What would cause the options to mount an existing vmfs 5.61 datastore to be grayed out with only the option to format available? The datastore is on a Nimble SAN snapshot clone volume linked through iscsi. The base parent volume for the snapshot is mounted with no problem. Unmounting the base datastore + detaching the device before remounting the snapshot clone volume was also tried. Getting the same result on an esxi 5.5 host not tied to vcenter and another esxi 6.0 host tied to vcenter. HBA + VMFS rescans have been tried. I've had no problem mounting this type of snapshot clone on these hosts in the past but it wasn't recent. Any suggestions are appreciated.
here's the solution I went with:
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list
Volume Name: (name of datastore for parent volume of snapshot clone volume I'm trying to mount)
VMFS UUID: **
Can mount: false
Reason for un-mountability: duplicate extents found
Can resignature: false
Reason for non-resignaturability: duplicate extents found
Unresolved Extent Count: 3
verified hba numbering
esxcli iscsi adapter discovery sendtarget list
Adapter Sendtarget
------- ------------------
vmhba33 **:3260
removed all iscsi devices + sessions for multiple snapshot clone volumes associated with the same parent volume on the san array:
esxcli storage core device set --state=off -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session remove -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
esxcli storage core device set --state=off -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session remove -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
esxcli storage core device set --state=off -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session remove -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
esxcli storage core device set --state=off -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session remove -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list
(no longer lists it)
re-added only the device / target for the snapshot I'm trying to mount with target + serial verified from san array:
esxcli storage core device set --state=on -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session add -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
The mount + resignature options are no longer grayed out in the vsphere client's Add Storage screen and the volume was successfully resignatured + mounted.
Have you tried to resignature the volume from commandline ?
VMware Knowledge Base
here's the solution I went with:
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list
Volume Name: (name of datastore for parent volume of snapshot clone volume I'm trying to mount)
VMFS UUID: **
Can mount: false
Reason for un-mountability: duplicate extents found
Can resignature: false
Reason for non-resignaturability: duplicate extents found
Unresolved Extent Count: 3
verified hba numbering
esxcli iscsi adapter discovery sendtarget list
Adapter Sendtarget
------- ------------------
vmhba33 **:3260
removed all iscsi devices + sessions for multiple snapshot clone volumes associated with the same parent volume on the san array:
esxcli storage core device set --state=off -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session remove -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
esxcli storage core device set --state=off -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session remove -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
esxcli storage core device set --state=off -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session remove -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
esxcli storage core device set --state=off -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session remove -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list
(no longer lists it)
re-added only the device / target for the snapshot I'm trying to mount with target + serial verified from san array:
esxcli storage core device set --state=on -d eui.**
esxcli iscsi session add -A vmhba33 -n iqn.**
The mount + resignature options are no longer grayed out in the vsphere client's Add Storage screen and the volume was successfully resignatured + mounted.
Thanks for posting the solution
Ulli
another variation on the same problem fixed by the same steps if anyone else runs into it:
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list
**
Volume Name: **
VMFS UUID: **
Can mount: false
Reason for un-mountability: the original volume is still online
Can resignature: true
Reason for non-resignaturability:
Unresolved Extent Count: 1