vSAN disk appears as Absent

Products

VMware vSAN VMware vSAN 8.x VMware vSAN 7.x

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

vSAN Health service reports a warning about disk(s)
vSAN Cluster shows "vSAN physical disk alarm 'Operation'" alert.
Unable to Remove an Absent vSAN disk from vCenter UI
Unable to remove vSAN disk reference where disk has already been replaced
After physically replacing a failed vSAN Capacity drive: Part has been replaced, but it is in unclaimed condition
The vCenter vSphere UI, vCenter > Host and Cluster View > vSAN cluster > Monitor > Skyline Health > RETEST > Operational Health : will display "Absent Disk" with overall Health with red mark
General vSAN error. vSAN disk data evacuation resource check has failed for disk or disk-group vsan:#### (####) with mode noAction on host ####. Go to vSAN Data Migration Pre-Check page for more details..
In vCenter vSphere UI, vCenter > Host and Cluster View > vSAN cluster > Configure > vSAN > Disk Management, you see a Disk group with a red exclamation diamond and, in the detail window below, it is marked as Absent vSAN Disk.

Multiple vSAN nodes reporting Absent vSAN disk error at the same time.

When trying to remove absent disk it fails with an error " A General system error occurred"
Inaccessible objects may also be reported under Cluster -> Monitor -> Virtual objects

To further verify the absent disks, var/run/log/vmkernel.log may capture the events such as "failed to read the device", "can't find MD device", "device not found":

[from /var/run/log/vmkernel.log]

2026-08-20T07:08:15.519Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu60:15202388)PLOG: PLOGIsDeviceReadyToReceiveOpen:5127: Invalidated device received RW open ##### 0x20808 0x0 isDeviceOwnedByHost 1
2026-08-20T07:08:15.519Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu60:15202388)PLOG: PLOGOpenDevice:5380: Device #### not ready to receive open
2026-08-20T07:08:19.299Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu125:15202521)PLOG: PLOGIsDeviceReadyToReceiveOpen:5127: Invalidated device received RW open ##### 0x20808 0x0 isDeviceOwnedByHost 1
2026-08-20T07:08:19.299Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu125:15202521)PLOG: PLOGOpenDevice:5380: Device ##### not ready to receive open

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS vmkwarning: cpu#:3336825)WARNING: StorageDeviceVsi: 426: Device vsan:#### not found.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS vmkwarning: cpu#:2101826 opID=4ddeb394)WARNING: StorageDeviceVsi: 426: Device vsan:#### not found.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS vmkwarning: cpu#:13289611)WARNING: PLOG: PLOGProbeDevice:6851: Failed to read the device <naa.####:1> : Not found
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS vmkwarning: cpu#:13289611)WARNING: PLOG: PLOGProbeDevice:6851: Failed to read the device <naa.####1> : Not found
2026-04-08T10:04:29.965Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu#:13289611)PLOG: PLOGMapDataPartition:2989: can't find MD device by UUID ####
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS vmkernel: cpu#:13289611)PLOG: PLOGMapDataPartition:2989: can't find MD device by UUID ####

or NVMe errors as described in KB: vSAN NVMe disk report read only critical warning

From the command line, run this command:

$ esxcli vsan storage list | less

output for the device:

Unknown
Device: Unknown
Display Name: Unknown
Is SSD: false
VSAN UUID: ####
VSAN Disk Group UUID:
VSAN Disk Group Name:
Used by this host: false
In CMMDS: false
On-disk format version: -1
Deduplication: false
Compression: false
Checksum:
Checksum OK: false
Is Capacity Tier: false
Encryption Metadata Checksum OK: true
Encryption: false
DiskKeyLoaded: false
Is Mounted: false
Creation Time: Unknown

In the ESXI host logs /var/run/log/vobd.log will show below messages

vobd.log:YYYY-MM-ddThh:mm:ss.342Z: [scsiCorrelator] 4079214243471us: [esx.problem.scsi.device.state.permanentloss] Device: naa.####has been removed or is permanently inaccessible. Affected datastores (if any): Unknown.
vobd.log:YYYY-MM-ddThh:mm:ss.374Z: [scsiCorrelator] 4104631067753us: [vob.scsi.device.state.permanentloss] Device :naa.#### has been removed or is permanently inaccessible.

Verifying /var/run/log/vmkernel.log, check for the SCSI sense code against the device identifier:

YYYY-MM-ddThh:mm:ss.sssZ In(182) vmkernel: cpu#:2098242)ScsiDeviceIO: 4672: Cmd(0x45de37490640) 0x25, CmdSN 0x113d38b from world 0 to dev "naa.####" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x4 0x44 0xe2

This scsi sense code decodes a hardware error:

Sense Key [0x4] HARDWARE ERROR
Additional Sense Data 44/E2 Additional Sense Data unknown.
OP Code 0x25 READ CAPACITY(10)

Sense Key [0x4] in the above example is a hardware error
When reviewing smart data for the device you may see it reporting a health status of failed and/or offline

esxcli storage core device smart get -d naa.####
Parameter Value Threshold Worst
---------------------------- ----------------- --------- -----
Health Status FAILED/OFFLINE N/A N/A
Media Wearout Indicator N/A N/A N/A
Write Error Count 0 N/A N/A
Read Error Count 1638320548 N/A N/A

Running the command vdq -Hi will show the impacted disk(s) as UUIDs and not a device

Mappings:
DiskMapping[0]:
SSD: naa.####
MD: naa.####
MD: naa.####
MD: naa.####
MD: #### <-- Instead of showing the NAA ID, the vSAN UUID of the disk is shown

Environment

VMware vSAN 8.x
VMware vSAN 9.x

Cause

Physical disk failures can occur due to hardware exhaustion or accidental removal before the disk is properly decommissioned from the vSAN disk group.
If multiple disks show "Absent" across different disk groups on the same node, suspect a backend enclosure issue.
If the host cannot read the device, it is likely due to a persistent hardware error or an intermittent driver/firmware glitch.

Resolution

Contact the hardware vendor to replace the faulty disk.

NOTE: Ensure the DISK_UUID is accurately cross-referenced before proceeding with the removal of any 'Absent' disk.

1. 1. Get the UUID of the absent disk either from vCenter > Configure > vSAN > Disk Management or by running

esxcli vsan storage list |grep "Device: Unknown"|grep <DISK_UUID:>

Device : Unknown
Device: Unknown
Display Name: Unknown
VSAN UUID: ####

2. Use this command to check if the drive contains any data.

cmmds-tool find -u DISK_UUID -f json

3. Output similar to this will be displayed, indicating there is no data contained in the storage device:

{
"entries":
[
]
}

4. Use this command to check if any of the vSAN objects claim to have an association with the volume named as VSAN_UUID:

cmmds-tool find -t DOM_OBJECT -f json |grep <DISK_UUID>

5. If there is no data associated with the DISK_UUID , it should not display results and return the command prompt indicating that no objects have data associated to the VSAN_UUID.

If you have inaccessible objects, open a case with Broadcom Support (see KB: Creating and managing Broadcom support request (SR) cases) for assistance in determining if the objects would be recoverable after replacement. Be especially mindful of this in multiple disk failure scenarios.

1. The following article explain the replacement of the cache and capacity disk
  1. Replacing the cache disk : Replace a Flash Caching Device on a Host
  2. Replacing the capacity disk : Replace a Capacity Device in vSAN Cluster
2. In the vCenter vSphere UI, if the above operation fails then follow the below steps to remove the disk from the disk group:
  1. Replace the physical disk from the hardware level by powering off the ESXi
    1. If the server hardware supports Hot Swap of the disk , the faulty disk can be replaced after putting the ESXi host in Maintenance Mode
      - The newly added disk should be visible in Host and Clusters View -> ESXi Host -> Configure -> Storage Devices
    2. If Hot Swap is not supported, the reboot of the ESXI will show the new disk in the vCenter vSphere UI -> Host and Cluster view -> ESXI Host -> Configure -> Storage Devices.
3. To remove the failed disk from the vSAN cluster after it has been validated :
1. 1. After the device is determined to be an empty reference, remove the DISK_UUID using command below:
esxcli vsan storage remove -u DISK_UUID
2. Re-run the same command to verify if the listing for this volume is removed:
esxcli vsan storage list|grep DISK_UUID
3. Refresh the view in the vCenter vSphere UI and the volume will also be removed there. ( vCenter > Host and Cluster View > vSAN cluster > Configure > vSAN > Disk Management )

4. If the command to remove the drive fails with this error:
Unable to remove device: Unable to complete Sysinfo operation.See the VMkernel log file for more details.: Sysinfo error: Not found See VMkernel log for details.
1. 1. 1. Check if the vSAN cluster is configured with dedup and compression , you need to destroy and re-create the entire Disk Group which contains the affected disk UUID
    2. If the vSAN cluster does not use dedup and compression, the disk can be added directly to the respective Disk Group( Add Devices to the Disk Group in vSAN Cluster )

Additional Information

Reach out to hardware vendor and validate if the affected disk needs replacement.
The Hardware is identified at BIOS level by the installed firmware on the server. The SCSI code handling changes from a vendor to vendor and hence some of the vendors may provide the hot swappable HDD option for failed disk
However, the ESXi OS requires a reboot of the host to identify the new disk ( hardware changes in the system ) when the existing failed disk is replaced in the same slot to refresh the driver information in the ESXi kernel.
A newly added disk in the empty slot will be identified in real time. However, this disk replacement and identification behavior changes from vendor to vendor.
In cases where no physical hardware failure is detected despite persistent read issues, a host reboot/power cycle may restore functionality. Furthermore, ensure the storage controller's firmware and driver versions are verified for compatibility.