VCF Administrator is Unable to Create VMFS6 Datastore

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Unable to create datastore, when Create Datastore is attempted in vCenter Server the following error is reported.

 

Environment

• Esxi 8.0 U3
• Dell Fibre Channel Array

Cause

The primary reason for this failure is the device is reporting as an array snapshot.   As evidenced by the reported error below, found on the ESXi host where the failure occurred in /var/run/log/vmkernel.log

In this instance a READ (0x28) is failing against the device in question

 

• "ScsiDeviceIO: 4167: #### 0x28, CmdSN 0x17 from world #### to dev "#####" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x2"

 

Additionally the device is being flagged as an array snapshot by the ESXi host:

 

• "Read from naa.#### (### 24 db 3 ###### #### ######) 69632 bytes failed: SCSI LUN is in snapshot state"

 

When a device is a snapshot the host cannot query (read or write) to the device.  This will result in a failure when trying to write to the device.

Resolution

To resolve this issue the customer side storage team, or the vendor specific storage team will need to review the device configuration to ensure the device is able to be mounted and written to by the ESXi subsystem.  Once the appropriate team has confirmed the device is accessible and can be read/written to, the device can be re-added to the host and created into a VMFS datastore.

Additional Information

• P:0x2 is the plugin component of a SCSI return string, which reports the device is unable to be be queried due to it being defined by the array as a duplicate or protected device (snapshot).

• As this is an ARRAY snapshot it will not be reported as a VMFS snapshot device in esxli or vmkfstools.