Storage vMotion task fails with "Storage Initiator Error"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Storage vMotion of VM fails with "Storage Initiator" Error in the vSphere Client.

/vmfs/volumes/####-##-##-####/<vmfolder>/vmware.log reports:

vmx - [msg.svmotion.disk.copyphase.failed] Failed to copy one or more disks.
vmx - [msg.mirror.disk.copyfailed] Failed to copy source (/vmfs/volumes/####-##-##-####/<vmfolder>/<vmname>.vmdk) to destination (/vmfs/volumes/####-##-##-####/<newvm>/vmname.vmdk): Storage initiator error.

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

A medium error on disk will cause this issue.

This is verified by entries in /var/run/log/vmkernel.log similar to:

FS3DM: 2321: status Storage initiator error copying 1 extents between two files, bytesTransferred = 0 extentsTransferred: 0
lsi_mr3_0000:2f:00.0: megasas_hotplug_work: 451: Event : Unrecoverable medium error during recovery on PD 24(e0x41/s2) at 5ea4c6eb
WARNING: SVM: 2869: scsi0:8 Failed SVMFDSIoctlMoveData: Storage initiator error

And by SCSI sense codes indicating medium errors reporting on the disks:

2026-01-06T19:14:14.208Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu1:2097857)ScsiDeviceIO: 4686: Cmd(0x45b97ecfdfc0) 0x88, CmdSN 0xe4982e from world 2120807 to dev "naa.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x3 0x11 0x0 Medium Error, LBA:

Type	Code	Name	Description
Host Status	[0x0]	OK	This status is returned when there is no error on the host side. This is when you will see if there is a status for a Device or Plugin. It is also when you will see Valid sense data instead of Possible sense Data.
Device Status	[0x2]	CHECK_CONDITION	This status is returned when a command fails for a specific reason. When a CHECK CONDITION is received, the ESX storage stack will send out a SCSI command 0x3 (REQUEST SENSE) in order to get the SCSI sense data (Sense Key, Additional Sense Code, ASC Qualifier, and other bits). The sense data is listed after Valid sense data in the order of Sense Key, Additional Sense Code, and ASC Qualifier.
Plugin Status	[0x0]	GOOD	No error. (ESXi 5.x / 6.x only)
Sense Key	[0x3]	MEDIUM ERROR
Additional Sense Data	11/00	UNRECOVERED READ ERROR

 

Resolution

Engage storage vendor to address errors on disks.

If the medium errors cannot be remediated by the storage vendor, the VM may need to be restored from backup.