ESXi 4.1 host not recognising existing VMFS datastore

vmware-esxi

Existing setup:

  • host1 and host2, ESX 4.0, 2 HBAs each.
  • lun1 and lun2, 2 LUNs belonging to the same RAID set (my terminology might be sketchy here).

This has been working just fine all along.

I added host3, ESXi 4.1, 2 HBAs.

If I view Configuration / Storage Adapters, I can see that both HBAs see both LUNs, but if I view Configuration / Storage, I only see 1 datastore. host1/2 can see both LUNs and I have VMs running on both too.

I have rescanned, refreshed and even rebooted, but host3 refuses to acknowledge 1 of the datastores.

Does anyone know what's going on?

Update:

I re-installed the host with ESX (not i) 4.0, same version as the existing hosts and it's still not recognising the vmfs. I think I'm going to SVmotion everything off that datastore then format it.

Update2:

I've created the LUN from scratch and the problem gets even weirder. I've presented the LUN to all 3 hosts, and I can see the LUN in the vSphere client's Configuration / Storage Adapters section on all 3 hosts.

  • If I create a datastore on the LUN via the Configuration / Storage section on host1, it works fine and I can create an empty folder via datastore browser, but the datastore is not seen by the host2 and host3.
  • I can use the Add Storage wizard on host2 and it will see the LUN. At this point the "VMFS Label" column has the label I gave with "(head)" appended.
  • If I try the Add Storage wizard's "Keep the existing signature" option, it fails with an error "Cannot change the host configuration." and a dialog box that says 'Call "HostStorageSystem.ResolveMultipleUnresolvedVmfsVolumes" for object "storageSystem-17" on vCenter Server "vcenter.company.local" failed.'
  • If I try the Add Storage wizard's "Assign a new signature" option on host2, it will complete and the VMFS label will have "snap-(hexnumber)-" prepended. At this point its also visible on host3, but not host1.

I have a similar setup in a different datacenter which didn't give me all this trouble.

Best Answer

I had this same issue, but only for our replicated LUNs in the cluster. We were migrating from 4.0u1 to 4.1u1. The solution was simply to log into each host and run the command:

# esxcfg-volume -l  to view the datastores
# esxcfg-volume -m "vmfs_label_name"

Then go back to the VI client and refresh Storage - the datastore should be in the inventory.

I'm similarly not entirely comfortable with the solution, kinda weird, but thought I'd share.

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