Intel P4500 u.2 NVME SSD HPE Firmware? and not showing under ESXI

[ironicbadger]

Hello. I bought a u.2 Intel 2tb NVME SSD to use as a datastore in my homelab running ESXI. Unfortunately I think there is a specific HPE firmware on the drive preventing it from showing as a datastore target under ESXI or it is simply the case that Vmware won’t support this firmware version.

These drives are on the HCL so I’m a little puzzled. Mine is in this PCIe x4 adapter.

First, the drives firmware. I can’t find it anywhere on the Intel, HPE or VMware sites - the version on the drive I received according to Intels tools is QDV1FP20.

The Intel firmware update tools tell me there are no updates available and trying to find info on the HPE site without a login is no bueno.

I’ve tried numerous different things including ESXI 6.5, 6.7.0, 6.7u3, 7.0b and various different fixes on blog posts too 1 2 3 and honestly a lot more besides - including a bunch of esxcli vib installation stuff.

The drives is seen by ESXI in so much that I can pass it through to a guest just fine but I can’t use it as a datastore - which was the reason for purchase.

As shown below, it doesn’t show up as a datastore.

I even tried using the CLI firmware updater isdct which has been recently discontinued to no avail.

I’d be grateful for any pointers here. Would prefer native recognition instead of resorting to passthrough and iSCSI or something.

[Trooper_ish]

The firmware version looks like it matches intels latest for that drive, according to the screenshots you have provided.
Are you proposing that there is a setting which blocks the drives use in ESXI?

[Trooper_ish]

Some Googling (ddg.gg) and it looks like there might be an esxi driver missing to identify the drive as a drive, rather than a hba.
Not sure how to get the right driver if that is the case, but the three blogs you linked did look like a promising start.

[zlynx]

Just a wild idea since this is a reused drive.

Try zeroing or Secure Erase it first. If it has old partitions or RAID identifiers written on it, those can mess things up.

Edit: Sorry, I don’t know why I assumed it was reused. You never said that.

[ironicbadger]

Nice idea. I will try that, I mean I have nothing to lose at this point.

I can’t find any reference to the specific firmware on the ssd anywhere online. Only on the sticker on the drive itself.

I found some sporadic reports of people force flashing specific binaries to these (not my specific) drives. But that presupposes I can find the .bin corresponding to the supported firmware on the Vmware HCL - without that stuff all matching I feel like I’m up a paddle without a creek, so to speak.

[ironicbadger]

Still not managed to have any luck getting this drive to show up with ESXI even with your helpful suggestions.