VMs are invalid and VMFS datastores are inaccessible due to lack of read-write access to LUN

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• One or more datastores are @Inaccessible" in the vSphere Client, and VMs on these datastores are maked "Invalid"
• On host reboot datastores do not mount.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi (all versions)

Cause

The ESXI hosts do not have read-write access to the LUNs backing the datastores.

Verification:

• Basic LUN read operations such as reading the partition table and hexdumping the LUN fail, with I/O errors reported in /var/log/vmkernel.log:

e.g.

partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.##########################
Error: Could not stat device /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.##########################
Unable to get device /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.########################## 
 
/var/log/vmkernel.log:
WARNING: Partition: 1289: Partition table read from device naa..########################## failed: I/O error 
...
ScsiDeviceIO: 4173: Cmd(0x45b959306508) 0x28, CmdSN 0x9  from world 2317442 to device "naa.##########################" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid Sense Data: 0x5 0x22 0x0

(H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid Sense Data: 0x5 0x22 0x0 => Check Condition, with sense data Illegal Request/Illegal Function)

• Attemtping to write to the LUN, e.g. adding a partition table, see the storage return a SCSI code indicating that the LUN is write-protected:
  
  ScsiDeviceIO: 4173: Cmd(0x45b9592be208) 0x2a, CmdSN 0x3 from world 2319088 to device "naa.##########################" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid Sense Data: 0x7 0x27 0x0

(H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid Sense Data: 0x7 0x27 0x0 => Check Condition, with sense data Data Protect/Write Protected)
  
  
  
  

 

Resolution

Engage your storage vendor to have them restore read-write access to the LUNs.