ESXi Host Fails to Detect SAN Storage After Reboot (Missing HBA Adapters)

Products

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

Issue/Introduction

• After an ESXi host reboot, all connected datastores are reported as missing in vCenter. This is accompanied by repeated vim.event.DatastoreRemovedOnHostEvent entries in vCenter Events

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.X
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.X

Cause

• • In /var/run/vmkernel.log, FC HBAs mapped to SAN storage are observed to be missing or not activated after a reboot
    
    YYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(182) vmkernel: cpu3:#######)Jumpstart plugin restore-storage-multipathing activated.
    YYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(182) vmkernel: cpu25:#######)PCI: 1127: 0000:01:00.1 named 'vmnic1' (was '')
    YYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(182) vmkernel: cpu25:#######)PCI: 1127: 0000:41:00.0 named 'vmhba3' (was '')
    YYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(182) vmkernel: cpu25:#######)PCI: 1127: 0000:44:00.0 named 'vmhba0' (was '')
    YYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(182) vmkernel: cpu25:#######)PCI: 1127: 0000:01:00.0 named 'vmnic0' (was '')
    
    
  • The lspci command run on the affected host does not display expected FC adapters on affected host

Resolution

• Access the ESXi host's hardware console (e.g., iDRAC for Dell, ILO for HP, IMM for Lenovo) and validate if the Fibre Channel (FC) slots and adapters are detected and visible at the hardware level
  
  
• If the FC adapters are not detected or visible in the hardware console, engage the server hardware vendor for further investigation