Unable to expand the VMFS datastore due to backup GPT table corruption.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The Expand Datastore Wizard do not list any LUNs for expansion from vCenter
• The free space and total capacity appears as the same while expanding the datastore from the ESXi Host Client
  
• The LUN capacity displays as 0 bytes in vCenter
  

Environment

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

Cause

Unable to expand the datastore because it appeared to be corrupted.

Cause Validation:

• Output of the below command confirms that the LUN is not associated with any datastore:
  vmkfstools -Ph -v10 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.################################
Could not retrieve max file size: Function not implemented
devfs-1.00 (Raw Major Version: 0) file system spanning 0 partitions.
File system label (if any):
Mode: private
Capacity 512 bytes, 512 bytes available, file block size 512 bytes, max supported file size 0 bytes
Disk Block Size: 512/512/0
UUID: 00000000-00000000-0000-000000000000
Logical device:
Partitions spanned (on "notDCS"):
Unable to connect to vaai-nasd socket [No such file or directory]
Is Native Snapshot Capable: NO
OBJLIB-LIB: ObjLib cleanup done.
WORKER: asyncOps=0 maxActiveOps=0 maxPending=0 maxCompleted=0
  
  
• The output of the command "partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.################################" confirms that the backup GOT table is not at the end of the disk. 
  
  
  partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.################################
Error: The backup GPT table is not at the end of the disk, as it should be.  This might mean that another operating system believes the disk is smaller.  Fix, by moving the backup to the end (and removing the old backup)?

  Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/disks/naa.################################appears to be used, you can fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra 4299161600 blocks) or continue with the current setting? This will also move the backup table at the end if is is not at the end already. diskSize (11534336000) AlternateLBA (7235174399) LastUsableLBA (7235174366) NewLastUsableLBA (11534335966)

• Migrate the virtual machines to other datastores and then attempt to repair the GPT using the fixGpt command. This will fail with the error:
  partedUtil fixGpt /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.################################
Error: Read-only file system during write on /dev/disks/naa.################################
  
  
• VOMA check confirms the datastore is corrupted. Refer Using vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer (VOMA) to check VMFS metadata consistency
  ON-DISK ERROR: FB inconsistency found: (4930,57) allocated in bitmap, but never used
ON-DISK ERROR: FB inconsistency found: (7725,44) allocated in bitmap, but never used
ON-DISK ERROR: FB inconsistency found: (7726,17) allocated in bitmap, but never used
ON-DISK ERROR: FB inconsistency found: (7783,26) allocated in bitmap, but never used

Resolution

Contact Broadcom Support to perform metadata check Using vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer and assist with the possible solutions.