ESXi host disconnected from vCenter and unresponsive Virtual Machines - Marvell 88SE9230 AHCI

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi host is disconnected from the vCenter with no heartbeat detected.
• Management services (hostd/vpxa) are non-functional; ESXi CLI may hang.
• Virtual Machines cannot be vMotioned; tasks may stall at 17% or timeout.
• Snapshot removal or creation tasks remain "In progress" and cannot be completed.
• The DCUI console (Alt+F12) displays the following errors:
  • IssueCommand:ERROR Tag 1 SActive already set: SACI:3E
  • vmw_ahci[####]: IssueCommand:ERROR: Tag 1 SActive already set: SACT:ffffffff
  • ALERT: Bootbank cannot be found at path '/bootbank'
• The vmkernel.log shows SCSI command failures: Cmd 0x28 (Read) Failed: H:0x1 D:0x0 P:0x0.

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x
• Hosts booting from M.2 Raid Controller with Marvell 88SE9230 AHCI Chipset,
  • Cisco UCS C240 M8 (Controller: UCS-M2-HWRAID2).
  • Dell PowerEdge (Controller: BOSS S1).
  • Lenovo ThinkSystem (Controller: M.2 RAID Kit).
  • Others.

Cause

Hardware communication failure occurs when the Marvell 88SE9230 AHCI controller encounters a PCIe bus Master Abort or deadlock. The controller fails to follow AHCI specifications during port resets, leaving status registers in an inconsistent state (indicated by SACT:ffffffff) that prevents the vmw_ahci driver from recovering the device.

Resolution

• Engage the hardware vendor to investigate physical hardware (controller, drives, system board) and PCIe connections.
• Apply the latest Cisco, Dell, or Lenovo firmware bundle to optimize PCIe link training and AHCI tag handling.
• Avoid running virtual machines or high-I/O workloads on the M.2 drives attached to the controller.