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.