Unable to create vSAN ESA cluster – No eligible disks found.

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

1. NVME disks are not available to claim during vSAN ESA cluster creation task. We see below error in UI if the disks are already formatted or have partitions -

2. In some cases, we see below error if the disks transport protocol is parallel scsi -

Environment

ESXi 8.0.x
vSAN 8.0.x

Cause

With Intel VMD enabled, all PCI devices behind the VMD controller will be invisible to the operating systems on the server.

Resolution

1. Disable Intel VMD to make the PCI devices visible. Below is sample screenshot of working setup -

To disable VMD, boot the server to F1 Setup, then go to:

1. UEFI Setup.
   
    
2. System Settings.
   
   
   
3. Devices and I/O Ports.
   
    
4.  Select Intel VMD Technology.
   
   
   
5. Set to Disable and click Save.
   

Additional Information

For more details on VMD technology, refer link https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht506197-nvme-ssd-pci-device-will-be-invisible-when-intel-vmd-is-enabled-lenovo-thinksystem