ESXi 8 consumer NVMe SSD not recognized | Matts' Tech Info

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ESXi 8 consumer NVMe SSD not recognized | Matts' Tech Info

This is an update for ESXi 8 in the “consumer NVMe SSD not being recognized since ESXi 6.7U1” series. Just like previous versions, several consumer NVMe controllers are having problems being recognized in ESXi 8. Although the VMware community fling has been deprecated due to default addition of some NVMe controllers from the fling to the ESXi 8 image, one controller brand is still left out. Specifically, Silicon Motion controllers, used by ADATA in almost all their NVMe drives and I’m sure they are in others.

https://mattstech.info/posts/esxi-8-consumer-nvme-ssd-not-recognized/

[SemoTech]

Hi Matt, thanks for all this, very informative.

I have used the community NVMe Fling you reference to allow the internal 2TB PCIe NVMe of a 2018 Mac mini to be recognized and used to install ESXi 8.01 on it. Worked like a charm!

However when I use an external OWC Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LYQPRPJ) paired with a Crucial P3 2TB CT2000P3SSD8 SSD (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B25MJ1YT), I cannot get it recognized on any of the Thunderbolt 3 ports of the 2018 Mac mini ESXi 8.01 host.

I suspect the issue may be with this specific model CT2000P3SSD8 Crucial SSD, and was wondering if anyone can confirm that, and maybe have a suggestion for a different M.2 NVMe SSD at around 2TB that would work and be recognized, especially given that the Fling is installed.

Thanks!

[MattsBos]

Heya SemoTech!

Unfortunately, it seems there is a bug or issue with the Flings driver on Mac mini regarding the Thunderbolt ports. I remember reading about it, so I just checked and confirmed.
Looking at the Flings comments and a single bug report, it seems the Flings driver disables the use of Thunderbolt 3 USB devices, which would probably be the interface you would be using. I can also see the references to exactly the system you are using, the 2018 Mac mini.

If you really want to spend the time (and possibly downtime) and troubleshooting to try and make it work, you can use one of my older posts about NVMe that make use of the older ESXi 6.7 NVMe driver. I have no clue if it will work, but it might be your only option left. This is the post I'm talking about: https://mattstech.info/posts/nvme-ssd-not-recognized-7-0/

Good luck and please let me know if you try it out or figure out if it works!

[SemoTech]

Hey Matt, appreciate the prompt reply.

I've actually made a lot of progress: I assumed the Crucial NVMe was the issue so I bought a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus to use instead, in the same OWC Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure. I connected it to one of the T3 ports of the 2018 Mac mini (running ESXI 8.01 w/ NVMe fling) and again, nothing in ESXi, only the internal Apple NVMe was seen.

I then remembered reading that the Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 PCI cards sometimes needed reboots for devices to work, so I just powered off the 2018 Mac mini ESXi host, and back on, while the OWC Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure with the Samsung NVMe SSD was left connected and.....SUCCESS!

The NVMe driver must have loaded at startup and the OWC Envoy enclosure transparently connected the Samsung SSD to ESXi! Under ESXi Storage it is now shown as an available SSD, to be used for a Datastore if so desired! See screenshot here: https://www.screencast.com/t/1plxbT80

I am thrilled, but the last step I am still struggling with is how to assign this Samsung NVMe SSD to a single VM (passthrough). The VM is a Backup server running CentOS 7.9 which I believe supports NVMe. Any suggestions on the process, as just adding an NVMe controller does not seem to do anything and there are no options to select the Samsung SSD to add to the VM configuration?

Thank you.

[MattsBos]

Hi SemoTech,

Glad to hear it worked after a reboot!
For your last step, that's a bit off-topic to this post, but you should be able to go to your ESXi UI -> Manage -> Hardware -> PCI Devices. Select the SSD device in the list and enable passthrough. This will require an ESXi reboot. After the reboot you can add the device to the VM in the settings. Now I can't verify it right now, but I'm pretty sure I added the drive as a PCI device to the VM, it should then show up as a storage device in the VM OS.
If you need any further help with this, feel free to hop on the Discord server (https://discord.gg/v8Bwbnb3xe)

[SemoTech]

Thanks Matt!
Sadly while available as a Storage Device, the SSD is NOT shown under ESXi UI -> Manage -> Hardware -> PCI Devices, so I cannot configure it for passthrough...
I will jump on the Discord tho, as suggested...
Thank you.

P.S. For everyone's benefit, the Thunderbolt 3 on the 2018 Mac mini is not plug & play and requires a reboot/shutdown for any changes! Also, the Crucial SSD worked as well, following a reboot, so both models of NVMe SSD are compatible with the OWC Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure and ESXi 8.01

[rmorrison3]

Hi Matt

Just wanted to thank you for this article. It worked like a champ. Excellent job on the writing. Very clear.

I learned that you can download the community NMVe community driver here --> https://archive.org/download/flings.vmware.com/Flings/Community%20NVMe%20Driver%20for%20ESXi/

My case - Home Lab - non-production
Hardware - HP ProDesk 600 G3 - 32GB RAM, 128GB SanDisk SSD, 2TB TEAMGROUP MP33 with the SM2262/SM2262EN SSD Controller.
OS - ESXi 8.0.2
Issue - Adapter for NMVe drive was visible with the nvme_pcie driver, but could not see any devices or create any data stores.

Fix - Installed the nvme-community-driver_1.0.1.0-3vmw.700.1.0.15843807-component-18902434.zip and rebooted
Can now create a datastore on the device.

When I was going through your troubleshooting process, these are some things I noticed in my case
Vendor ID and Product ID did not match.
The original driver was nvme_pcie

I have another HP ProDesk 600 G3 with the same NMVe drive and ESXi 8 sees it with the nvme_pcie but identifies it as a generic NMVe device.

[MattsBos]

Hi R Morrison,

Thank you for the feedback and the compliments, glad it worked!
Also, thanks for the link to the driver, I was aware that VMware ended the Flings program but haven't updated the articles yet, you saved me some time finding the driver, will also secure it somewhere on this page for direct download!

Will also update the article to try the driver even if the Vendor ID and Product ID don't match at all. I wasn't expecting that to work. Will save other visitors some troubleshooting time if it works!

[rmorrison3]

Matts I’m glad to be help. The weird thing in my setup is the native NVMe driver worked flawlessly on the ProDesk unit I used as a proof of concept. I struggled for about half a day trying to find a solution until I stumbled upon your article. Have you shared your article with William Lam? I think that would be a great way to get the word out. Hope this helps and thank you very much for the hard work that went into this peice. Bob Morrison Wallingford CT USA

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On Thu, Nov 9, 2023 at 1:35 PM Matts Bos ***@***.***> wrote: Hi R Morrison, Thank you for the feedback and the compliments, glad it worked! Also, thanks for the link to the driver, I was aware that VMware ended the Flings program but haven't updated the articles yet, you saved me some time finding the driver, will also secure it somewhere on this page for direct download! Will also update the article to try the driver even if the Vendor ID and Product ID don't match at all. I wasn't expecting that to work. Will save other visitors some troubleshooting time if it works! — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AH3WR5TLNL2BMS3FPZX5CPLYDUO7JAVCNFSM6AAAAAA4IJ55QSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TKMRVHEZDE> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: <MattsTechInfo/mattstechinfo.github.io/repo-discussions/3/comments/7525922 @github.com>