An error occurred communicating with remote client. Disconnecting the virtual remote device sata0:0

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

You receive an error in the UI about the virtual machine device sata0:0 being disconnected and the operating system has paused writes. 

Environment

vSphere

Cause

A user had a virtual cdrom attached to a vm and did not gracefully remove the connection. 

Resolution

If there is a yellow "answer question" warning prompt confirm it, and I/O operation will resume. If there is no warning, and the vm is running fine this notification is safe to ignore. 

Additional Information

You can confirm the disconnected object from the vmware.log file for the vm in question. You will see entries similar to the following:

2025-04-15T16:36:07.828Z In(05) vmx - SOCKET 228629 (250) recv detected client closed connection
2025-04-15T16:36:07.828Z In(05) vmx - REMDEV: sata0:0:228630 connection error: 4
2025-04-15T16:36:07.828Z In(05) vmx - Msg_Post: Error
2025-04-15T16:36:07.828Z In(05) vmx - [msg.remote.connectionerror] An error occurred communicating with remote client. Disconnecting the virtual remote device 'sata0:0'.
2025-04-15T16:36:07.828Z In(05) vmx - ----------------------------------------
2025-04-15T16:36:07.829Z In(05) mks - SOCKET 228626 (249) Received websocket close frame, status code = 1000
2025-04-15T16:36:07.829Z In(05) mks - SOCKET 228626 (249) Sending websocket close frame, status code = 1000
2025-04-15T16:36:07.829Z In(05) mks - SOCKET 228626 (249) VNC Remote Disconnect: socket closed.
2025-04-15T16:36:07.829Z In(05) mks - MKSControlMgr: Remove VNC connection 2
2025-04-15T16:36:07.831Z In(05) vmx - VigorTransportProcessClientPayload: opID=lro-324372239-e6fa723-01-01-1a-9447 seq=1623904: Receiving Bootstrap.MessageReply request.
2025-04-15T16:36:07.831Z In(05) vmx - VigorTransport_ServerSendResponse opID=lro-324372239-e6fa723-01-01-1a-9447 seq=1623904: Completed Bootstrap request.
2025-04-15T16:36:07.831Z In(05) vmx - REMDEV: Disconnecting device 'sata0:0' (228630)
2025-04-15T16:36:07.831Z In(05) vmx - CDROM: Disconnected cdrom: sata0:0
2025-04-15T16:36:07.844Z In(05) vmx - SOCKET 228630 (250) Sending websocket close frame, status code = 1000
2025-04-15T16:36:07.844Z In(05) mks - MKSRemoteMgr: CleanupConnection (numConsoles=1)
2025-04-15T16:36:07.898Z In(05) vcpu-11 - CDROM: switching CDROM state from 2 to 3 using GetEventNotification.
2025-04-15T16:36:08.910Z In(05) vcpu-10 - CDROM: Emulate GET CONFIGURATION RT 1 starting feature 0
2025-04-15T16:36:08.911Z In(05) vcpu-11 - CDROM: switching CDROM state from 3 to 4 using GetEventNotification.