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Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 1:39 am
by Lex
I have presented 10 LUNs from storage to my Windows 2019 initiator over RoCEv2, and while each connection is successful, it only sees 8 of the 10 volumes presented to the host from the array. Is this a Starwind Initiator limitation? Any settings I am overlooking which would unlock more volumes?

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 8:21 am
by yaroslav (staff)
On the initiator host, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e97b-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
expand something that "can be expanded" e.g., 0004 directory. Check MaxNamespaces value (set to something between 1 and 255).
Reboot, and try over again.

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 5:22 pm
by Lex
Thank you for this guidance, but I don't see MaxNamespaces in the location you specified. If this is something I can create, please let me know if it goes in the root of the 000# folder and the value type (dword, etc)

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 5:27 pm
by yaroslav (staff)
See under parameters.

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 5:34 pm
by Lex
Only "BusType" is available under Parameters.

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 6:01 pm
by yaroslav (staff)
Create the REG DWORD MaxNamespaces under 0003.

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 6:30 pm
by Lex
Okay, I have done as suggested and the system comes up with the same 8 drives. Please see the attachment and let me know if this is correct.

Must I disconnect all paths and reconnect in order to see the change?

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 7:26 pm
by Lex
Nope, confirmed that disconnecting all and reconnecting (following registry change + reboot) has no effect on LUNs connected. Still limited to 8.

Code: Select all

StarNVMeoF Controller Application v 2.0.0.672
Our Miniport #2 (ver 2.0 build 672)
HostId 7958DA786AF086D7-A86FE9ADF955F16E, HostName a09-23
        NET_LUID:       0x600800B000000
Connecting to RDMA target at addr 10.3.14.51:4420 from 10.3.14.11 SubNQN=nqn.2010-06.com.purestorage:flasharray.561d839ad7a29cc8 HostNQN=nqn.2008-08.com.starwindsoftware.a09-23 nq=0 qd=0 node=0 core=0...
Controller connected: TargetId = [0]
        numLuns = 8, numIoQs = 96, ioQDepth = 128, numaNode = 0, firstCore = 0
Adding persistent entry for target 0...
Persistent entry for target 0 added

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 8:50 pm
by yaroslav (staff)
Check also here.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\StarNVMeoF\Parameters (the older place for the registry)
Please try disconnecting all the paths and reconnect too.

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 11:51 pm
by Lex
The value was not in that location either, but I added it, rebooted, disconnected all paths and reconnected. Unfortunately, there is no change...still 8 LUNs connected out of 10.

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Thu May 01, 2025 8:41 am
by yaroslav (staff)
Hi,

Sorry for misleading you. Move the DWORD under.../003/Parameters

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Fri May 02, 2025 12:35 am
by Lex
Alright, THAT did the trick. I now see the 10 LUNs provisioned to the host.

If possible, in future releases, it would be great have this be either dynamic or at least set to a logical limit in line with the underlying operating system. Windows supports 26 lettered volumes by default, with 2 typically in use by default, so a number like 24 is probably a good default with enough headroom so more users don't hit what I hit.

Two questions:
1) You said set MaxNamespaces to something between 1 and 255. Does the number truly not matter or have any correlation to the number of LUNs i want to support >8?
2) Does setting this value utilize more memory or CPU or any other consequence that would be reason not to set it?

Thank you for your quick replies and help.

Re: Limited to 8 LUNs?

Posted: Fri May 02, 2025 1:31 am
by yaroslav (staff)
You are welcome. Sorry for missing the spot for the first two times :D
This parameter requires the system to lock more resources to the initiator to be ready to serve more connections. That's why we picked the minimum value. I don't think the cap of 24 LUNs per target will break anything (we set it to a higher value several times), so you are good.
For the newest releases, this parameter can be tweaked in UI if UI is available according to the license.