Failed to install newer ESXi on a disk with VMFS datastore created by ESXi 6.5 using vmkata driver

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Fail to upgrade ESXi 6.7 or later from ESXi 6.5 and the installer. You see an error similar to: 

"AssertionError: naa.50014ee0aeb77df9: 0 datastores found on disk (maximum allowed is 1)"
naa.50014ee0aeb77df9 above is an example of disk name.

• The vmkernel log shows below snippets (for a few times):

2014-11-09T11:50:31.346Z cpu20:1000346525)ScsiHandle: SCSIOpenNamedDevice:754: handle=0x0x43042a98c200 (naa.50014ee0aeb77df9 part 3) is read-only
2014-11-09T11:50:31.346Z cpu20:1000346525)LVM: ValidateAndCheckSnapshot:11542: Device naa.50014ee0aeb77df9:3 detected to be a snapshot:
2014-11-09T11:50:31.346Z cpu20:1000346525)LVM: ValidateAndCheckSnapshot:11549: queried disk ID: <type 2, len 14, lun 0, devType 0, scsi 0, h(id) 8309539792451407079>
2014-11-09T11:50:31.346Z cpu20:1000346525)LVM: ValidateAndCheckSnapshot:11556: on-disk disk ID: <type 1, len 26, lun 0, devType 0, scsi 0, h(id) 15230433280985346524>
2014-11-09T11:50:31.346Z cpu20:1000346525)LVM: ValidateAndCheckSnapshot:11560: If your device was falsely detected as a snapshot, please file an ESX storage bug.
2014-11-09T11:50:31.346Z cpu20:1000346525)LVM: InitDeviceObj:5464: New device naa.50014ee0aeb77df9:3 initialized successfully
2014-11-09T11:50:31.346Z cpu20:1000346525)LVM: ActivateDevice:14847: Un-marking device <(naa.50014ee0aeb77df9:3, 3276407840), 5258320d-628c163e-687e-90e2ba3310e4> for deletion. dev OpenCount: 0 isSnapshot: True device state: 1
2014-11-09T11:50:31.346Z cpu20:1000346525)LVM: ProbeDeviceInt:10006: Probing LVM device naa.50014ee0aeb77df9:3 (devID: 5258320d-628c163e-687e-90e2ba3310e4) isSnapshot: T dev->isSnapshot: T newDev: F

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5

Cause

vmkata driver on ESXi 6.5 created a wrong on-disk SCSI ID for the disk. On ESXi 6.7 and later, the wrong on-disk SCSI ID will cause the disk to falsely detected as a snapshot.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, re-signature the VMFS volume:

1. Boot the ESXi 6.7 or later installer and switch to console(Alt+F1). The installation should fail if we directly install ESXi on the vmkata disk.
2. Run the command 'esxcfg-volume -l' to list all volumes that are detected as snapshots.

For example,

$ esxcfg-volume -l

Scanning for VMFS-3/VMFS-5 host activity (512 bytes/HB, 2048 HBs).
VMFS UUID/label: 5478a561-6b00dd16-537c-90e2ba3310e4/datastore2
Can mount: Yes
Can resignature: Yes
Extent name: naa.50014ee0aeb77df9:3 range: 0 - 2853887 (MB)

3. Run the command 'localcli storage vmfs snapshot resignature -l <datastore_name>' to resignature the the VMFS volume.

<datastore_name> above is a placeholder for the datastore name from output in step 2. For example 'datastore2'.

4. You should now be able to revert back to the installer. Click (Alt+F2) to proceed.