C220 Standalone 10Gbase-T LOM Availability in ESXi

[CNM88]

I've got some C220-M5's running 4.0(4c) firmware with a fresh install of vSphere 6.5U2 (Cisco custom). Also using VIC 1457. I'd like to use the 2 onboard 10Gbase-T ports for management traffic on the ESX hosts. The problem is that only the 4 MLOM (VIC) ports are showing up on the host.

When I go into the CIMC, I only have options for the VIC under "External Ports". I've double-checked that the LOM ports are enabled in the BIOS. Any recommendations on how to get the ESX host to recognize these onboard 10Gbase-T ports? Thanks in advance.Unified Computing System DiscussionsUCS

[Kirk J]

Greetings.

Assuming these are in stand alone mode (if UCSM integrated, the TP/lom ports are disabled by design).

May want to rerun the HUU and force the intel x550 LOM ports to get reflashed.

In esxi CLI, can you run 'lspci' and see what get's listed for intel NICs, and what driver is bound(thinking ixgben--1.7.10 )

Can you try connecting to 1Gb switchport, and confirm if link lights are on the LOM ports?  I've seen some times where 10Gb cabling didn't fully support 10Gb and vmware didn't like the state of the ports, and didn't even assign VMNIC numbers to them (similar to what you see when an invalid SFP is used on VIC cards)

Please check in the CIMC, bios, advanced, PCIE/OptionROM area, and make sure the LOM ports are not disabled.

If all else fails, try booting an updated LINUX on a stick type ISO, and see if it detects the ports (will help rule in or out the ESXi install & driver).

Kirk...

[CNM88]

Kirk, these are standalone (per the post title). I've made sure the LOMs are enabled in the BIOS. They are connected and I do have link. I'm re-running the HUU now but it shows the new version as the same as the current version. We'll see what happens. I ran the "lscpci" command from the shell, but the text scrolls off the screen so I can't see it all unfortunately.

[Kirk J]

You may need to lspci | grep -i intel

to narrow the results.

The output from dmesg may show something about device/driver load issues.

If you can use the vics for connectivity temporarily, maybe try updating the intel drivers, https://my.vmware.com/en/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI60-INTEL-IXGBEN-1715&productId=491

By the time the customized images are actually published, it is usually a number of months after they were first prepared, and newer firmware may necessitate newer drivers than what was bundled.

#vmkload_mod -s ixgben |grep Version

Steps to update driver in esxi: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/116349-technote-product-00.html#anc21

Assuming this is an issue with an older Intel ixgben driver that is inbox with the ESXi image, than the above mentioned driver should resolve as it does have x550 support.

If you are a customer reading this post, and only have the x550 LOM  ports available, then the ESXi installer (6.5 U2 custom) may not let you install as it may say no valid NICs present. See https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCvq32778/?reffering_site=dumpcr

In that case you would need to slipstream the above driver in the install ISO (see https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc/GUID-48AC6D6A-B936-4585-8720-A1F344E366F9.html ) or test another version of the customized ISO that has a newer x550 ixgben driver present , https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=OEM-ESXI67U1-CISCO&productId=859

Kirk...

[jmack@titanamerica.com]

Did anyone ever find a resolution to this issue?  We are experiencing the same issue.