Storage not detected after ESXi reboot

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptom

• After installing ESXi on a server with an existing RAID configuration and logical disk, and creating a datastore along with VMs, the storage is not recognized after a reboot.
• Upon launching the host client, you'll notice that the ESXi host fails to detect any datastores after the reboot.

• The embedded raid controller hardware is not detected by the ESXi and the remote management software such as ILO in case of HPE and iDRAC used for Dell server are not reporting health status of the raid controller:

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.X
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.X
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.X

Cause

This issue is caused by the RAID controller running incompatible firmware or the driver not matching the ESXi version installed on the server.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, follow these steps:

• The existing firmware and driver version running on the raid controller card need to be validated for compatibility with the ESXi  by referring to this article: Determining Network/Storage firmware and driver version in ESXi
• The firmware version running on the raid controller card can be obtained from the server hardware vendor remote management software such as ILO/iDRAC. The below shown image is taken from HPE ILO software.

• If the current firmware version running on the RAID controller is incompatible with the installed ESXi version. Please contact the hardware vendor to upgrade to a supported firmware version.
• Upgrading the firmware/driver ensures compatibility between the RAID controller and ESXi, which is crucial for proper storage detection and functionality.