ESXi iSCSI Software Initiator dynamic and static targets do not persist through a reboot in 7.0 U2 or later

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Understand IQN standard to follow

Symptoms:

• ​Effected ESXi hosts are 7.0U2 (ConfigStore introduced in 7.0 U2).
• iSCSI targets are not persisting following a host reboot.
• iSCSI targets can be added back manually but targets are lost following a subsequent reboot.
• Review of jumpstart-esxcli-stdout.log uncovers the following error:

2022-02-23T21:47:13.439Z iScsiInterfaceImpl: Failed to apply some of the adapter configurations: iScsiException: status(c0000000): Invalid parameter; Message= IMA_VMW_SetNodeName

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Cause

iSCSI configurations failed because of invalid IQN used for software iSCSI adapter

It should follow the standard described here in RFC 32720 

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3720#section-3.2.6.3.1

Resolution

Modify ESXi adapter iqn to follow standard documented on RFC 32720
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3720#section-3.2.6.3.1



From the GUI 

Select ESXi host -- Configure -- Storage adapters -- Select the adapter -- Under properties -- Edit 



Save the changes and reboot


From the CLI 

1. To list adapters (and find which one is software iSCSI) on the host, run this command:
esxcli storage core adapter list

2. Run the following command to check the current iqn of the adapter 
esxcli iscsi adapter get -A vmhba#

Note: Where # is the id taken from step 1

3. Run the following command to set a new iqn following correct standard
esxcli iscsi adapter set -n <insertNewIQNname> -A vmhba#

Note: Where # is the id taken from step 1

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
Clear impact during maintenance activities or anything that requires a reboot, is adding an additional step to load the storage.