"Cannot access datastore" intermittently in vCenter Server UI.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Unable to browse datastore via vCenter Server UI. Below error is seen -

Datastore browser fails intermittently.
Below errors are seen in vpxd logs :

73 -- vim.host.DatastoreBrowser.search: :vim.fault.FileNotFound
--> Result:
--> (vim.fault.FileNotFound) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->    faultMessage = <unset>,
-->    file = "[VMFS_VOLUME_NAME]"
-->    msg = "Received SOAP response fault from [<<io_obj p:0x00007f2da0868568, h:114, <UNIX ''>, <UNIX '/var/run/envoy-hgw/hgw-pipe'>>, /hgw/host-12345/vpxa>]: searchDatastore
--> "
--> }
--> Args:
-->
--> Arg datastorePath:
--> "[VMFS_VOLUME_NAME]"
--> Arg searchSpec:

vmkwarning :

2026-01-13T05:20:58.456Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu18:2098729)WARNING: HBX: 317: This host lost connectivity to volume 692f566a-############-f7b6-############ ("VMFS_VOLUME_NAME") and subsequent recovery attempts have failed

Environment

vCenter Server 8.x

ESXi 8.x

Cause

The impacted VMFS datastore lost connectivity from one of the ESXi hosts in vCenter Server cluster.

Resolution

1.In the vpxd.log files, you will find the Host ID that lost connectivity to datastore.. Below is the sample from vpxd logs for reference -

73 -- vim.host.DatastoreBrowser.search: :vim.fault.FileNotFound
--> Result:
--> (vim.fault.FileNotFound) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->    faultMessage = <unset>,
-->    file = "[VMFS_VOLUME_NAME]"
-->    msg = "Received SOAP response fault from [<<io_obj p:0x00007f2da0868568, h:114, <UNIX ''>, <UNIX '/var/run/envoy-hgw/hgw-pipe'>>, /hgw/host-12345/vpxa>]: searchDatastore
--> "
--> }
--> Args:
-->
--> Arg datastorePath:
--> "[VMFS_VOLUME_NAME]"
--> Arg searchSpec:

2. Use below command to find hostname details -

/opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -d VCDB -U postgres -c "select id,name from vpx_entity where type_id=1;"

root@TEST_ESXi [ /var/log/vmware/vpxd ]# /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -d VCDB -U postgres -c "select id,name from vpx_entity where type_id=1;"
  id   |                 name
-------+--------------------------------------
 78562 | sample-1-6-1.example.local
 78505 | sample-1-7-1.example.local
 78508 | sample-1-7-2.example.local
 78545 | sample-1-6-3.example.local
 78521 | sample-1-7-5.example.local
 78549 | sample-1-5-3.example.local
 78536 | sample-1-4-3.example.local
 12345 | sample-1-2-8.example.local
 78525 | sample-1-1-7.example.local
 78548 | sample-1-6-4.example.local
 78524 | sample-1-7-6.example.local
 78523 | sample-1-1-3.example.local
 78577 | sample-1-1-2.example.local
 78518 | sample-1-7-4.example.local
 78503 | sample-1-5-2.example.local
 78550 | sample-1-6-5.example.local
 78511 | sample-1-7-3.example.local
 78530 | sample-1-3-3.example.local
 78526 | sample-1-2-3.example.local
 78551 | sample-1-5-5.example.local
(20 rows)

3. Post validating the lun and mapping status from array end is good, reboot ESXi host to recover the lost lun connectivity..