VPLEX: Storage-Volume in critical-failure state due to scsi check condition B/44/00 from storage-array

Summary: VPLEX marks disk dead due to scsi sense code B/44/00 from the underlying storage-array.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.

Symptoms

VPLEX storage-volume is in a critical-failure state, and the underlying volume is healthy on the Array side.

Sample output from cli command: ll /clusters/cluster-1/storage-elements/storage-volumes/<storage-volume name>

VPlexcli:/> ll /clusters/cluster-1/storage-elements/storage-volumes/Symm1234_0000

/clusters/cluster-1/storage-elements/storage-volumes/Symm1234_0000:
Name                           Value
-----------------------------  ------------------------------------------------
application-consistent         false
block-count                    65798400
block-size                     4K
capacity                       251G
description                    -
free-chunks                    []
health-indications             [hardware dead]
health-state                   critical-failure <<--
io-status                      dead
itls                           0x50001442607de710/0x5000097378028844/80,
                               0x50001442607de710/0x50000973780288c4/80,
                               0x50001442607de711/0x5000097378028844/80,
                               0x50001442607de711/0x50000973780288c4/80,
                               0x50001442707de710/0x5000097378028844/80,
                               0x50001442707de710/0x50000973780288c4/80,
                               0x50001442707de711/0x5000097378028844/80,
                               0x50001442707de711/0x50000973780288c4/80,
                               0x50001442a0100410/0x5000097378028844/80,
                               0x50001442a0100410/0x50000973780288c4/80, ...
                               (16 total)
largest-free-chunk             0B
locality                       -
operational-status             error
provision-type                 legacy
storage-array-name             EMC-SYMMETRIX-XXXXXXXXX
storage-volumetype             normal
system-id                      VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000000
thin-capable                   false
thin-rebuild                   true
total-free-space               0B
underlying-storage-block-size  512
use                            unusable
used-by                        [extent_Symm1234_0000_1]
vendor-specific-name           EMC

Storage Volume in critical-failure state

VPlexcli:/> storage-volume summary
SUMMARY (cluster-1)
StorageVolume Name                        IO Status  Operational Status  Health State
----------------------------------------  ---------  ------------------  ----------------
Symm1234_0000                             dead       error               critical-failure <<--

A sample excerpt from the Dial Home that highlights the logical unit that died:

                  <EventData><![CDATA[disk VPD83T3:60000970000000000000000000000000: disk died, no mirror exists

If this storage-volume is not part of a distributed device, then host loses access to this Virtual Volume causing a Data Unavailability situation.

VPlex firmware logs portray streaming scsi/27 events with SCSI Sense Code key 0xb asc 0x44 ascq 0x0 (B/44/00) which translates to INTERNAL TARGET FAILURE.

Sample scsi/27 instances from firmware.log

128.221.253.37/cpu0/log:5988:W/"0060166fcbfe192045-1":3298782:<6>2016/11/11 06:50:57.94: scsi/27 tgt VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000000 cmd 0x2a status 0x2 valid 0 resp 0x70 seg 0x0 bits 0x0 key 0xb info 0x0 alen 10 csi 0x0 asc 0x44 ascq 0x0 fru 0x0 sks 0x0
128.221.253.37/cpu0/log:5988:W/"0060166fcbfe192045-1":3298783:<6>2016/11/11 06:50:58.00: scsi/27 tgt VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000000 cmd 0x2a status 0x2 valid 0 resp 0x70 seg 0x0 bits 0x0 key 0xb info 0x0 alen 10 csi 0x0 asc 0x44 ascq 0x0 fru 0x0 sks 0x0
128.221.253.37/cpu0/log:5988:W/"0060166fcbfe192045-1":3298784:<6>2016/11/11 06:50:58.16: scsi/27 tgt VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000000 cmd 0x2a status 0x2 valid 0 resp 0x70 seg 0x0 bits 0x0 key 0xb info 0x0 alen 10 csi 0x0 asc 0x44 ascq 0x0 fru 0x0 sks 0x0
128.221.253.37/cpu0/log:5988:W/"0060166fcbfe192045-1":3298785:<6>2016/11/11 06:50:58.30: scsi/27 tgt VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000000 cmd 0x2a status 0x2 valid 0 resp 0x70 seg 0x0 bits 0x0 key 0xb info 0x0 alen 10 csi 0x0 asc 0x44 ascq 0x0 fru 0x0 sks 0x0

Twenty-one retries performed and the storage-volume are marked dead due to continuous write failures.

128.221.253.37/cpu0/log:5988:W/"0060166fcbfe192045-1":3298797:<4>2016/11/11 06:51:01.42: amf/45 disk VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000000: write failure: marking this in-use disk dead
128.221.253.37/cpu0/log:5988:W/"0060166fcbfe192045-1":3298798:<2>2016/11/11 06:51:01.42: amf/97 disk VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000000: disk died, no mirror exists

 

Cause

Storage-Array returns B/44/00 for a Write I/O request (0x2a), the array is not able to serve the I/O request and responds with check condition B/44/00 (INTERNAL TARGET FAILURE)

If the underlying storage-volume is a VMAX volume, then I/O failures can occur for reasons given below:

The reason why the VMAX aborted the IO is not given to the VPlex. There are many reasons why an internal target failure will occur, and could be caused by a very broad range of sources.

 

Resolution

The storage-array that is sending the scsi check condition, B/44/00, to VPLEX must be investigated by the respective array vendor. This issue is triggered by the array not being able to service the write I/O request due to an "Internal Target Failure" issue on the storage-array.

If the underlying Array is a VMAX Array, then an array can send scsi check condition "B/44/00" for several reasons.

The following cli command can be run on the VPLEX Management-Server to get a list of logical-units impacted by the B/44/00 check condition:

grep "scsi/27" firmware.log* | grep 'key 0xb' |awk '{print $3, $5, $18, $19, $26,$27,$28,$29}'| sort | uniq -c | sort -nr

Example:

service@ManagementServer:~> grep "scsi/27" firmware.log* | grep 'key 0xb' | awk '{print $3, $5, $18, $19, $26,$27,$28,$29}'| sort | uniq -c | sort -nr
 103474 scsi/27 VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000000 key 0xb asc 0x44 ascq 0x0
  45254 scsi/27 VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000001 key 0xb asc 0x44 ascq 0x0
  32908 scsi/27 VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000002 key 0xb asc 0x44 ascq 0x0
  25581 scsi/27 VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000003 key 0xb asc 0x44 ascq 0x0
  21043 scsi/27 VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000004 key 0xb asc 0x44 ascq 0x0
  10809 scsi/27 VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000005 key 0xb asc 0x44 ascq 0x0
  10651 scsi/27 VPD83T3:60000097000000000000000000000006 key 0xb asc 0x44 ascq 0x0

If this is a non-EMC array, engage the respective array vendor in order to resolve the issue that exists on the storage-array.

 

Additional Information

This is not a VPlex issue, this could either be a Back-end Array or a Fabric issue.

Storage-Array team, Connectivity, or both must be engaged.

 

Affected Products

VPLEX Series

Products

VPLEX Series, VPLEX VS2
Article Properties
Article Number: 000167224
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 28 Oct 2025
Version:  5
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