VM with NPIV feature enabled takes a long time to power on or the task times out

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• The impacted virtual machine has the NPIV feature enabled.
• The "power-on" task either times out and fails or takes a long time (more than 40 minutes) to be successful.
• Storage vMotion fails with "Invalid virtual machine configuration".
• Upon initiating a virtual machine power-on or Storage vMotion task, entries similar to the following are recorded in /var/run/log/vmkernel.log:

Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiNpiv: 1356: Created vport for world 2102525, vmhba2
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040
Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu86:2102522)WARNING: ScsiPsaDriver: 1337: Failed adapter create path; vport:vmhba71 with error: bad0040

Environment

VMware ESXi 8.0.x
VMware ESXi 7.0.x

Cause

The log messages seen are evidence of misconfiguration in the fabric layer.
Generally, this means that the NPIV code in the VMkernel is not able to find any devices on the VPORT.

Resolution

Further investigation of the configuration in the fabric layer/zoning has to be performed, and any misconfiguration on that layer mitigated.
For further diagnostic support, engage the fabric vendor for specialized troubleshooting.

Additional Information

Setting Up NPIV in a vSphere Environment