iSCSI Dynamic Discovery IPs Lost and Targets Orphaned

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This might happen after upgrading an ESXi host with a security patch, the iSCSI dynamic discovery IP addresses are lost, resulting in dropped paths and inaccessible storage targets. The vmkernel and vobd logs may not show explicit connection errors.

A review of the internal iSCSI database configuration records for the non-working host shows that the node.parent is marked as Orphaned rather than reflecting the appropriate discovery IP address and port mapping.

Commands to dump the iscsi database:

Login to the host using SSH and run the command: 

vmkiscsid --dump-db > /tmp/iscsi_db_dump.txt

Example database extract from an impacted host:

rowid='260'
key='iqn.2007-11.com.nimblestorage:tra-alletra-01-g49e4925a63ead76d/<REDACTED_IPS>,3260,2461/default'
node.name='iqn.2007-11.com.nimblestorage:tra-alletra-01-g49e4925a63ead76d'
node.discovery_address='<REDACTED_IPS>'
node.discovery_port='3260'
node.discovery_type='send_targets'
node.conn.address='<REDACTED_IPS>'
node.inheritance='1074364415'
node.parent='Orphaned'
node.last_discovery_address='<REDACTED_IPS>'

 

Working host: 

rowid='260'
key='iqn.2007-11.com.nimblestorage:tra-alletra-01-g49e4925a63ead76d/<REDACTED_IPS>,3260,2461/default'
node.name='iqn.2007-11.com.nimblestorage:tra-alletra-01-g49e4925a63ead76d'

  node.conn[0].iscsi.DataDigest='None'
   node.conn[0].iscsi.IFMarker='No'
   node.conn[0].iscsi.OFMarker='No'
   node.conn[0].iscsi.DelayedAck='1'
   node.inheritance='1074364415'
   node.parent='<REDACTED_IPS>'
   node.last_discovery_address=<REDACTED_IPS>'
   node.last_discovery_port='3260'
   node.last_discovery_ltime='2210'
   node.rescan_mode='all'

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

During the ESXi host security patch update and subsequent reboot process, the iSCSI target database entry loses its mapping to the dynamic discovery address, causing the node.parent record to become orphaned and preventing automated target login.

Resolution

To resolve the issue and rebuild the correct database linkages, manually re-add the dynamic discovery IP address:

1. Log in to the vSphere Client.

2. Select the affected ESXi host in the inventory.

3. Navigate to Configure > Storage > Storage Adapters.

4. Select the iSCSI Software Adapter (typically vmhbaXX) from the list.

5. In the adapter details section, select the Dynamic Discovery tab.

6. Click Add and manually enter the iSCSI Server IP address (<REDACTED_IPS>) and Port (default 3260).

7. Click OK.

8. Click Rescan Storage or Rescan Adapter to initiate a new discovery process, which will repair the node.parent mapping and restore the paths.

Additional Information

Step-by-step to configure iSCSI datastore