vSPhere ESXi Unable to browse vVOL datastore in vCenter

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms: 

• Unable to browse a vVol datastore.
• The window cursor in the datastore browser just spins.
• The list of files and folders are never displayed.

Environment

• vSphere 7.x
• vSphere 8.x

Cause

• One or more config vVOLs have a stale file handle that is still open by a process on one or more of the hosts that have visibility to the datastore.

lsof | egrep 'Cartel|rfc4122.vvvvvvvv-wwww-xxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz'

Cartel | World name | Type | fd | Description
12345 hostd XXXX YY /vmfs/volumes/rfc4122.vvvvvvvv-wwww-xxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz

54321 vpxa XXXX YY /vmfs/volumes/rfc4122.vvvvvvvv-wwww-xxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz

Resolution

• The resolution is similar to: Investigating Virtual Machine file locks on ESXi Host(s)
• When using vVOLS, each VM directory in the vVOL datastore is linked to the config vVol UUID.
• You can identify the vVOL UUID by listing the contents of the directory and searching for the VM name, as follows: 

 

ls -l /vmfs/volumes/vvol:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy | grep myTestVM

myTestVM -> rfc4122.vvvvvvvv-wwww-xxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

• • NOTE:  Most vVOL UUID's either have a form of an rfc4122 ID:   rfc4122.vvvvvvvv-wwww-xxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz or a 128-bit naa ID:  naa.abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789.  Usually just performing the ls /vmfs/volumes/vvol:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy will clarify which format is being used.  If needed, please contact the SAN vendor to verify to standard they implement.
    
    
• Following Step #4 of the above KB:  use lsof to verify if any processes have that config vVOL still open:
  
  

lsof | egrep 'Cartel|rfc4122.vvvvvvvv-wwww-xxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz'

Cartel | World name | Type | fd | Description
12345 hostd XXXX YY /vmfs/volumes/rfc4122.vvvvvvvv-wwww-xxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz

54321 vpxa XXXX YY /vmfs/volumes/rfc4122.vvvvvvvv-wwww-xxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

• If hostd/vpxa are holding the file open, then please follow: Restarting Management Agents in ESXi . 
• Otherwise, continue with the "Removing the Lock - Options" in the above KB