Symptoms
  • After upgrading a host from vSphere ESXi 6.x to 7.x, you may see the datastore along with the vms/disks located inside become inaccessible. In the vmkernel.log, you will see error message similar to:
xxxx-xx-xxT23:20:39.931Z cpu51:2100016)LVM: 7013: Failed to probe the VMFS header of naa.6742b0f00000053600000000000ef624:7 due to No filesystem on the device
xxxx-xx-xxT23:20:39.942Z cpu51:2100016)LVM: 7013: Failed to probe the VMFS header of naa.6742b0f00000053600000000000ef624:7 due to No filesystem on the device
xxxx-xx-xT23:20:39.944Z cpu51:2100016)LVM: 7013: Failed to probe the VMFS header of naa.6742b0f00000053600000000000ef624:7 due to No filesystem on the device
  • In the datastore you will see vmfs-l label instead of vmfs.
Storage device from 7.0 host:

partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6742b0f00000053600000000000ef6e4
gpt
1069397 255 63 17179869184
7 2048 268435455 4EB2EA3978554790A79EFAE495E21F8D vmfsl 0

Note: If you see the same from a 6.7 host, the vmfsl label may show as unknown in 6.7, as 6.7 does not recognize the vmfsl label.

 Cause
This issue is caused when the scratch location is set up incorrectly to the root of a datastore.
 Resolution
This issue is resolved in VMware ESXi 7.0  P03 GA
 Workaround
To workaround this issue if you do not want to upgrade, restore any lost data from the backup.

To avoid encountering this issue, ensure all the systems have scratch configured to a unique subdirectory of a shared volume, see Creating a persistent scratch location for ESXi 7.x/6.x/5.x/4.

To set scratch:
  1. Click on Advanced System settings of host in the vCenter Server.
  2. Click on Edit.
  3. Change the ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation configuration option and set it to the full path of the directory including the unique sub folder:
For Example:
/vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/.locker-ESXi-hostname

Note: Reboot is required to apply the change.