Enable the High-Performance Plug-In and the Path Selection Schemes

The high-performance plug-in (HPP) is the default plug-in that claims local NVMe and SCSI devices, and NVMe-oF targets. If necessary, you can replace it with NMP. In vSphere version 7.0 Update 1 and earlier, NMP remains the default plug-in for local NVMe and SCSI devices, but you can replace it with HPP.

Use the esxcli storage core claimrule add command to enable the HPP or NMP on your ESXi host.

To run the esxcli storage core claimrule add, you can use the ESXi Shell or vSphere CLI. For more information, see Getting Started with ESXCLI and ESXCLI Reference.

Examples in this topic demonstrate how to enable HPP and set up the path selection schemes (PSS).

Note: Enabling the HPP is not supported on PXE booted ESXi hosts.

Prerequisites

Set up your VMware NVMe storage environment. For more information, see About VMware NVMe Storage.

Procedure

1. Create an HPP claim rule by running the esxcli storage core claimrule add command.
   Use one of the following methods to add the claim rule.

   Method	Description
   Based on the NVMe controller model	esxcli storage core claimrule add –-type vendor --nvme-controller-model For example, esxcli storage core claimrule add --rule 429 --type vendor --nvme-controller-model "ABCD*" --plugin HPP
   Based on the PCI vendor ID and subvendor ID	esxcli storage core claimrule add –-type vendor –-pci-vendor-id –-pci-sub-vendor-id For example, esxcli storage core claimrule add --rule 429 --type vendor --pci-vendor-id 8086 --pci-sub-vendor-id 8086 --plugin HPP.

2. Configure the PSS.
   Use one of the following methods.

   Method	Description
   Set the PSS based on the device ID	esxcli storage hpp device set For example, esxcli storage hpp device set --device=device --pss=FIXED --path=preferred path
   Set the PSS based on the vendor/model	Use the --config-string option with the esxcli storage core claimrule add command. For example, esxcli storage core claimrule add -r 914 -t vendor -V vendor -M model -P HPP --config-string "pss=LB-Latency,latency-eval-time=40000"

3. Reboot your host for your changes to take effect.