Identify the target of inaccessible objects where the object path is unknown

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

When a vSAN cluster incurs inaccessible objects, there are several ways to determine what they are:

• Select the Cluster > Monitor > vSAN Skyline Health > vSAN object health:  in the Health/Objects column there would be a row showing a red "Inaccessible".  Click the blue "VIEW DETAILS" link.

• Select the Cluster > Monitor > Virtual Objects:  there will be a selectable red "Inaccessible" button.  Click it and the inaccessible objects will be listed.

• esxcli vsan debug object list --health=inaccessible
• cmmds-tool find -f python -u <OBJECT UUID>

In some instances the Virtual Objects view and the command line commands will not return any information in the path field for the object.  The Virtual Objects view might show, "Unknown object type" in the name field.  The CLI commends might return N/A or just a blank field for the path.  Without that, what the vSAN object references is not known.  

Environment

VMware vSAN (All Versions)

Cause

Factors like an improper vSAN Cluster Shutdown or other failures can leave vSAN objects in such a state that what the object points to cannot be reported.

Resolution

When vSAN objects are in a state where the path field is not being shown, the object owner can be changed which refreshes the state of the object.  As part of the refresh, the path for what the objects reference can then be known.  If so, then it can be determined to which VM the objects belong.  The procedure to determine the vSAN object owner and how to change the owner is detailed in the KB: vSAN Object Inaccessibility Causing VM Orphaned State Due to Ownership on Maintenance Host

Upon determining the VMs associated with the inaccessible objects, a case can be opened with VMware by Broadcom via KB: Creating and managing Broadcom support cases