VxRail: Deploy cluster failed at validation step due to error "The provided pnic vmnic4 does not exist in host"

Summary: This article explains an issue when deploying a cluster with 4x25G or 4x10G NIC cards and fails due to LOM being disabled on iDRAC.

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Symptoms

Deploy cluster with 4x25G or 4x10G NIC cards, the validation failed with error:

The provided pnic vmnic4 does not exist in host

 

Check VxRail manager dayone.log.

"2023-07-03 09:42:36,726" microservice.nano-service "2023-07-03T09:42:36.204582606Z stdout F 2023-07-03 09:42:36,204 [ERROR] <Dummy-397:140103318611016> validator.py execute() (90): Validation errors: errors=[\{'type': 'THOROUGH-VALIDATOR', 'field': 'network.vds.nic_mappings', 'code': 'E3100_VAL_60', 'placeholders': ('vmnic4', '*******'), 'message': 'The provided pnic vmnic4 does not exist in host *******.'}, \{'type': 'THOROUGH-VALIDATOR', 'field': 'network.vds.nic_mappings', 'code': 'E3100_VAL_60', 'placeholders': ('vmnic5', '*******'), 'message': 'The provided pnic vmnic5 does not exist in host *******.'}]"

 

Cause

When deploying a cluster with 4x25G or 4x10G high-speed NIC cards, depending on different server hardware models, VxRail expects below two valid NIC-mapping scenarios:

  1. vmnic0 and vmnic1 are mapped to LOM, vmnic2~5 are mapped to high-speed NIC cards.
  2. vmnic0 is mapped to LOM, and vmnic1~4 is mapped to high-speed NIC cards.

If LOM is disabled on iDRAC, ESXi only detects the high-speed NIC card ports and maps vminc0~3 to these ports, so the cluster deployment validation fails when validating vmnic4 or vmnic5, or both.

 

Resolution

  1. Log in to iDRAC UI

  2. Disable all NIC cards (NDC/ PCIE/ OCP) under Configuration > BIOS settings > Integrated Devices>
    On the iDRAC disable all affected NICs

  3. Apply the change and reboot iDRAC.

  4. Enable all NIC cards that are disabled during step 2 (If any NIC cards are intended to be disabled, then keep them disabled).

  5. Ensure that the iDRAC network NIC is enabled.
    iDRAC Settings > Connectivity > Network > Network Settings >
    Enable NIC = Enabled
    NIC Selection = Dedicated
    Check iDRAC settings after the change

  6. Apply the change and reboot iDRAC.

  7. Retry the cluster deployment validation.

 

Article Properties
Article Number: 000216749
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2024
Version:  3
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