I originally came across the issue of slow storage performance with the native vmw_ahci driver that comes bundled with ESXi 6.5 just as I was first playing with my SuperMicro SYS-5028D-TN4T in my homelab. After publishing a couple of posts about the workaround shortly afterwards the issue become quiet prevalent in the community and the post continues to get decent traffic, meaning that the issues impacted quiet a few people out there.

The good news is that with the release of vSphere 6.5 Update 1 there is a fix for the problem in the form of updated drivers for the AHCI module. William Lam has been quick to blog about the fix and if you had previously disabled the driver you will need to re-enable it.

[root@LAB-ESXI-01:~] esxcli system module set --enabled=true --module="vmw_ahci" [root@LAB-ESXI-01:~] esxcli system module list | more Name Is Loaded Is Enabled ----------------------------- --------- ---------- vmkernel true true chardevs true true user true true .... .... vmkapi_v2_1_0_0_vmkernel_shim true true vmkusb true true igbn true true vmw_ahci true true iscsi_trans true true iscsi_trans_compat_shim true true vmkapi_v2_2_0_0_iscsiInc_shim true true 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 [ root @ LAB - ESXI - 01 : ~ ] esxcli system module set -- enabled = true -- module = "vmw_ahci" [ root @ LAB - ESXI - 01 : ~ ] esxcli system module list | more Name Is Loaded Is Enabled -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- vmkernel true true chardevs true true user true true . . . . . . . . vmkapi_v2_1_0_0_vmkernel_shim true true vmkusb true true igbn true true vmw_ahci true true iscsi_trans true true iscsi_trans_compat_shim true true vmkapi_v2_2_0_0_iscsiInc_shim true true

This VMwareKB covers the specific patch as listed in the release notes:

No confirmation as of yet if it actually does the trick, but the release notes look promising as the assumption is that it will resolve the issues so that homelabbers and people using the driver in production systems can rest easy.

References:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/rn/vsphere-esxi-651-release-notes.html

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2149910

http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2017/07/ahci-vmw_ahci-performance-issue-resolved-in-esxi-6-5-update-1.html

Share this: Twitter

LinkedIn

Reddit

WhatsApp



Like this: Like Loading...