ESXi hostd log spew post VM backup: Block list: Cannot convert disk path <path to vmdk> (path to vmdk> to real path, skipping.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• After the daily VM backup, you notice that one or more ESXi hosts report the below log spew continuously in the /var/log/hostd.log

2020-05-28T01:17:20.907Z warning hostd[2100454] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=56ff9f3f-75-f610 user=vpxuser:testdomain\testuser] Block list: Cannot convert disk path /vmfs/volumes/2622ebd8-4b853593/TESTVM/TESTVM-000002.vmdk (/vmfs/volumes/2622ebd8-4b853593/TESTVM/TESTVM-000002.vmdk) to real path, skipping.

•  In ESXI - /var/log/vpxa.log  reports the below errors during this issue

[context]zKq7AVICAgAAAKBJ9QAZdnB4YQAALE42bGlidm1hY29yZS5zbwAAsL4bAJCcFwHPyP5saWJ2aW0tdHlwZXMuc28AgSLWFwGBgrkTAQK6OQ1saWJ2bW9taS5zbwACbIgRAmeNEQPuQyd2cHhhAANIRicCRbATgcbEMwEDydUvBH7uCWxpYnZweGFwaS10eXBlcy5zbwADrt83A4E+JwO46TYDxvc2A2JNNwC15SgAk+koAKvENgU7fQBsaWJwdGhyZWFkLnNvLjAABn2fDmxpYmMuc28uNgA=[/context]' received while invoking acquireLeaseExt on vim.host.DiskManager:ha-blklist-service
2020-05-28T01:16:10.891Z error vpxa[2108445] [Originator@6876 sub=SoapAdapter opID=7f722a82-41] Method vpxapi.VpxaService.AcquireDiskManagerLeaseExt threw undeclared fault of type vim.fault.LeaseFault
2020-05-28T01:16:10.943Z error vpxa[2100302] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxaVmomi opID=5b1342da-f5] [VpxaClientAdapter::InvokeCommon] Re-throwing method-fault 'N3Vim5Fault10LeaseFault9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.LeaseFault

•  If you are logging to a remote syslog server, you might see the syslog file growing to very large size and might fill up the disk space.
•  The vmdk referenced in the above message does not exist.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7

Cause

Due to a race condition in the snapshot consolidation workflow.

Resolution

This is a known issue. Currently there is no resolution.


Workaround:
Restart the "hostd" agent on the ESXi host

Please reference KB https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003490 on how to restart hostd.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
No impact in restarting the management agents.