ESXi host rescan fails to release dead paths with error: “Unable to scan VMkernel SCSI subsystem for old devices. Scan already in progress”

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms

• Rescanning storage on an ESXi host fails.
• The “Rescan Storage” task in the vSphere Client may fail or remain stuck in progress.
• Dead paths continue to appear even after storage zoning changes and rescans.

Error from the UI:

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x
VMware vCenter server 7.x
VMware vCenter server 8.x

Cause

Stale storage paths remain unreleased during rescans because the cleanup process is blocked by a preceding hung task

You may validate the same from the below symptoms:
The issue occurs when attempting to perform a rescan operation form the Host CLI
esxcli storage core adapter rescan --all
Error while rescanning adapter vmhba65. Error was Unable to scan VMkernel SCSI subsystem for old devices.  Scan already in progress
Rescan complete, however some dead paths were not removed because they were in use by the system. Please use the 'storage core device world list' command to see the VMkernel worlds still using these paths.

Path shows Busy while performing the task in the vmkernel log
2025-09-23T19:53:53.425Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu38:2097791)ScsiClaimrule: 2523: Error claiming path [vmhba65:C0:T66:L134]. Failure.
2025-09-23T19:53:53.425Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu38:2097791)WARNING: NMP: nmp_PspClaimPath:142: Claim of path '[vmhba65:C0:T66:L134]' by plugin VMW_PSP_RR for device '[naa.60#######################c0_1]' failed. Failure
2025-09-23T19:53:53.425Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu38:2097791)WARNING: ScsiPath: 7735: Plugin 'NMP' had an error (Failure) while claiming path '[vmhba65:C0:T66:L134]'. Skipping the path.
2025-09-23T19:53:53.425Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu38:2097791)ScsiClaimrule: 2041: Plugin NMP specified by claimrule 65535 was not able to claim path [vmhba65:C0:T66:L134]: Busy
2025-09-23T19:53:53.425Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu38:2097791)ScsiClaimrule: 2523: Error claiming path [vmhba65:C0:T66:L134]. Failure.
2025-09-23T19:53:53.426Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu38:2097791)WARNING: NMP: nmp_PspClaimPath:142: Claim of path '[vmhba65:C0:T74:L82]' by plugin VMW_PSP_RR for device '[naa.60#######################c0_2]' failed. Failure
2025-09-23T19:53:53.426Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu38:2097791)WARNING: ScsiPath: 7735: Plugin 'NMP' had an error (Failure) while claiming path '[vmhba65:C0:T74:L82]'. Skipping the path.
2025-09-23T19:53:53.426Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu38:2097791)ScsiClaimrule: 2041: Plugin NMP specified by claimrule 65535 was not able to claim path [vmhba65:C0:T74:L82]: Busy

Resolution

Since an adapter rescan does not resolve the issue, restart the ESXi host after evacuating all VMs to remove any leftover dead paths.

Additional Information

After rebooting the ESXi host, leftover dead paths will be removed automatically.