ESXi host takes a long time to start during rescan of RDM LUNs
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ESXi host takes a long time to start during rescan of RDM LUNs

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Article ID: 318851

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When RDMs are used as shared disk resources for a clustering solution such as WSFC, Red Hat High Availability Cluster, etc., you experience these symptoms:
  • ESXi hosts hosting secondary nodes may take a long time to start. This time depends on the number of RDMs that are attached to the ESXi host.

    Note: Example, In a system with 10 RDMs used in a two-node WSFC or Red Hat High Availability Cluster, restart of the ESXi host with the secondary node may take up to 30 minutes. In a system with less RDMs, the restart time is less. For example, if only three RDMs are used, the restart time is approximately 10 minutes.

    ESXI host get stuck and may experience prolonged boot time. 



  • The ESXi host intermittently displays an error message on the Summary Tab and the vSphere Client may not be able to start.

    Cannot synchronize host hostname. Operation Timed out.
     
  • The log in screen shows the start waiting after this message similar to:

    Loading module multiextent.

  • In the /var/log/vmkernel.log file of the restarting ESXi host

    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu0:4096)WARNING: ScsiCore: 1353: Power-on Reset occurred on naa.##############################
    vmkernel: 0:00:01:57 cpu0:4096)VMNIX: VmkDev: 2122: Added SCSI device vml0:3:0 (naa.##############################)
    vmkernel: 0:00:02:37cpu3:4099)ScsiDeviceIO: 1672: Command 0x1a to device "naa.##############################" failed H:0x5 D:0x0 P:0x0 Possible sense data: 0x0 0x0 0x0

  • In the /var/log/vmkernel.log file of the restarting ESXi host:

    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu2:4098)WARNING: ScsiCore: 1353: Power-on Reset occurred on naa.##############################
    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu0:4096)VMNIX: VmkDev: 2122: Added SCSI device vml0:9:0 (naa.##############################)
    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu2:4098)ScsiDeviceIO: 1672: Command 0x1a to device "naa.##############################" failed H:0x5 D:0x0 P:0x0 Possible sense data: 0x0 0x0 0x0.
    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu1:4111)ScsiDeviceIO: 4494: Could not detect setting of QErr for device naa.##############################. Error Failure.
    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu1:4111)WARNING: Partition: 801: Partition table read from device naa.############################## failed: I/O error
    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu1:4111)ScsiDevice: 2200: Successfully registered device "naa.############################" from plugin "NMP" of type 0
    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu17:9624)WARNING: NMP: nmp_IsSupportedPResvCommand: Unsupported Persistent Reservation Command,service action 0 type 4
    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu12:4108)WARNING: NMP: nmpUpdatePResvStateSuccess: Parameter List Length 54310000 for service action 0 is beyondthe supported value 18
    vmkernel: 0:00:MM:SS cpu23:9621)WARNING: NMP: nmp_IsSupportedPResvCommand: Unsupported Persistent Reservation Command,service action 0 type 4

     

Cause

This issue occurs when virtual machines participating in a clustering solution such as WSFC, Red Hat High Availability Cluster use shared RDMs and SCSI reservations across hosts, and a virtual machine on the other host is the active cluster node holding a SCSI Reservation.

Resolution

For all ESXi 6.x hosts and above, the command line, vSphere Client, and PowerCLI methods of setting the RDMs to perennially reserved are covered in the sections below:

To mark the LUNs as perennially reserved:

  1. Determine which RDM LUNs are part of WSFC, Red Hat High Availability Cluster etc . From the vSphere Client, select a virtual machine that has a mapping to the cluster RDM devices.
  2. Edit your virtual machine settings and navigate to your Mapped RAW LUNs. In this example, Hard disk 2:


     
  3. In the Physical disk, there is the specification of the device in use as RDM (that is, the VML ID).

    Take note of the VML ID, which is a globally unique identifier for your shared device. 
     
  4. Identify the naa.id for this VML using this command:  "esxcli storage core device list|less" then search for the VML from step 3

    For example:

    esxcli storage core device list

    naa.##############################
       Display Name: FreeNAS iSCSI Disk (naa.##############################)
       Has Settable Display Name: true
       Size: 40960
       Device Type: Direct-Access
       Multipath Plugin: NMP
       Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.##############################
       Vendor: FreeNAS
       Model: iSCSI Disk
       Revision: 0123
       SCSI Level: 6
       Is Pseudo: false
       Status: degraded
       Is RDM Capable: true
       Is Local: false
       Is Removable: false
       Is SSD: false
       Is VVOL PE: false
       Is Offline: false
       Is Perennially Reserved: false
       Queue Full Sample Size: 0
       Queue Full Threshold: 0
       Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
       Attached Filters:
       VAAI Status: supported
       Other UIDs:     vml.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
       Is Shared Clusterwide: true
       Is SAS: false
       Is USB: false
       Is Boot Device: false
       Device Max Queue Depth: 128
       No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32
       Drive Type: unknown
       RAID Level: unknown
       Number of Physical Drives: unknown
       Protection Enabled: false
       PI Activated: false
       PI Type: 0
       PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
       Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
       DIX Enabled: false
       DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
       Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false

    Note: If you want to see a complete list of all storage device VMLs, display names and perennially reserved status then run the below command.
    [root@esxi1:~] esxcli storage core device list|grep -E 'Other UIDs:|Display Name:|Is Perennially Reserved:'|grep -v "Has Settable"
       Display Name: TrueNAS iSCSI Disk (naa.##############################)
       Is Perennially Reserved: false
       Other UIDs: vml.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
       Display Name: TrueNAS iSCSI Disk (naa.##############################)
       Is Perennially Reserved: false
       Other UIDs: vml.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
       Display Name: Local NECVMWar CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0)
       Is Perennially Reserved: false
       Other UIDs: vml.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
       Display Name: Local VMware Disk (mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0)
       Is Perennially Reserved: false
       Other UIDs: vml.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy 

  5. Use the esxcli command to mark the device as perennially reserved:

    esxcli storage core device setconfig -d naa.id --perennially-reserved=true

    For example:

    esxcli storage core device setconfig -d naa.############################## --perennially-reserved=true

    Note: For vSphere 7.x, see the Change Perennial Reservation Settings section of the vSphere Storage Guide.
     
  6. To verify that the device is perennially reserved, run this command:

    esxcli storage core device list -d naa.id

    In the output of the esxcli command, search for the entry Is Perennially Reserved: true. This shows that the device is marked as perennially reserved.

    For example:

    esxcli storage core device list -d naa.##############################

    naa.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
       Display Name: FreeNAS iSCSI Disk (naa.##############################)
       Has Settable Display Name: true
       Size: 40960
       Device Type: Direct-Access
       Multipath Plugin: NMP
       Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.##############################
       Vendor: FreeNAS
       Model: iSCSI Disk
       Revision: 0123
       SCSI Level: 6
       Is Pseudo: false
       Status: degraded
       Is RDM Capable: true
       Is Local: false
       Is Removable: false
       Is SSD: false
       Is VVOL PE: false
       Is Offline: false
       Is Perennially Reserved: true
       Queue Full Sample Size: 0
       Queue Full Threshold: 0
       Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
       Attached Filters:
       VAAI Status: supported
       Other UIDs: vml.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
       Is Shared Clusterwide: true
       Is SAS: false
       Is USB: false
       Is Boot Device: false
       Device Max Queue Depth: 128
       No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32
       Drive Type: unknown
       RAID Level: unknown
       Number of Physical Drives: unknown
       Protection Enabled: false
       PI Activated: false
       PI Type: 0
       PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
       Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
       DIX Enabled: false
       DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
       Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false

    Note: To just see the Perennially Reserved status you can run esxcli storage core device list -d naa.##############################|grep Perennially
     
  7. Repeat the procedure for each Mapped RAW LUN that is participating in the clustering solution such as WSFC, Red Hat High Availability Cluster, etc.

    Note: The configuration is permanently stored with the ESXi host and persists across restarts. To remove the perennially reserved flag, run this command:

    esxcli storage core device setconfig -d naa.id --perennially-reserved=false



Additional Information

VMware Skyline Health Diagnostics for vSphere - FAQ
How to detach a LUN device from ESXi hosts

For more information, see Obtaining LUN pathing information for ESX or ESXi hosts

Note: The PowerCLI and esxcli commands are case sensitive. If the naa.id is specified in uppercase letters when issuing the command, a new device is added on the ESXi host.

The resolution steps in this article are also known to resolve storage devices reporting NMP errors similar to:
 
WARNING: NMP: nmp_DeviceRetryCommand:133:Device "naa.##############################": awaiting fast path state update for failover with I/O blocked. No prior reservation exists on the device.

For more information, see:

 If you experience symptoms described above for Clustered VMDK, follow the steps to resolve the issue.

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