Another "unable to create datastore" issue...

[richard612]

This time on any ATA disk attached to the P420 (p420i) controller in HBA mode (hbamode=on):

2018-05-29T10:33:49.969Z cpu3:2098605 opID=25f29edd)World: 11942: VC opID 1d67307f maps to vmkernel opID 25f29edd

2018-05-29T10:33:49.968Z cpu3:2098605 opID=25f29edd)LVM: 12674: LVMProbeDevice failed with status "Device does not contain a logical volume".

2018-05-29T10:33:50.004Z cpu0:2097163)nhpsa: hpsa_vmkScsiCmdDone:6512: Sense data: error code: 0x70, key: 0x5, info:00 00 00 00 , cmdInfo:00 00 00 00 , CmdSN: 0xbef7, worldId: 0x0, Cmd: 0x16, ASC: 0x20, ASCQ: 0x0

2018-05-29T10:33:50.004Z cpu0:2097705)ScsiDeviceIO: 3029: Cmd(0x459a40cffc80) 0x16, CmdSN 0xbef7 from world 0 to dev "naa.55cd2e404b7784c7" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x20 0x0.

2018-05-29T10:33:50.006Z cpu3:2098605 opID=25f29edd)LVM: 10419: LVMProbeDevice failed on (3798550880, naa.55cd2e404b7784c7:1): Device does not contain a logical volume

2018-05-29T10:33:50.006Z cpu3:2098605 opID=25f29edd)FSS: 2350: Failed to create FS on dev [naa.55cd2e404b7784c7:1] fs [SSD] type [vmfs6] fbSize 1048576 => Not supported

All of my drives (both SAS and SATA) were cleaned with diskpart (select disk x then clean).  The SAS drives are fine but all three of my SATA drives behave as above.

Is this another case of needing to DBAN the drives before trying to work with them in ESXi?  partedUtil isn't helping with these...

[Finikiez]

First of all can you check for existing partition on the device naa.55cd2e404b7784c7 using partedUtil command

looks like as this

partedUtil setptbl /vfms/devices/disks/naa.55cd2e404b7784c7

if there is a partition them remove it

partedUtil delete /vfms/devices/disks/naa.55cd2e404b7784c7 <partition number>

Also do you use raid controller in HBA mode or RAID mode?

[richard612]

Controller is in HBA mode.  Ran DBAN against the disk.  Still can't create a datastore.

This is after another attempt to create one:

[root@server:/dev/disks] partedUtil getptbl ./naa.55cd2e404b7784c7

gpt

58369 255 63 937703088

No partition number?

Edit: This is interesting: ESXi 6.5 - HP P420i - HBA mode - Failed to create VMFS datastore

esxcli storage core device list reports "Is SAS: True"  I think this P.O.S. P420 controller does not do HBA mode properly based on some other stories I've read.  It's reporting SATA as SAS. 

I wonder if a custom SATP rule could fix this...

[richard612]

Problem solved.  I've installed an H220 HBA and moved all the SATA disk over to it.  Immediately I could create datastores on all of these drives.

Based on this experience along with what I've read elsewhere, a P420 + HBA mode = a bag of hurt.