Protocol endpoints(PE) remain invisible on ESXi hosts after VASA provider registration.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

After registering a VASA provider, you may observe that Protocol Endpoints (PE) remain invisible on certain ESXi hosts (such as newly added hosts).

You may observe the following specific symptoms in the vSphere Client:

• The Protocol Endpoint (PE) and VASA Provider information appear blank in the vSphere Client.

• The VASA provider is missing from the host configuration, despite it being successfully configured on the vCenter Server and displaying an "Online" status.

• Connectivity to the VASA Provider is reachable but the port 9084 is failing to connect.
  
  
• Manually disabling the ESXi firewall allows successful connectivity to the VASA provider over port 8084, but the Protocol Endpoints(PE) still do not appear on the ESXi hosts even after performing a storage rescan and refreshing the configuration from the storage array side.

Environment

VMware ESXi

Cause

This issue occurs when the VVOL daemon (vvold) service is in a stopped state because no VVOL datastores are currently mounted on the ESXi host. The vvold service is responsible for dynamically opening the necessary firewall ports for VVol communication. Without an active VVOL datastore mounted, the service stops, and the host cannot establish communication with the VASA Provider. This results in the VASA provider missing from the host configuration, inaccessible VVOL storage, and invisible Protocol Endpoints.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, please follow the steps outlined in our documentation regarding VVol datastore inaccessible.

Additional Information

All vVOLs in the vCenter shows inaccessible

VASA Provider Registration Troubleshooting

Mounting vVOL datastore on new ESXi hosts fails with "General System Error"

vVol datastores are inaccessible due to Transport Errors.