iSCSI datastores and Static discovery is disappearing after ESXi host reboot.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi server running ESXi 7 was upgraded to ESXi 8.0. After upgrade, the LUNs for the datastores are not seen on the iSCSI controller until a rescan operation is manually run. A subsequent restart causes the same sequence of events to occur.
• Datastore fails to auto-mount post host reboot.
• Issue was seen soon after ESXi host upgrade to 8.0 U2.
• Static discovery is disappearing after ESXI host reboot.
• Running a storage rescan manually allows all the ISCSI datastores to populate.
  
  
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.

Cause

Delay in discovering the storage devices.

Resolution

Need to increase the ESXi boot delay time. The adapter need little bit more time to load adapters and storage. 

1. Reboot the ESXi host.
2. During the pre-boot splash screen, press SHIFT+O to modify the boot option line.
3. In the resulting screen, move to the end of the boot line.
4. Add the following to the same line: 

           devListStabilityCount=30

For example:

   5. Press the enter key to resume boot.

   6. Check if Static discovery populate without storage rescan 

For Reference, check this article for delay reboot configuration - https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/318029/bootbank-loads-in-tmp-after-reboot-of-es.html

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
-We have to perform manual Storage rescan to bring all the storage online.