VCF 9 installer fails to deploy during the ESXi host vSAN HCL compatibility check for vSAN ESA disks because the NVMe devices are behind tri-mode controllers

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager

Issue/Introduction

• Significant issues have been identified with the vSAN HCL validation workflow during vSAN ESA deployment with VCF 9 Installer.
• Specifically, the deployment process is blocked by the HCL check during the ESA validation phase.
• The VCF 9 Installer performs a pre-validation, utilizing either an offline HCL JSON file or downloading a current version, to determine if the ESA drives are listed on the HCL.
• If the drives are not present, or if the validation process encounters any issues, the deployment is halted.
• VCF deployer UI reports:
  

  No vSAN ESA certified disks found on the ESXi Host ####################
  Remediation: No vSAN ESA certified disks found on the ESXI Host #################### Provide ESXI Host with vSAN ESA certifled disks. 

• Domainmanager.log on the VCF Installer '/var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager' shows errors similar to below snippets :

2025-09-03T14:16:38.473+0000 INFO [vcf_dm,68b84d767fe860c6e16c8762c2ed4b91,ef72] [c.v.e.s.v.a.ValidateVsanEsaHclCompatibilityAction,dm-exec-31] Host ########## have vSAN ESA certified disk(s) : false
2025-09-03T14:16:38.474+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,68b84d767fe860c6e16c8762c2ed4b91,ef72] [c.v.e.s.v.a.ValidateVsanEsaHclCompatibilityAction,dm-exec-31] Host ########## doesnt have vSAN ESA certified disk(s).
2025-09-03T14:16:43.442+0000 INFO [vcf_dm,68b84d765a5b4462d7fe841c205d04d8,7767] [c.v.e.s.v.a.ValidateVsanEsaHclCompatibilityAction,dm-exec-28] Host ########## have vSAN ESA certified disk(s) : false
2025-09-03T14:16:43.443+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,68b84d765a5b4462d7fe841c205d04d8,7767] [c.v.e.s.v.a.ValidateVsanEsaHclCompatibilityAction,dm-exec-28] Host ########## doesnt have vSAN ESA certified disk(s).

Environment

• VCF 9.x
• SDDC Manager 9.x

Cause

vSAN certified NVMe devices were connected through a tri-mode controller. 
ESA supports dedicated NVMe devices with out supporting standalone or tri-mode controller. 

Resolution

NVMe devices are only supported directly connected to a PCIe slots on the bus.

More information: vSAN support of NVMe devices behind tri-mode controllers


Work Around:

contacting server vendor to have appropriate hardware change to include PCIe slots for the NVMe devices.

1.  Place host into maintenance mode using Ensure Accessibility
2.  Use Disk Management GUI to decommission the diskgroup(s) on the target host.
3.  Shut down the hardware and reconfigure the server so the NVMe drives are connected to the PCI bus as intended.
4.  Bring the server up and recreate the diskgroup(s) through disk management.
5.  Repeat steps 1-4 with remaining hosts in the cluster
6.  Re-deploy VCF installer.

Additional Information

To search for controller model, grep for "deviceDisplayName" in /var/log/vmware/domainmanager.log