ESXi Host hang at reboot with "Initializing Init_VMKernelShutdownHelper: (14/40) ShutdownSCSICleanupForDevTearDown"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Host reboot process cannot be completed with message:

"Initializing Init_VMKernelShutdownHelper: (14/40) ShutdownSCSICleanupForDevTearDown"

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Cause

This issue is introduced in ESXi 7.0U3c (19193900)

Resolution

This issue is resolved in ESXi 7.0 U3l (21424296) and later releases.

Workaround:
Once the ESXi host reaches the hung state, the ESXi host will need to be rebooted via DCUI or remote console.

To avoid this issue from re-occurring; enable per file I/O scheduling:

• SSH to the ESXi Host
• Run:
  $ esxcli system settings kernel set -s isPerFileSchedModelActive -v TRUE
  $ reboot