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lalainejoy
Contributor
Contributor

Unable to Browse SAN Storage

Hi - we have esxi hosts and the hosts uses both local and SAN storage. We have encountered problem the other day where SAN storage is not visible in the ESXi host anymore and unable to browse the vdisk. But the virtual machines running on those host where their vdisk is saved in SAN is working perfectly fine. We cannot do anything in the servers as we cant even open the consoles. We have checked the logs but nothing is there. Please help!

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12 Replies
idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

you're saying that the VM is running fine but you could not browse the datastore?

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lalainejoy
Contributor
Contributor

Hi idle-jam,

yes. VM is running fine. Like in one of the esxi host, there are 3 servers. Server 1 it uses the local disk and server2,3 uses the SAN storage. both 3 servers were running perfectly fine, server1 we can manage from the host. server2 and 3 we cant as we are not able to log even to the console and san storage is unbrowsable.

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idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

try to have a look at this site: you will get the idea.

http://www.randombugs.com/recovery/vmfs-datastore-missing-2.html

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lalainejoy
Contributor
Contributor

hi jam - to be more precise, when i try adding storage through SAN, the mount options (keep the existing signature, assign a new signature, format the disk) is not present. It goes directly to Current Disk Layout after selecting the LUN.

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idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

if you go to current disk layout then it's going to format the whole LUN for your. have you follow my earlier advise above? it would help you recover an existing LUN that has data in it.

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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

Which version of ESXi are you using?

Can you send the output of this command (from the hidden console)?

fdisk -l

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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lalainejoy
Contributor
Contributor

HI Jam - yes i have followed your advise above through the console only as LVM config in gui for esxi 4.0 is not available. I have resignature but still no luck. Thanks though for the help

Hi Andre - attached is the fdisk output.

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idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

i think the attachment is missing. can you reattach?

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lalainejoy
Contributor
Contributor

reattaching. Smiley Happy

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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

The fdisk command shows only one disk (the local one).

SAN storage are not present at all.

So check SAN connectivy and configuration.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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lalainejoy
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Andre - thanks will double-check the same. But is it possible that the connection with the SAN is the problem even though when I add a new storage it detects the fiber channel disk? please see attached screenshot when adding new storage. Sorry quite new with SAN storage.

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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

This screenshot say that you can see the SAN LUN.

But it is strange that fdisk does not show the same LUN.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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