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.
• In the /var/run/log/vmkernel.log, after the "power on" task is initiated, logs similar to the sample below are seen:

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 7.0.x

VMware ESXi 8.0.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. Please engage the fabric vendor for further troubleshooting if necessary.

Additional Information

• Setting Up NPIV in a vSphere Environment