Web client doesn't show storage devices or paths

[mlichsteintwc]

When I click on a host, manage, storage and then storage adapters, I don't see anything on the Devices or Paths tabs when clicking on an HBA. I've tried both the 5.1 and 5.5 web clients, with Chrome and IE. The information shows up fine in the C# client.

Any thoughts?

[Alim786]

Are you selecting the correct HBA to view ?

For example if I have a pure Fibre Channel Storage environment but I select an iSCSI Adapter to view details for, then nothing will show.

[mlichsteintwc]

Yes, each host has two FC HBAs, and both are active. I can view information on both through the C# client.

[Alim786]

Just to try and narrow things down, have you tried from the vCenter server itself (if not already tried), from another PC ?

Is everything else displaying correctly without any errors in the web client ?

What information does it display for the FC HBAs ? For example, is the status "online", does it show any "Targets", "Devices" and "Paths".

[mlichsteintwc]

Can't try from vCenter because it's running the appliance I've tried from a Windows 7 machine and from a Mac.

Everything else seems to be working in the client as far as I can tell.

This is what I see:

and the same view through the fat client:

[Alim786]

Lets try another view. From the web client, can you see the datastores and try and select one and navigate to the same view as above. Please check at each view if the information you are seeing is correct/complete. Also try a rescan storage from the web client.

[mlichsteintwc]

Under datestores, when I look at the connectivity and multipathing section and select a host, the multipathing details box is blank.

It seems like it might be HBA/driver related. I'm not able to view any details on UCS blades with the Cisco VIC, but I was able to view info on a Sun box with an Emulex FC card. I tried an updated version of the Cisco fnic driver, but there was no change.

[Alim786]

It still doesn't explain why you can see view it from the normal vSphere Client. Can you provide exact FCoE HBA model/number details please, what drivers you have installed. Also please confirm what version of ESXi and vCenter you are using ?

[mlichsteintwc]

It's the Cisco M81KR adapter. The fnic driver is the inbox one that comes with ESXi 5.1 U1, 1.5.0.4-1vmw.

ESXi is 5.1 U1, and vCenter is 5.5. I am also seeing this with vCenter 5.1 against different ESXi hosts that have the same configuration.

[Alim786]

There are newer async drivers available but you will have to check if your firmware is compatible. It may be that you need to update your UCS. Better confirm with Cisco before proceeding with this as it could break something else !

I am still not totally convinced that this is an issue with firmware and drivers though, as it is only affecting your view via the web client. I assume from everything you have told me, that you have full functionality via the normal vSphere Client.

[Adrian_Sutton]

Has this issue been resolved as I have the same problem

vCenter 5.5u1, ESXi Host 5.5u1 running on Cisco UCS. 

It appears fine until I installed EMC PowerPath software and then I cannot view storage details in the Web Client.

[adamjg]

Same issue here.  I have 2 sites that are nearly identical.  Exact same UCS hardware, exact same E5-2660 blades, using the 5.5 vCenter appliance and 5.5 on all of the hosts.  All hosts are updated to the latest version.  Firmware is the exact same on the UCS hardware and all the blades.  Server profiles are identical.  Yet, one site shows the LUNs just fine, and the other site doesn't.  These were built at the same time and all settings are identical.  This also has been going on the entire time this environment has been online (January).  Datastores show up just fine in the datastore view, and everything shows up as expected in the C# client.  Also both sides have EMC PowerPath/VE 5.9 installed and licensed.

I was thinking of opening a ticket with VMware.  If I get anywhere I'll reply here.

[adamjg]

I opened a ticket with VMware on this a few weeks ago.  So far they've been playing the blame game and have no clue what's causing it.  Since it's not a level 1 Critical all systems down type of ticket, I only get a reply every 3-4 days or so, so it will likely take some time to get anything concrete on this.  I'll post when I get something.

[adamjg]

I have some traction on this.  VMware support hasn't been able to help so far through several phone calls and webex sessions.

Yesterday I took a host out of the cluster and rebuilt it.  When I brought it in, the LUNs showed up in the web client.  I patched it to the latest version using VUM and the LUNs still showed up.  However, as soon as I installed PowerPath/VE 5.9, I got the dreaded message "The list is empty."  I upgraded my EMC licensing appliance and brought in the latest PP/VE to VUM and patched again, no luck.  I even rebuilt from scratch again and as soon as I put PP/VE on, the LUNs vanish.  As soon as I uninstall PP/VE and reboot, they show up.

Do any of you in this thread who are having this issue use PowerPath?

[Adrian_Sutton]

Yes I only have the issue when EMC PowerPath 5.9 is installed.  I had a ticket open with EMC and did not get much traction as to them it worked fine in the old Client so they blamed VMware.

I still tend not to use the webclient so have found this issue to just be cosmetic at this stage but would be nice to find a fix

[cyberfed2727]

Same issue here with a brand new vBlock deployment using the powerpath plugin.

I asked the vBlock deployment team about it and got crickets...

[adamjg]

2 years later and I still use the C# client in vSphere 6 for most storage activities that require LUN ID.  A fix to PowerPath fixed it a long time ago, but the web client is still lacking in this area.

[cyberfed2727]

So the official word from VCE was that this indeed a bug with PP and Webclient with no workaround.

A few million dollars of hardware to go backwards in manageability. Wonderful.

[m200]

We are running a Cisco UCS environment, at the moment using VMware's ESXi 6.0 U2 b#4600944, customized with latest cisco drivers and powerpath/VE 6.1. Cisco UCS currently running FW 3.1.2b (both FI and servers).

Our VCSA is currently running build: 3634794 (we have a planned VCSA upgrade in 9 days for the build 4632154 - hoping this might solve the issue by upgrading the webclient/vCenter server)

As of now.....In the C# client everything works fine, but in the Webclient it seems that the servers at random are starting to display an empty list for storage devices and paths. Rebooting the hosts does nothing (were using autodeploy with hostprofiles, so all hosts are streamed fresh upon reboot). This problem might at first seem as an "cosmetic" issue, as we still may use the #C client for storage-operations.... But this is actually a showstopper regarding future upgrading to ESXi 6.5, as the #C client there is totally deprecated and no longer availlable. We have confirmed that the problem seeing devices and paths are also present using the HTML5 webclient-fling..... We have however also checked the html5 based host-client, and here we can actually see devices (on the same host that the webclient does not - however, the host-client doesn't seem to show paths by design).

I have understood from the comments of people having opened supportcases, that VMware and EMC is playing the blame-game on this one..... anyone had any breakthrough responses? Should I too open a case, or is it a waste of time, as it will just get me nowhere near any actual solution otherthan joining the blamegame...... Have anyone tried this with ESXi 6.5? The problem stil present there? For me, this is a major showstopper in further upgrading the system.