Error: "query execution timed out because of a back-end property-provider" when adding a datastore within vCenter

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• When adding a new datastore from the vCenter Client, the following error occurs and the UI fails to show available LUNs:
  
  The query execution timed out because of a back-end property-provider 'com.vmware.vsphere.client.storage.impl.DatastorePropertyProvider' which took more than 120 seconds
  
  
• There are a large amount of unresolved unmounted datastores or snapshot LUNs.

Cause

This is a known behavior.

When querying a list of unresolved VMFS volumes and snapshot LUNs from vCenter, ESXi host performs additional filesystem liveness check for all unresolved volumes. This liveness check takes at least 16 seconds per volume. When there are a large number of unresolved volumes, the query does not complete within the timeout of the dataservice at on the web client side and fails to show the volumes.

Resolution

Option 1: Disabling the filesystem liveness check on the ESXi host side:

1. Log in directly to the ESXi host Client
2. Navigate to the host's Advanced System Settings
3. Change VMFS.UnresolvedVolumeLiveCheck to FALSE
4. Save changes.

or

1. Log in to ESXi host as root via console or SSH.
2. Edit  /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml and add the following parameter under plugins/hostsvc/storage node.
   
   <checkLiveFSUnresolvedVolume>FALSE</checkLiveFSUnresolvedVolume>​
   
   
3. Save changes.
4. Restart hostd
   
   /etc/init.d/hostd restart

Option 2: Increase the timeout value of the dataservice of the vSphere Client:

1. SSH via root to vCenter
2. Navigate to  /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/ in the vCenter
3. Edit the webclient.properties
4. Change the timeout value of dataservice.timeoutSeconds to a desired value.
   dataservice.timeoutSeconds = [TIMEOUT VALUE IN SECONDS]
5. Save changes.
6. Restart Web Client service
   service-control --stop vsphere-ui
   service-control --start vsphere-ui

Additional Information

新規データストア作成時、"query execution timed out because of a back-end property-provider" のエラーが発生する