Datastore missing

Have a iscsi target setup with a mapped LUN, one esxi host has the datastore in it's list of datastores at Configuration-> Storage-> View: Datastores. The other host only sees the LUN when using Configuration-> Storage-> View: Devices. It does not show up in Configuration-> Storage-> View: Datastores, the operational state shows as mounted in the devices list. Have tried removing and re-adding the iscsi target but nothing will get it back into the list of datastores. Any way to get it back in View: Datastores?

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Comments

Essendon

Is there a vCenter storage filter enabled? Check in vCenter settings, you are looking for config.vpxd.filter.rdmfilter and value = True. Set it to false.

Or LUN masking/zoning by any chance?

volume

What kind of storage is it? I've had some "value priced" storage that had LUNs not show up unless the host was powered off and back on.

Mikdilly

Don't have any filtering setup that i can remember, or lun masking. The iscsi target is setup on a synology disk station using dsm 4.1. This nas model may not be supported. Was hoping to avoid having to reboot the host.

dave330i

You did manually rescan all the HBAs, right?

Mikdilly

dave330i wrote: »

You did manually rescan all the HBAs, right?

Yes, also rebooted host and it still shows the same way after the reboot.

Here it is in devices list:

And not in datastores list:

Devices.jpg

Datastores.jpg

Essendon

Look at vmware kb article 1011387, sorry cant paste link as I am posting from my phone.

jibbajabba

On iSCSI - you usually see the LUNS only in devices when your host doesn't have permissions to access the LUN. The storage controller (even just a software ISCSI one like on vSphere) will always see all LUNs, but doesn't necessarily map it.

Check if your second host is allowed to access the LUN in question (IQN / IP / CHAP etc.).

dave330i

Also check your MTU. I had goofy results when there was a MTU mismatch.

Mikdilly

Thanks for the replies, looks as though something is up with synology. Rebooted the nas and i can now add the LUN back into storage on both hosts. Have 2 iscsi targets in dsm with 2 different iqn, i add the 2 targets through static discovery in vsphere client to the 2 hosts but when i add the LUN to storage on the 1st host, it automatically adds the same LUN to the second host. Deleting the Lun on 1 host automatically deletes it from the other host. In dsm there is no access control that i can see other than allowing multiple sessions from 1 or more initiators, since i have 2 separate iscsi targets i left multiple sessions unchecked for each target and assigned the separate targets to each host, tried it both ways, checked and unchecked, same result for both. I tried deleting the target and Lun from dsm and setting them back up as just 1 target and mapped LUN, same behavior when adding the LUN to first host.

I now also get an error when clicking on Storage Views tab on each host.

'The server (ip address of vcenter server) could not interpret the client's request. (The remote server returned an error

503) Server Unavailable)'

Don't know if it's related to Synology as it comes up even after removing the LUN and target from both hosts.

meadIT

What version of DSM and ESXi are you using? There were some compatibility / performance issues I believe on DSM 4.0 or early 4.1 releases and ESXi 5.x.

Mikdilly

meadIT wrote: »

What version of DSM and ESXi are you using? There were some compatibility / performance issues I believe on DSM 4.0 or early 4.1 releases and ESXi 5.x.

DSM 4.1 and ESXi 5.1, I think I got this cleared up, it turned out to be a problem with Vcenter Server, the hardware status plugin was not started, something about an error connecting to server, after checking out this error:

'The server (ip address of vcenter server) could not interpret the client's request. (The remote server returned an error503) Server Unavailable)'

I decided to reboot the VM running Vcenter server, after rebooting i checked the Virtual Server service on the VM running Vcenter, it and the Web access service were not starting after the reboot. Checked Event viewer in 2008 server and there was an error with the Virtual Server service not starting after a timeout period. Searched the error and didn't find much as to a cause. Checked services again and they then showed as started.
Logged back into Vcenter thru vsphere client, the hardware status plugin is now enabled and no longer get the error when clicking on Storage Views tab.

Haven't had a chance to check re-adding the datastores to each host, something seemed strange about adding synology iscsi LUN to one host and having it automatically added to the other host, don't think that's how it's supposed to work.