Connecting the host to the FlashArray NVMe-TCP controller

Splunk and Elastic
Audience
Public
Product
FlashBlade
FlashArray
FlashBlade > Purity//FB
FlashArray > Purity//FA
Technology Integrations
Splunk and Elastic
Source Type
Documentation

1. Load the nvme_tcp module if not done already:


[root@splk-ix01 ~]# modprobe nvme_tcp

Note: The nvme_tcp module should load once the nvme-cli is installed. In certain scenarios it has been observed that nvme-tcp module doesn’t load post reboot and it should be manually loaded.

2. Discover the available subsystems on the NVMe controller using the following command.


[root@splk-ix01 ~]# nvme discover –-transport=tcp –-traddr=<FlashArray-nvme-tcp-addr> --host-traddr=<host-ip-address> --trscvid=8009

The above command should show an output displaying the NVMe-TCP IP addresses, subnqn configured on the FlashArray.

3. Create a file named /etc/nvme/discovery.conf and add the following entries with the details ascertained from the nvme discover command. If the FlashArray returned four different IP addresses which are configured for the nvme-tcp service, include them along with the corresponding host IP addresses to route them. If the FlashArray is configured with two different subnets for the nvme-tcp services, then it is recommended to have similar subnets and host ip addresses on the host to take advantage of the parallel connectivity.


[root@splk-ix01 ~]# vi /etc/nvme/discovery.conf
--transport=tcp --traddr=10.21.220.206 --host-traddr=10.21.220.21 -s 4420 -i 48
--transport=tcp --traddr=10.21.124.206 --host-traddr=10.21.124.15 -s 4420 -i 48
--transport=tcp --traddr=10.21.220.204 --host-traddr=10.21.220.21 -s 4420 -i 48
--transport=tcp --traddr=10.21.124.204 --host-traddr=10.21.124.15 -s 4420 -i 48

Note: In the above commands, the FlashArray is configured with 4 nvme-tcp services with 2 of them connected to one controller while the other two connected to the second controller. In each controller, there are two IP addresses configured across subnets 124 and 220. Similarly, the host had two network interfaces on the same subnets 124 and 220.

4. Connect the host to the NVMe-TCP controller system (FlashArray) by running the following command.


[root@splk-ix01 ~]# nvme connect-all

The nvme connect-all command will attempt to find the /etc/nvme/discovery.conf file. If the file doesn’t exist, the above command will quit with an error.

5. Verify the host can access the namespace and list the nvme devices.


[root@splk-ix01 ~]# nvme list-subsys
[root@splk-ix01 ~]# nvme list​​​​