Receiving a SCSI error when trying to do I/O to a specific LBA on a LUN

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESX 5.x
• VMware vSphere ESX 6.x
• VMware vSphere ESX 7.x
• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x
• VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Medium errors are observed in /var/log/vmkernel.log from ScsiDevceIO:

2025-04-29T19:30:24.449Z cpu4:2098170)ScsiDeviceIO: 4176: Cmd(0x45ba4164fc48) 0x28, CmdSN 0x5 from world 2103375 to dev "naa.600508b1001c####################" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x3 0x11 0x0 Medium Error, LBA: 15475715 

2025-07-19T19:59:11.631Z cpu1:2097804)ScsiDeviceIO: 4167: Cmd(0x45b8c12f8348) 0x28, CmdSN 0x334 from world 2099409 to dev "naa.614187705578####################" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x3 0x0 0x0 Medium Error, LBA: 31915520

Environment

VMware vSphere ESX (All Versions)

Cause

Let's breakdown what this error message means:

2025-04-29T19:30:24.449Z cpu4:2098170)ScsiDeviceIO: 4176: Cmd(0x45ba4164fc48) 0x28, CmdSN 0x5 from world 2103375 to dev "naa.600508b1001c####################" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x3 0x11 0x0 Medium Error, LBA: 15475715 

SCSI OpCode = 0x28 = READ(10) = 10 byte READ command
WorldID = 2103375
Device = naa.600508b1001c####################
Host status = H:0x0 = OK
Device Status = D:0x2 --> CHECK CONDITION
Plugin Status = P:0x0 = OK

SCSI Sense Data = 0x3 0x11 0x0:

Sense Kay = 0x3 = MEDIUM ERROR
Additional Sense Code (ASC)/ASC Qualifier = 0x11 0x0 = UNRECOVERED READ ERROR

Logical Block Address (LBA) that cannot be read successfully: LBA 15475715

This is a serious error as it means we attempted to issue a 10 byte READ SCSI command to device naa.600508b1001c#################### and that device failed the command with a CHECK CONDITION, MEDIUM ERROR, UNRECOVERED READ ERROR. This effectively means we cannot read LBA @ address 15475715 successfully from the device. This usually means there is a hardware error with the device itself or perhaps a RAID failure of the volume.

Resolution

Contact the storage array vendor for assistance. This is a hardware error that can only be resolved by the device presenting the storage to the ESXi host as a LUN.