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pjacobi
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-20-2023 09:36 AM

Booting a VM via VMDirectPath/Pass-through Fibre Channel card

With ESXi 8.0.0, I have successfully configured a QLogic Fibre Channel cards with VMDirectpath/Pass-through.  The VM configured the QLogic card correctly and can directly access the LUNs on the Fibre Channel SAN.

If I boot the VM to the UEFI Shell, Shell>pci command shows the Fibre Channel card is configured.  Shell>drivers command does not show any UEFI drivers are loaded for the card and no SAN storage devices are available.  There is no indication the PCI Option ROM on the card has been loaded or executed.  There is no way to access the UEFI setup tools provided by the card.

Is it possible to boot a VM from a SAN disk via VMDirectPath/Pass-through?  Is there anything that I need in the configuration file to enable this functionality or is this a limitation of UEFI version running in the VM?

 

Paul A. Jacobi

VMS Software, Inc.

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2 Replies
pjacobi
Contributor
Contributor
‎07-03-2023 10:34 AM

It has been found that it is possible to boot a VM from a VMDirectPath/Pass-through Fibre Channel card.  The workaround involves obtaining the UEFI Fibre Channel driver from QLogic/Marvel and manually loading it from the UEFI Shell in the VM.  Does VMware recommend this procedure?

The UEFI firmware provided by VMware does not seem to have the capability to automatically extract the driver from the option ROM on the card.  Is this a limitation or is there some way to enable this capability?

 

Paul A. Jacobi

VMS Software, Inc.

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WuGeDe
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎07-05-2023 12:00 AM

I think you are trying to configure the fc hba from the BIOS of the VM.
That is afaik not possible.
If you need to configure something in the fc hba bios you have to enter the fc hba bios from the host during boot of the host.

OR
Could also be an option. If the card shows up as device in the os of the vm install the matching drivers / tools of the vendor and mostly there is also a tool provided that lets you change the settings for the fc hba bios of the card via command line from the vm os.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-B4B26AF0-B573-4C17...

https://www.marvell.com/products/fibre-channel-adapters-and-controllers.html

 

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