Permanently lost storage device is detected by ESXi

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

You receive this event message after a device that was in the permanent Device Loss (PDL) state is recovered and presented to ESXi by the storage array:

Device device has been plugged back in after being marked permanently inaccessible. No data consistency guarantees.

Impact

ESXi can detect the device, but the device might remain unusable until all pending references to it are removed.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Resolution

Remove any active references to the device or pending I/O and perform a storage rescan.

See Knowledge Base Article 2004684 for instructions on bringing the device back online.