Hot-added new hard disk attached to a new hot-added LSI Logic SAS controller on Windows Server virtual machine is not online after restarting Virtual Machine

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

On a Windows Server Virtual Machine, hot-add a new LSI Logic SAS controller and a new hard disk to the controller. In the guest OS, set the new added disk status from offline to online and create volume. Now the new volume can be found in the File Explorer. After restarting the Virtual Machine, the new volume is not displayed in the File Explorer, and Disk Management displays the disk status is Offline.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Cause

In Windows system, the Plug and Play (PnP) manager will assign a device instance ID to each disk to uniquely identify them. The creation of the device instance ID is related to the order the devices are enumerated. The same disk may get a new device instance id after reboot if the disk order is changed.

In Windows Server, by default, disks on a shared bus (such as SCSI, iSCSI, Serial Attached SCSI, or Fibre Channel) are offline the first time they are detected. So if the same disk gets a new device instance ID, the system will treat it as a new added disk and set its status to offline according to the default policy.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, bring the disk online manually in guest OS. Please follow the below mentioned steps:

• Open the Disk Management.

• Right-click the disk name and then choose "Online".