sent an email micron ordering 16 P420m for vSAN CACHE SSD

can you share your experience with this?

I have Vsan all Flash Disk ,and I have WR LATENCY using M550 Crucial

Txs

Ezequiel

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arielsanchezmo1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

That's the same model i've ordered - 700GB P420M. They were recommended to me by the engineer at PernixData. I've read good reviews on them.

As far as performance, I should let you know in about 3 weeks when I have them up and running. I really wanted the Intel P3700's - but oh well, vmware can't be perfect - or they really want people to upgrade to vSphere 6 ha

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markartinf
Contributor
Contributor

Did you ever discover how to do this?

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psehgal
Contributor
Contributor

I could successfully build and load the driver available on source forge by referring to the following two discussion on vmware:

vm-help.com - View topic - ESXI 5.x Drivers Part 1: Making a Build Environment

vm-help.com - View topic - ESXI 5.x Drivers Part 2: Preparing to compile

I just copied the nvme driver code (from source forge) to the modules directory and prepared build-nvme.sh file (as mentioned) in the second topic.

My problem is that when I attach NVMe card (Intel P3700) it is not showing up in ESX. l ran lspci, but could not see anything which says NVMe. Can anyone tell, how will the device appear on ESX?

I could load nvme driver. this is the output of dmesg:

2014-11-11T06:39:14.885Z cpu2:1762933)Loading module nvme ...

2014-11-11T06:39:14.885Z cpu2:1762933)Elf: 1861: module nvme has license GPL

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)module heap: Initial heap size: 262144, max heap size: 11853824

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)vmklnx_module_mempool_init: Mempool max 11853824 being used for module: 4197

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)vmk_MemPoolCreate passed for 64 pages

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)module heap: using memType 2

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)module heap vmklnx_nvme: creation succeeded. id = 0x411157666000

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)<6>PMC-Sierra non-volatile memory controller Driver

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)PCI: driver nvme is looking for devices

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)PCI: driver nvme claimed 0 device

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)<6>PMC-Sierra NVM express HBA Driver

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)Mod: 4780: Initialization of nvme succeeded with module ID 4197.

2014-11-11T06:39:14.886Z cpu2:1762933)nvme loaded successfully.

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ezequielcarson
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Vmware released an official driver for the NVMe a few days ago. It worked for me

Ezeq.

thasmots
Contributor
Contributor

OMG! Thank you I'll try this I wish it works on ESXi 5.1!

Thanks again

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ezequielcarson
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I tried it using 5.5u2

The best thing? The Queue Depth 2048!!!

I wasn’t able to configure as a SSD cache for vsan but still working on it

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markartinf
Contributor
Contributor

Is this in the latest build?

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markartinf
Contributor
Contributor

Top man!  thank you sir!

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DITGUY2012
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Unfortunately we aren't on 5.5 yet for this cluster. stinker. want to use this with PernixData FVP.

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lblanco
Contributor
Contributor

Is anyone using the P3600 or P3700 with the NVMe drivers posted on the VMware site?

I just want to know what type of performance they are getting.

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