ESXi Live Patch remediation fails for VMs with SCSI bus sharing: "At least one disk is on a physically shared bus"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to remediate an ESXi host using Live Patch in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), the task fails during the PerformUpgradeActions or VirtualMachine.UpgradeVMX phase.

/var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log:
ERROR vpxd #### [vc@#### sub="Default" opID="WorkQueue-########-########-##"] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-#### --  -- vm_name -- VirtualMachine.UpgradeVMX: :vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault
--> Result:
--> (vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->    faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->       (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->          key = "msg.disk.scsiBusPhys",
-->          arg = <unset>,
-->          message = "At least one disk is on a physically shared bus."
-->       },
-->       (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->          key = "msg.foundryErrMsgId.VIX_E_FAIL",
-->          arg = <unset>,
-->          message = "Unknown error"
-->       },
-->       (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->          key = "msg.vix.vigor.error",
-->          arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
-->             (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
-->                key = "1",
-->                value = "1"
-->             }
-->          ],
-->          message = "vix error code = 1"
-->       }
-->    ],
-->    reason = "At least one disk is on a physically shared bus."
-->    msg = "At least one disk is on a physically shared bus."
--> }
--> Args:
-->

/vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/<vm_name>/vmware.log
ERROR vmx ####### [esx@#### threadName="vmx" opID="###-######-########-##-##-####"] FSR is not supported for disks on a physically shared bus.
INFO vmx ####### [esx@#### threadName="vmx" opID="###-######-########-##-##-####"] Vix: [vigorCommands.c:####]: Error VIX_E_FAIL in VigorPowerState_InitiateSuspendAndResumeImpl(): FSR failed immediately.

Environment

ESXi 8.0
ESX 9.x
vCenter 8.0
vCenter 9.x

Cause

Live Patching utilizes Fast Suspend and Resume (FSR) to apply updates to virtual machines while they remain powered on.
vSphere does not support FSR for virtual machines configured with SCSI controllers engaged in physical or virtual bus sharing (e.g., Clustered VMDKs, WSFC, or Oracle RAC).
The shared nature of the disks prevents the atomic state switchover required by the FSR process.

Resolution

Virtual machines using SCSI bus sharing must be powered off during the remediation window.

1. Identify affected VMs: Check the host for VMs with SCSI controllers set to "Physical" or "Virtual" bus sharing.
2. Graceful Shutdown: Power off the identified VMs and any other cluster nodes sharing those disks.
3. Retry Task: Restart the remediation or patch task in SDDC Manager/vLCM.
4. Power On: Restart the VMs once host remediation is complete.

Additional Information

Configuring vSphere Lifecycle Manager for Live Patches

Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) with shared disks on VMware vSphere 7.x: Guidelines for supported configurations