Add Controller for NVMe over Fabrics

Use the vSphere Client to add an NVMe controller. After you add the controller, the NVMe namespaces associated with the controller become available to your ESXi host. The NVMe storage devices that represent the namespaces in the ESXi environment appear on the storage devices list.

If you use NVMe over RDMA (RoCE v2) storage, you must add a controller after you configure a software NVMe over RDMA adapter. If you use NVMe over TCP storage, you must add a controller after you configure a software NVMe over TCP adapter. With FC-NVMe storage, after you install the required adapter, it automatically connects to all targets that are reachable at the moment. You can later reconfigure the adapter and disconnect its controllers or connect other controllers that were not available during the host boot.

Prerequisites

Make sure that your ESXi host has appropriate adapters for your type of storage. See Requirements and Limitations of VMware NVMe Storage.

Procedure

In the vSphere Client, navigate to the ESXi host.
Click the Configure tab.
Under Storage, click Storage Adapters, and select the adapter (vmhba#) to configure.
Click the Controllers tab, and click Add Controller.

To add the controller, select one of the following options, and click Add.

Option	Description
Automatically discover controllers	This method indicates that your host can accept a connection to any available controller. Specify the following parameter for a discovery controller. For NVMe over RDMA (RoCE v2), the IP address and transport port number. For NVMe over TCP, the IP address, transport port number, and the digest parameter. Click Discover Controllers. From the list of controllers, select the controller to use.
Enter controller details manually	With this method, your host requests a connection to a specific controller with the following parameters: Subsystem NQN Target port identification. For NVMe over RDMA (RoCE v2), the IP address and transport port number (Optional). For FC-NVMe, the WorldWideNodeName and WorldWidePortName. For NVMe over TCP, the IP address, transport port number (Optional), and the digest parameter (Optional). Admin queue size. An optional parameter that specifies the size of the admin queue of the controller. A default value is 16. Keepalive timeout. An optional parameter to specify in seconds the keep alive timeout between the adapter and the controller. A default timeout value is 60 seconds. IO Queue Size and IO Queue Number. Optional parameters that can be set only through esxcli.

Option

Description

Automatically discover controllers

This method indicates that your host can accept a connection to any available controller.

Specify the following parameter for a discovery controller.
- For NVMe over RDMA (RoCE v2), the IP address and transport port number.
- For NVMe over TCP, the IP address, transport port number, and the digest parameter.
Click Discover Controllers.
From the list of controllers, select the controller to use.

Enter controller details manually

With this method, your host requests a connection to a specific controller with the following parameters:

Subsystem NQN
Target port identification. For NVMe over RDMA (RoCE v2), the IP address and transport port number (Optional). For FC-NVMe, the WorldWideNodeName and WorldWidePortName.
For NVMe over TCP, the IP address, transport port number (Optional), and the digest parameter (Optional).
Admin queue size. An optional parameter that specifies the size of the admin queue of the controller. A default value is 16.
Keepalive timeout. An optional parameter to specify in seconds the keep alive timeout between the adapter and the controller. A default timeout value is 60 seconds.
IO Queue Size and IO Queue Number. Optional parameters that can be set only through esxcli.

Results

The controller appears on the list of controllers. Your host can now discover the NVMe namespaces that are associated with the controller. The NVMe storage devices that represent the namespaces in the ESXi environment appear on the storage devices list in the vSphere Client.