New storage path not detected in ESXi after the storage adapter rescan

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• A storage rescan was performed, but it didn't change the status of the adapter.
• A power outage or any recent changes in the fabric layer may have been performed recently.
• The vmhba may be online, but certain paths are offline or not seen.

Host unable to fetch the newly added paths and is still scanning for the old paths

From the var/run/log/vmkernel.log, the following events may be seen:
2025-09-20T15:56:51.665Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)qlnativefc: <HBA_1>(<PCI_ID_1>): qlnativefcDiscover:1857:creating path <PATH_1>
2025-09-20T15:56:51.665Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)WARNING: ScsiPath: 830: Failed to fetch FC target attributes for path <PATH_2>.Status = 195887105
2025-09-20T15:56:51.665Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)ScsiPath: 1260: Couldn't allocate path (<PATH_2>) during scan: Failure
2025-09-20T15:56:51.668Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)WARNING: ScsiPath: 830: Failed to fetch FC target attributes for path <PATH_3>.Status = 195887105
2025-09-20T15:56:51.668Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)ScsiPath: 1260: Couldn't allocate path (<PATH_3>) during scan: Failure
2025-09-20T15:56:51.669Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)qlnativefc: <HBA_2>(<PCI_ID_2>): qlnativefcDiscover:1857:creating path <PATH_4>
2025-09-20T15:56:51.669Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)WARNING: ScsiPath: 830: Failed to fetch FC target attributes for path <PATH_5>.Status = 195887105
2025-09-20T15:56:51.669Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)ScsiPath: 1260: Couldn't allocate path (<PATH_5>) during scan: Failure
2025-09-20T15:56:51.672Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)WARNING: ScsiPath: 830: Failed to fetch FC target attributes for path <PATH_6>.Status = 195887105
2025-09-20T15:56:51.672Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu82:2099528 opID=<OP_ID_1>)ScsiPath: 1260: Couldn't allocate path (<PATH_6>) during scan: Failure

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

The issue occurs because during the storage rescan, the ESXi host may not display the new paths as it has no information about them and continues attempting to retrieve data for the old paths, which fails due to the broken connectivity.

Resolution

Get the physical adapter checked and engage your fabric vendor to investigate and mitigate the issue.

Once the problem in the fabric layer is mitigated, the impacted hosts may need a reboot to refresh the information on the adapters.

Additional Information

Note: It is recommended to schedule downtime and place the hosts in maintenance mode before performing major activities such as changing ports, to ensure that the changes take effect immediately.