ESX 7.0 & Samsung PM963

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986box

Active Member
Oct 14, 2017
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Picked up a samsung mz-1lw9600. But esx 7.0 does not detect the nmve drive. Seems like it is not support anymore. Is it possible to load the old drivers?

esx compatible link
 

BloodKnight7

New Member
Nov 15, 2022
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Are all your storage adapters being detected in the host hardware inventory? can you go through command line and run the following commands to see what storage hardware you have available on your host?

First validate your host is detecting your storage adapters where you have the new nvme drive plugged in:
esxcli storage core adapter list

Then, if i remember correctly to get a list of all storage devices use:
esxcfg-scsidevs -c

With this we should be able to figure out if the ESXi can see the device at all or if maybe it can just see it but for some reason it wont interact with it. (Like unsupported type of drive for your storage controller. Ive seen this happen when people connect SAS drives on SATA controllers for example)
 

986box

Active Member
Oct 14, 2017
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nope. It’s not seeing the m2 drive. Returning it. Getting PM983 instead
 

BloodKnight7

New Member
Nov 15, 2022
23
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Before you do, have you tried installing the nvme driver package? Community NVMe Driver for ESXi. Or reinstalling the nvme package VMware nvme-pcie driver (you can find the vib file in your upgrade bundle or in the iso). You can figure if you are missing it by running esxcli software vib list | grep nvme.
 
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986box

Active Member
Oct 14, 2017
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I did found Willliam Lam fix for missing drivers if you upgraded to 7.0. Mine was a fresh install.
Anyway the drive was already in the mail. Thanks!
 

986box

Active Member
Oct 14, 2017
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A quick update after installing PM983. The drive shows up under adapters but not listed in devices.

Headed over to William Lam website and downloaded the nvme driver bundle.
Reboot after installing. Drive is now available for datastore.

is there a trick to copying VMs from VMFS 5 to 6?

tried both move and copy. Neither copy the files correctly.
 
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BloodKnight7

New Member
Nov 15, 2022
23
2
3
A quick update after installing PM983. The drive shows up under devices but not listed in datastores.

Headed over to William Lam website and downloaded the nvme driver bundle.
Reboot after installing. Drive is now available for datastore.

is there a trick to copying VMs from VMFS 5 to 6?

tried both move and copy. Neither copy the files correctly.
Have to tried downloading to your machine and then uploading? Rather than direct copy? From vmfs5 to vmfs6?
 

BloodKnight7

New Member
Nov 15, 2022
23
2
3
A quick update after installing PM983. The drive shows up under devices but not listed in datastores.

Headed over to William Lam website and downloaded the nvme driver bundle.
Reboot after installing. Drive is now available for datastore.

is there a trick to copying VMs from VMFS 5 to 6?

tried both move and copy. Neither copy the files correctly.
Another thing to try if you are having issues is to move the vm with vmware converter
 

986box

Active Member
Oct 14, 2017
254
48
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Have to tried downloading to your machine and then uploading? Rather than direct copy? From vmfs5 to vmfs6?
Copy works. It took longer than expected and there wasnt a move/copy status indicator while in progress.
 

Switchback028

Member
May 18, 2018
63
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A quick update after installing PM983. The drive shows up under adapters but not listed in devices.

Headed over to William Lam website and downloaded the nvme driver bundle.
Reboot after installing. Drive is now available for datastore.

is there a trick to copying VMs from VMFS 5 to 6?

tried both move and copy. Neither copy the files correctly.
Which NVME driver bundle are you talking about, the community NVME fling? I tried the fling and it doesn’t appear to have worked for me.
 

Switchback028

Member
May 18, 2018
63
27
18
Odd, I couldn't get it detected. It might be the firmware on the drive, or just a DOA ssd. Either way, no big deal as I'm returning all the 983s and going with something that just works. Annoying but necessary.
 

986box

Active Member
Oct 14, 2017
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Maybe try to install again and reboot. BTW, I just upgraded to ESXi 8 and it works right out of the box. You can consider upgrading.