This is an odd problem and I feel like I've gone insane. I've got some big Dell R930s with Emulex Oce14000 cards being used for network and SAN storage adapters (ESXi 6.5). I received a new Dell R930 that is the same exact hardware as the working units (other than the SFPs that I was given are not Intel and I have had SFP problems in the past). I know from past experience that I need to have NPAR mode enabled in the BIOS, otherwise I will only have networking and no storage when ESXi boots. I've got everything configured in the BIOS correctly, networking via the Emulex adapter is present on the new server, but I do not see the storage adapter listed.
In my troubleshooting attempt, I have broken the working server (we will call it original for the description). I first tried the Intel SFPs (pulled from original working server) with the card that came installed in the new server; still no storage adapter. Moving on I think it may be the card itself so I remove the Oce14000 from the working original and try it in the new server. When I did this and used the Intel SFPs (changed nothing else), my new server suddenly had the storage adapter listed. I shut the new server down and kept the working Oce14000 from the original server installed, but I now inserted the new SFPs (ones that shipped with the new server) that I suspect to be the problem. When I boot the new server, I no longer see the Oce14000 listed as a storage adapter.
The Emulex card in the new server has a newer firmware, I assume this is part of my problem. This is where it gets weird. I take the original's working Emulex card and Intel SFPs and reinstall them in their original server, the one that was working just 30 minutes ago. I change nothing, boot the original server, no storage. I double checked to make sure that I didn't get the cards mixed up, checked the BIOS on the original server to ensure that NPAR was still active, and made sure the card was properly seated, and confirmed that the firmware was the same version as when I initially removed it. Powered up, the original working server no longer has a working storage adapter. I'm at a loss.
One additional piece of information, running the command "esxcli fcoe nic discover -n vmnic3" yields "vmnic3 is not FCoE-capable; linkspeed < 10Gbps"
