Issues while trying to patch a Host ( rebooting did not resolve issue ) / Error "Unable to get FS Attrs ...... " / Datastore shows "0" Capacity

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESX 7.x
• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

One or more of the following Symptoms are observed:

 

• Command "df -h" is returning error "Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/####-####-####-####, skipping"

Example output:

 

[root@esxi:~] df -h

VmFileSystem: Slow refresh failed: Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/####-####-####-####

Error when running esxcli, return status was: 1

Errors:

Error getting data for filesystem on '/vmfs/volumes/####-####-####-####': Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/####-####-####-####, skipping.

 

 

• Despite Host reboot, patching/updating a Host by using "esxcli software" command(s) repeatedly fail(s) with "Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/####-####-####-####, skipping"

Example output:

 

 

 

• Despite Host reboot, patching/updating a Host via GUI repeatedly fails. The esxupdate.log shows the error:

Example output:

var/run/log/esxupdate.log

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.ZZ Er(11) esxupdate[2119034]: Error getting data for filesystem on '/vmfs/volumes/####-#####-####-########': Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/####-#####-####-########, skipping.

 

 

 

 

In addition the following Symptoms are observed:

 

• Via Host Client, one of the connected Datastores is showing with "0" Capacity

Example output:

 

 

 

• In the vmkwarning.log a flood of SCSI Medium Errors ( 0x3 0x11 0x0 ) are observed, referring to one particular disk

Example Output
/var/run/log/vmkwarning.log

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.ZZ In(182) vmkernel: cpu2:2098184)ScsiDeviceIO: 4672: Cmd(0x45bb03843380) 0x28, CmdSN 0x54 from world 2099661 to dev "#############" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x3 0x11 0x0 Medium Error, LBA: 56576

 

• The Disk reporting the SCSI Medium Error ( 0x3 0x11 0x0 ) is used for the Datastore showing "0" Capacity

This can be confirmed by looking in the Host Client - Datastore page and confirming that the information shown in the red circled fields

 

 

matches the Datastore UUID mentioned in the error message shown above ( = "Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/####-####-####-####, skipping" )

and the Disk name for which the 0x3 0x11 0x0 Medium Error is reported ( = dev "#############" )

 

 

 

Environment

ESX   (All Versions)

ESXi  (All Versions)

Cause

HW fault on Disk (= SCSi Medium Error ( 0x3 0x11 0x0 ), despite Disk may be still online.

The affected Disk is backing the Datastore for which the error "Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/####-####-####-####, skipping" is reported.

Resolution

1.) Remove the Datastore by following the steps outlined in Remove VMFS Datastores
2.) Contact HW Vendor for potential replacement of the Disk reporting the SCSi Medium Error ( 0x3 0x11 0x0 ) 

3.) If the issue came up during upgrading/patching of ESX Host: Complete the Upgrade/Patching (which should complete after removing the Datastore via Step 1.) 
4.) After the Disk has been replaced, recreate the Datastore by following steps in Create a vSphere VMFS Datastore

Additional Information

Selection of KBs referring to SCSi Medium Error ( 0x3 0x11 0x0 ) recommending to contact HW Vendor for investigating Disk Health:

VM cloning / Storage vMotion or VM Backup task fails with errors either "Failed to copy one or more disks" or "A fatal internal error occurred"

"Host storage status" Alarm triggered on ESXi host

 

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