topic Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7) in ESXi Discussions

Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

EvanBlank — Mon, 08 May 2023 22:54:24 GMT

My Unity-VV-Users-Files and Unity-VV-VMs datastores have disappeared what should I do? I attached screens of the shell log of what I have tried so far along with other screenshots showing the errors and the site will not let me upload a support bundle (not sure how helpful that will be but I'm putting everything out there that I can).

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

Alfista_PS — Tue, 09 May 2023 06:50:47 GMT

Hi,

are they a local datastores or shared over network like NFS?

If they are from network I will suggest you to check the whole network if its OK and you can access the shared storages.

If it's local I will suggest you to come to the shell and first check the stores if they are OK and do you see it.

Then You should try to unmount it and then again to mount.

And I have also fount this to your problem what you should also check:

- This issue occurs if there is a mismatch between the Jumbo frame size in the router and the vmkernel MTU settings.

- https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/65169

Hope it helps.

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

mguidini — Tue, 09 May 2023 08:17:49 GMT

Hi @EvanBlank ,

If the datastores are provided from local disks, check the server management console for hardware errors and volume management.

In case they are NFS or iSCSI you will have vmkernels assigned to them, check for network connectivity to and from these vmkernel's IP Addresses.

I would also check what is the status of the volumes in the storage management interface. Assuming this is an EMC Unity (from the datastores name description), this interface is the Unity Unisphere, which can be accessible via browser. From there you will be able to check the status of your volumes and disks and if/how they are interacting with your vCenter/ESXi hosts.

You will also be able to mount/unmount the volumes from there, as suggested.

Best,

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

EvanBlank — Tue, 09 May 2023 15:57:37 GMT

Everything looks fine in Unity. Do you see anything out of the oridinary? How do I check if/how they are interacting with your vCenter/ESXi hosts?

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

Alfista_PS — Wed, 10 May 2023 06:06:58 GMT

Have you check the network if all is OK and then the vmkernels?

If there is all OK then I will suggest you to check this not only in vCenter but on each ESXi host.

If there is also all OK then the next step should be to unmount all stores and mount it again or better you can fully remove it from each host and add it again as from scratch.

When this doesn't help then you have the last possibility to upgrade to the version 7 as its written in sent KB.

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

mguidini — Wed, 10 May 2023 06:59:07 GMT

There used to be a menu named Access>Hosts where you could find the list of ESXi hosts and their status, and some more info about the initiators, LUNs and IP Addresses.

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

mguidini — Wed, 10 May 2023 07:11:39 GMT

There used to be a menu named Access>Hosts where you could find the list of ESXi hosts and their status, and some more info about the initiators, LUNs and IP Addresses.

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

RajeevVCP4 — Wed, 10 May 2023 07:34:35 GMT

is any outage on storage side

did you check vmkernel.logs is any APD or PDL error triggered there, if yes then you need to reboot the host

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

HailegebriealA — Wed, 10 May 2023 12:15:23 GMT

If the storage is ISCSI you need to check the network and ISCSI IP configuration on vSphere or you can check on vCenter if any.

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

EvanBlank — Wed, 10 May 2023 18:22:48 GMT

How do I remount? ESXi doesn't like my NFS mount details. I might be doing it wrong

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

EvanBlank — Wed, 10 May 2023 19:00:26 GMT

Storage side looks good except Drive 23 and possibly a host initiator (not sure how to diagnose/fix that).

No APD or PDL errors in vmkernel log. I have attached the vmkernel log with all lines with the word "Error".

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

EvanBlank — Wed, 10 May 2023 19:03:08 GMT

Access>Hosts is missing 2 ip address and it won't let me add them. I can't add the initiator because it says host initiator already exists and host network address already exists

Re: Missing Datastore (EXSi 6.7)

Alfista_PS — Thu, 11 May 2023 06:10:43 GMT

Hi,

this should help you unmount the broken filesystems:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1005057

Its needed to do from shell while the WEB UI doesn't do it while the mounts are broken and working correctly.