Snapshot consolidation task fails with the error "ESXi tracking filter not available" on ESXi 7.0 U3.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• While consolidating the VM, the following error occurs:
  

  Consolidate virtual machine disk files
  
  Consolidation failed for disk node 'scsi#:#': ESXi tracking filter not available. An error occurred while consolidating disks: ESXi tracking filter not available. 

• In the ESXi - /vmfs/volumes/<Datastore UUID>/<Virtual Machine Name>/vmware.log:
  

  YYYY-MM-DDT##:##:##.###Z In(05) vcpu-0 - DISKLIB-CBT   : Creating cbt node ####-cbt failed with error The system cannot find the file specified (0xbad0003, Not found).
  YYYY-MM-DDT##:##:##.###Z Wa(03) vcpu-0 - DISKLIB-LIB   : Could not attach vmkernel change tracker: ESXi tracking filter failed (0x143c). Disk will be opened, but change tracking info will be invalidated.

• In the ESXi - /var/log/boot.log, FCoE is failing to initialize:
  

  YYYY-MM-DDT##:##:##.###Z cpu40:#####)Jumpstart plugin fcoe-config activation failed: fcoe-config->start() failed: error while executing the cli

• To check if FCoE is enabled on any VMNIC run the following command:
  

  configstorecli config current get -c esx -g storage_fcoe -k fcoe_activation_nic_policies

  If FCoE is enabled the output will look like this:

  {
      "enabled": true,
      "nic": "vmnic#",
      "vn2vn_mode": false
  }

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0U3

Cause

The Software FCoE jumpstart code fails to properly initialize the Software FCoE adapters, resulting in exceptions being triggered. This can indirectly impact other modules, such as the CBT module in this case.

This issue occurs when Software FCoE is inadvertently enabled on certain NICs.

Note: Software FCoE is not supported starting with vSphere 7.0 and should not be enabled on production systems. Refer Configuration Guidelines for Software FCoE

Resolution

1.  Verify if the CBT module is enabled on the ESXi host:
   

   esxcli system module list | grep cbt

2. Disable FCOE with the following command:
   

   configstorecli config  current delete -c esx -g storage_fcoe -k fcoe_activation_nic_policies --all

3. Load the CBT module on the Host:
   

   vmkload_mod cbt