NVME-oF support for vSphere 7 with Netapp storage

[dbewernick]

Thank you @Brian_Larsen
@rennerstefan this is for your list

[Sean_S]

The issue we've run into with NVME-FC is that our proxies are physical Windows boxes, and Windows does not support NVME-FC natively. Therefore, Veeam is unable to use the SAN transport option for any VM's on NVME-FC datastores. Works fine for FCP datastores.

Emulex provides an NVME-FC emulation driver for their FC HBA's in Windows, the driver is also distributed by NetApp (unfortunately, we're a QLogic/PureStorage shop). I suppose if you were a Marvell/NetApp shop you might be able to rely in this until Windows supports it natively.

But I can say for all the Veeam devs out there that this situation with NVME-FC not being available on the proxies is preventing us from migrating to NVME-FC.

We have opened a request with MS on the matter. I would suggest Veeam do so as well.

[rennerstefan]

Hi Sean,
as mentioned above in this thread NVMe-oF is something we are actively researching and as you already pointed out, right now the NVMe-oF implementations in Windows (natively) are not yet fully available for all adapters and vendors which of course is kind of an issue for SAN transport modes.
We will update this thread once we have a clear picture how and when NVMe-oF (both TCP and FC) will be officially supported.
Thanks

[Sean_S]

Hello. Any updates on this from Veeam's perspective? We opened a feature request with MS for NVME-FC support, but they are pointing fingers to the storage manufacturers. We are pressing them further because we feel they didn't understand our request, or they didn't get the request to the appropriate dev group.

I think from Veeam's perspective, you should consider that every customer who is currently using a Windows host as a proxy with FCP protocol will want to convert to NVME-FC. It seems inevitable considering that no new hardware is required for most shops like ours.

[foggy]

No major updates except for the fact that we're looking into this - unfortunately no particular ETA at the moment.

[ARadschun]

Hello everyone, is there any news on this topic yet?
We would like to use flash storage and connect it via NVMe-oF. In our test, the storage with NVMe-of was not supported and we received the following message during the backup: VM does not meet requirements for storage snapshot based jobs: its virtual disks are not located on supported storage. If the same LUN is mounted via iSCSI, the backup works immediately.
How do you currently back up a VMware environment that is connected via NVMe-oF?

[rennerstefan]

Hi,

You can use all regular ways for VMware backup such as Hot-Add or NBD to backup data. As mentioned in this thread we are looking into NVMe-oF support but there is nothing in terms of timing we can share yet
Thanks

[SkyDiver79]

I think the issue has been resolved. With VMware's new license model, there will only be VSAN or other hypervisors in the future.

[sandsturm]

I think the issue has been resolved. With VMware's new license model, there will only be VSAN or other hypervisors in the future.

I would laugh out loud if the vmware/broadcom story wasn't so sad.

[SkyDiver79]

But to be honest, this is the only logical conclusion.
vSphere will not die out, but the market will clear up and some manufacturers of monolithic storage will disappear from the market.
The new license model speaks a very clear language.

[segfault]

The new license model speaks a very clear language.

The new license model makes vSAN an extra cost add on. So if anything this would drive folks away from vSAN and the pay per TB subscription cost.

[ivansiu]

+1 to support NVME-oF (TCP)

one of my customer is using many NetApp storage and Veeam, looking for this feature for long time

[DigIT]

+1 NVME-oF (TCP)

Dell PowerStore here.

[themissingalex]

+1
I am also after this feature for PowerStore

[FrancWest]

+1 NetApp storage.

[fezzebru]

Can we get an official update from Veeam on this? It's been holding us back for a long time.

[rennerstefan]

Hi,
We are actively researching NVMe-oF support as of now. As soon as there is an update on release plans I'll update you here.
Thanks

[jayallred]

We have a growing need for NVMe-oF and it seems like Veeam has been considering it or researching it for quite some time per this thread.

Is there any word on whether NVMe-oF will be supported in v13?

[Andreas Neufert]

@rennerstefan can you please answer this.

[rennerstefan]

We are working towards NVMe support in the near future yes.

[fezzebru]

Man, this sure would be cool to have several years later.

[pirx]

Storage team provided FC volumes to new vSphere cluster as "NVMe" devices.

Device view on ESXi host

Name NVMe Fibre Channel Disk (eui.08000000000000010050760810810617)
Application Protocol NVMe

Storage integration is enabled and rescan shows the volumes. Linux proxies are zoned and configured in Veeam. Backup job now fails with...

11.03.2025 10:23:38 :: Failed to create processing task for VM Test2 Error: Cannot find suitable proxy for retrieving data from storage snapshot, and the option to failover to backup from VM snapshot is disabled

I assume this is related to missing NVMe support for storage integration. Is this in the roadmap, any status?

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) is not supported. This includes NVMe over FC, NVMe over TCP and NVMe over RDMA.

[david.domask]

Hi @pirx,

I've moved your post to an existing topic on the same subject. Check rennerstefan's posts on this page, we will update once there is more news to share.

[pirx]

ok, usually "actively working on it" in Veeam world means +2 years. @rennerstefan can you at least give some insight on a timeline? We have to decide to either use NVMe and not storage snapshots - which would be fine for some time - or use classic FC volumes and migrate later.

[rennerstefan]

Planned within 2025 seems to be a fair statement for now.

As NVMe-oF support needs to be available in both USAPI as well as native integrations, I can't provide a clear timeline on when which vendor will be supported as for most vendors the support will depend on them adding it to their USAPI Plugin.

From our side we will have it ready to be supported soon.

[DavidRobertson]

Hello, I notice that Microsoft are planning to bring NVMe support to Server 2025, it seems like it is in preview at the moment. With this being announced, are Veeam working towards support on Windows Server?

With the announcement of the Veeam Linux Software Appliance, is this our route to having SAN-integrated snapshots on NVMe fabrics instead?

[rennerstefan]

We plan to support NVMe-oF on Linux proxies only for now.
But Linux proxies can be used no matter if the VBR is linux or windows based. that allows you to use NVMe-oF for storage integration for both deployment types.