vSAN – Downgrading NVMe driver in ESXi 6.7 Update 1

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• Hi, this has been annoying me ever since 6.7 U1 came out that I decided to make it a bit easier to find these vibs and install them:

  (Replace h***s with the standard secure web prefix)

  1. Enable ESXi Shell and SSH access and log in to your host
  2. Run this:
  esxcli software vib install -v h***s://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/nvme/VMW_bootbank_nvme_1.2.1.34-1vmw.670.0.0.8169922.vib
  esxcli software vib install -v h***s://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin/VMware_bootbank_vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin_1.2.0.32-0.0.8169922.vib
  3. Reboot

  Hope this helps anyone that finds this post until the vib is fixed.

  • Thanks!

    When you're stuck with ESXi free license like me, offline downloads / bundle are not available for download on VMWare website. But these cli commands still work.

  • Good feedback!

  • Thank you for the direct links! This solved my problem, I wasn't able to detect my sx8200 pro, but with these steps it is now detected and ready for use. Thanks again!

• I just did this with 6.7u2 that would not see my Asus pci-e NVME m.2 controller (ASUS HYPER M.2 X16 CARD V2 - interface adapter - M.2 Card - PCIe 3.0 x16 (p/n: HYPER M.2 X16 CARD V2)) and 1tb adata m.2 (ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro - solid state drive - 1TB), worked perfectly after a reboot, thanks.

• damn...thanks for that post and your comment steven. I had a similar problem getting my SX8200 Pro going on 6.7u2. After reading your comment I finally decided to go for the downgrade and, of course, it worked as well.
  let's hope vmware opens up their driver for consumer-grade devices again...

  • Hello Michael.

    I have an SX8200 Pro in a new 6.7u2 host build

    can you elaborate on what you did specifically for this drive/driver?

    • You literally have to do what is listed in the very first comment to get it working. Connect to your ESXi host with Putty or my favorite Bitvise client and follow the instructions as listed. worked for me.

      • Thank you. I altered the guide to include it.

• Hmm, I followed the instructions and ended up with the following driver state as expected:

  nvme 1.2.2.27-1vmw.670.2.48.13006603 VMW VMwareCertified 2019-04-14
  vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin 1.2.0.32-0.0.8169922 VMware VMwareCertified 2019-07-29

  But my SX8200 Pro 256GB is still not recognized. Gigabyte H170N + 6.7.0 here.

  • The drive is correctly detected at least:
    esxcli nvme device get -A vmhba2 spits out all the right device info.

    • What does your vSAN Health say?

• So using the two packages I got the controller to be detected and it shows two devices in the PCI Device list, however it only detects one of the XPG8200 Pro 2TB drives. Why would it only detect one?

  • How does it look in the BIOS, it there a controller interface where you can confirm that the disks are detected?

• Whew! Thanks for the write up! Saved my day. Well at least hours of rolling back to 6.5 ;)

• Interesting

  I followed this guide when I first installed 6.7_u3 and it worked great. (ADATA SX8200PNP)

  I upgraded to ESXi-6.7.0-20191204001-no-tools then added VMware_locker_tools-light_11.0.1.14773994-15160134.vib and rebooted and the NVMe was no longer detected

  I followed these instructions (esxcli software vib install -v https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/esx/vmw/vib20/vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin/VMware_bootbank_vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin_1.2.0.32-0.0.8169922.vib)

  and I ended up with

  nvme 1.2.2.28-1vmw.670.3.73.14320388
  vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin 1.2.0.32-0.0.8169922

  My device is detected but offline
  [root@esxi1:~] esxcli nvme device list
  HBA Name Status Signature
  -------- ------- ---------------------
  vmhba0 Offline nvme Mgmt-nvme00010000

  Wonder if I need to downgrade the nvme vib as well?

• Yes! It worked for my configuration NUC8i7BEH2, Samsung M471A4G43MB1-CTD 2x32 GB DDR4, ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro NVME 1TB M.2 and Samsung 860 QVO 4TB SSD.

  The Samsung 860 QVO SSD was detected during the ESXi 6.70 U3 installation. (And the NVME M.2 not)

  After running these commands (+restart) the NVME M.2 SSD was found.

  Thank you :)

• Hi,

  It seems it doesn't work with ESXi7. Applying both commands caused my E200-8D to lose network adapters. Any idea how to find a driver to make ESXi7 to see my XPG8200 Pro? Removed VIBs are below that caused problem for ESXi7.

  VIBs Installed: VMW_bootbank_nvme_1.2.1.34-1vmw.670.0.0.8169922
  VIBs Removed: VMware_bootbank_native-misc-drivers_7.0.0-1.0.15843807

  VIBs Installed: VMware_bootbank_vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin_1.2.0.32-0.0.8169922
  VIBs Removed: VMware_bootbank_vmware-esx-esxcli-nvme-plugin_1.2.0.37-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807

  • Did you find any solution? I've stucked with same situation - when i replaced vib it lose network interfaces. In Native misc drivers there is all drivers for network cards too, but with it there is no method to install nvme driver from older version.

    • Same here

    • did you ever find a fix? still have this issue on 7.0.1

• Thanks for this! Very useful!