Upgrading the BIOS to Version 1.88 from Version 1.84 will disable the NVMe drives for the HPE ProLiant DX910/e910 Server Blades on the HPE ProLiant DX8000 Converged Edge System. This issue will occur with ProLiant DX910/e910 Servers configured with NVMe drives installed in PCI-e slots when running VMware ESXi 7.x. The Virtual Machines (VM) configured with the NVMe drives will not power on because the "pcipassthru" for the NVMe drives will be disabled and unavailable for the VMs: This occurs because the physical slot number and device layer bus addresses are changed after updating the BIOS version 1.88 for the DX910/e910 server blades. This causes the pcipassthru to be disabled for the NVMe drives:
NVMe drives (HPE NVMe M.2 Enablement Kit) installed in PCI-E slots with BIOS version 1.88 or later for HPE ProLiant DX910/e910 Server Blades in the HPE ProLiant DX8000 Converged Edge System on VMware ESXi 7.x.
If the HPE ProLiant DX910/e910 Server BIOS version is upgraded to version 1.88 or later and this issue occurs, perform the following steps to enable the pcipassthru: 1) Use SSH for ESXi host. 2) List the passthru enabled device IDs before updating the BIOS version 1.88 (or later). Keep track of this list in a file for reference: # esxcli hardware pci pcipassthru list For Example: # esxcli hardware pci pcipassthru list Device ID Enabled ------------ ------- 0000:04:00.0 false 0000:11:00.0 true 0000:12:00.0 true Note : If the VMware ESXi 7.x host does not have these server options installed in the PCI-E slots, skip step 3. 3) Delete the existing entries using the command: # configstorecli config current delete -c esx -g hardware -k pci_devices -all 4) Enable the pcipassthru using command: # esxcli hardware pci pcipassthru set -a -d < Device ID> -e true Example: # esxcli hardware pci pcipassthru set -a -d 0000:11:00.0 -e true 5) Reboot the ESXI host, # reboot 6) After rebooting, the available NVMe drives and Virtual Machines will be able to Power On successfully. RECEIVE PROACTIVE UPDATES : Receive support alerts (such as Customer Advisories), as well as updates on drivers, software, firmware, and customer replaceable components, proactively in your e-mail through HPE Support Alerts.Sign up for Support Alerts at the following URL: HPE Email Preference Center NAVIGATION TIP: For hints on navigating HPE.com to locate the latest drivers, patches and other support software downloads, refer to the Navigation Tips document. SEARCH TIP: For hints on locating similar documents on HPE.com, refer to the Search Tips document.