Slow performance during Storage vMotion, Clone, and Snapshot consolidation operations in various storage systems

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

When using a storage system, you experience these issues after upgrading to ESXi 5.0:

• Slow performance during Storage vMotion, Clone, Snapshot consolidation, cold migration, and thin provisioning operations
• In the ESX system logs, you see entries similar to:
  
  2011-09-28T09:43:59.380Z cpu12:4108)ScsiDeviceIO: 2316: Cmd(0x41240171a8c0)
  0x83, CmdSN 0x550f8 to dev "eui.0017380016410011" failed H:0x0
  D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x26 0x0.
  
  2011-09-28T09:43:59.380Z cpu12:4108)ScsiDeviceIO: 2316: Cmd(0x412401a695c0)
  0x83, CmdSN 0x550f9 to dev "eui.0017380016410011" failed H:0x0
  D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x26 0x0.
  
  2011-09-28T09:43:59.380Z cpu12:4108)ScsiDeviceIO: 2316: Cmd(0x4124026d5240)
  0x83, CmdSN 0x550fa to dev "eui.0017380016410011" failed H:0x0
  D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x26 0x0.
  
  2011-09-28T09:43:59.380Z cpu12:4108)ScsiDeviceIO: 2316: Cmd(0x4124022c0b80)
  0x83, CmdSN 0x550fb to dev "eui.0017380016410011" failed H:0x0
  D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x26 0x0.
  
  2011-09-28T09:43:59.705Z cpu15:4111)ScsiDeviceIO: 2316: Cmd(0x4124003c0c80)
  0x83, CmdSN 0x55330 to dev "eui.0017380016410011" failed H:0x0
  D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x26 0x0.
   
• This issue is seen to occur in, but is not limited to, these storage systems:
  • IBM XIV Storage System
  • Storwize v7000 or and SVC
  • NetApp FAS 2040 with Ontap Version 8.0.1P3 and 8.0.2

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Resolution

VAAI UNMAP is a recent feature in ESXi 5.0 and is not implemented in the IBM XIV 10.2.4b or earlier firmware.

To resolve this issue, disable the VAAI UNMAP functionality. For more information, see Disabling VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP) in ESXi 5.0 (2007427) </u>.

Additional Information

Disabling VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Space Reclamation (UNMAP) in ESXi 5.0