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APJ_vm
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎09-08-2021 07:18 PM

Nested ESXi 7.0 Mark HDD as SSD

Hi 

I have 4 Nested ESXi 7.0 host running on a physical ESXi 7.0 VSAN cluster. I am trying to mark the HDD's as Flash\SSD, via the command line. Below are the cmd's I am using. at no point am I able to get this to mark the disks as SSD, even after a reboot. 

[root@NestedHost01:~] esxcli storage nmp satp rule remove -s VMW_SATP_LOCAL -d mpx.vmhba0:C0:T1:L0
[root@NestedHost01:~] esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -s VMW_SATP_LOCAL -d mpx.vmhba0:C0:T1:L0 -o "enable_ssd"
[root@NestedHost01:~] esxcli storage core claiming reclaim -d mpx.vmhba0:C0:T1:L0

If I got via the vCenter GUI and mark the disk as flash it works and persist after a reboot. My issue is I don't want to make use of the GUI at all as I am trying to automate the whole process. So an API call or CLi command is what I am trying to get working. Preferably something I can do using Ansible or a kickstart file during the build process.

I have also add the config params scsi0:1.virtualSSD = "1" and scsi0:2.virtualSSD = "1" to the 2 disks, run the above command and rebooted and still no luck.

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5 Replies
NicolasAlauzet
Expert
Expert
‎09-08-2021 11:37 PM

[root@NestedHost01:~] esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -s VMW_SATP_LOCAL -d mpx.vmhba0:C0:T1:L0 -o "enable_ssd"

 

remove the quotes on enable ssd

esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -s VMW_SATP_LOCAL -d mpx.vmhba0:C0:T1:L0 -o enable_ssd

 

Did you follow this post?: https://williamlam.com/2013/08/quick-tip-marking-hdd-as-ssd-or-ssd-as.html

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Triple VCIX (CMA-NV-DCV) | vExpert | MCSE | CCNA
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APJ_vm
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎09-09-2021 05:08 PM

I saw that post and this KB Enabling the SSD option on SSD based disks/LUNs that are not detected as SSD by default (2013188) (v...

The KB seem to suggest the that enable_ssd is not longer an option for ESXi7 as it is not listed in the related version section. I have tried with and without the double quotes. 

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shaokat
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎11-05-2021 11:59 PM

I also try this one. but it's not working for CLI. then I add all four ESXi in one vCenter Server, from vCenter Server I am able to mark HDD as SSD.

Shaokat

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaokat-ullaha/
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jhenderson_L3H
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-10-2022 03:02 PM

It looks like with ESXi 7.0, the multi-path plugin being used by default may now be hpp instead of nmp. That was at least the case for me and I was able to tweak my current automated deployment to work by using the following command: 
esxcli storage hpp device set -d <device> -M true --cfg-file

I've also seen people with issues claiming devices for vSAN so I'll add that below as well in case it's helpful for anyone here. I had to first run the above command for the drive I wanted to use as my cache tier storage while leaving the capacity tier storage devices marked as HDD. Then I was able to claim the storage devices for vSAN, after which I went back and marked my capacity tier storage devices as SSD/flash devices. My commands are below (I'm using govc to accomplish this, but if you're just directly on the CLI of your ESXi host then just leave off the leading govc host. and -host parameter info).
govc host.esxcli -host <host name/path> storage hpp device set -d <device to be used for cache tier> -M true --cfg-file
govc host.esxcli -host <host name/path> vsan storage add -d <capacity tier HDD device> [-d <additional capacity HDD devices>] -s <cache tier SSD/flash device>
govc host.esxcli -host <host name/path> storage hpp device set -d <device used for capacity tier> -M true --cfg-file