vMotion of a VM with a RDM fails citing "no such device"

Products

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

Issue/Introduction

vMotion of the VM with a RDM fails in the vSphere client with the following error:

The source detected that the destination failed to resume. ####-##-##T##:##:##.######Z The VM failed to resume on the destination during early power on. Module Disk power on failed.
Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/<Datastore-UUID>/<VM-Name>/<VM-disk>.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. 19 (No such device) File system specific implementation of OpenFile[file] failed ####-##-##T##:##:##.######Z

On the source host where the vm is running and the RDM was accessible:
[<user>@<Hostname>:/vmfs/volumes/<Datastore-UUID>/<VM-Name>] vmkfstools -q <VM-disk>.vmdk
Disk <VM-disk>.vmdk is a Passthrough Raw Device Mapping
Maps to: vml.0200000000<Naa-device-ID>4c554e20432d

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi  

Cause

The storage device backing the RDM disk has been detached or administratively turned off therefore the disk can't be accessed during power on, resulting in a failure.

On the destination host query the vmkfstools -q <VM-disk>.vmdk 
ESXi: /var/run/log/vmkernel.log
####-##-##T##:##:##.###Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu11:2489075)WARNING: RDM3: 871: Error opening device vml.0200000000<Naa-device-ID>4c554e20432d: No such target on adapter
####-##-##T##:##:##.###Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu11:2489075)WARNING: RDM3: 871: Error opening device vml.0200000000<Naa-device-ID>4c554e20432d: No such target on adapter

To verify the status of the device:
localcli storage core device list -d naa.###############################

naa.###############################:
   Display Name: NETAPP iSCSI Disk (naa.###############################)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 0
   Device Type: Direct-Access
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path:
   Vendor: NETAPP
   Model: LUN C-Mode
   Revision: 9121
   SCSI Level: 6
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: off  <-----------------Device turned off 
   Is RDM Capable: true
   Is Local: false
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: true
   Is VVOL PE: false
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: unknown
   Other UIDs: vml.0200000000################################4c554e20432d
   Is Shared Clusterwide: true
   Is SAS: false
   Is USB: false
   Is Boot Device: false
   Device Max Queue Depth: 16
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 16
   Drive Type: unknown
   RAID Level: unknown
   Number of Physical Drives: unknown
   Protection Enabled: false
   PI Activated: false
   PI Type: 0
   PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
   Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   DIX Enabled: false
   DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false


To check from the CLI if the device has been administratively turned off:
[<user>@<hostname>:/] localcli storage core device detached list
Device UID                            State
------------------------------------  -----
naa.###############################  off

 

Resolution

Select the destination host -> Configure -> Storage Devices > Select the Storage device backing the RDM -> Attach

 

Additional Information

The below log message is generated when a device is detached:
ESXi: /var/run/log/vmkernel* 
####-##-##T##:##:##.###Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu52:2098195)ScsiDevice: 1831: Device naa.###############################  has been turned off administratively.
Detach a LUN device from ESXi hosts

 

This issue can also arise if the RDM LUN is presented to the target host with a different LUN ID.
Migrating VMs with attached RDMs fails with the error "Storage vMotion failed to create the destination disk /vmfs/volumes/DATASTORE_NAME/VM_NAME/VM_NAME.vmdk"