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Article Number: 000168591

VPLEX: Expanding virtual-volumes causes GPT table corruption on ESX cross-connected hosts

Summary: This KB addresses an issue when the virtual-volume is expanded from VPLEX side and ESX hosts could not detect the expanded volume due to GPT table corruption.

Article Content

Symptoms



  • After successfully expanding virtual-volumes from VPLEX, ESX hosts cannot see the expanded size. 

From firmware logs: 

128.221.253.36/cpu0/log:5988:W/"0060169d39d6214036-1":25668:<6>2018/12/06 12:17:36.79: amf/248 Capacity of disk Test_Volume has changed from 2748779069440 to 3298534883328
  • The above event indicates the virtual-volume was successfully expanded from VPLEX. 
  • After expanding the datastore, the host doesn't see the expanded size as the expansion causes GPT table corruption.
  • In this case, the error below is reported in the VMware kernal logs indicating the GPT table is corrupted:
018-12-06T14:06:46.732Z ERROR Exception: The backup GPT table is not at the end of the disk, as it should be. This might mean that another operating system believes the disk is smaller. Fix, by moving the backup to the end (and removing the old ba$


Cause

The expanded virtual-volume was presented to cross-connected hosts with different LUN IDs. 

 
(Refer to the host.txt file which can be found in the base collect-diagnostics (c-d) file under analysis notes directory)

****************************************
*       Cluster Name: cluster-1        *
****************************************

---------------------------------------------
     View Name:   Test_Storage_View
     View Status: ok
---------------------------------------------

LUN-4: TestVolume (VPD83T3:60001440000000xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
       ==> device_TestVolume (distributed raid-1)
       cluster-1:
           ==> device_TestVolume (raid-0)
               ==> extent_TestVolume
                   ==> TestVolume
                       ==> VPD83T3:60060160xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                           ==> EMC~CLARiiON~xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (EMC~CLARiiON)
       cluster-2:
           ==> device_TestVolume_1 (raid-0)
               ==> extent_device_TestVolume_1
                   ==> TestVolume_1
                       ==> VPD83T3:600601604xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                           ==> EMC~CLARiiON~xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (EMC~CLARiiON)
                           
****************************************
*       Cluster Name: cluster-2        *
****************************************
---------------------------------------------
     View Name:   Test_Storage_View
     View Status: ok
---------------------------------------------

LUN-6: TestVolume (VPD83T3:60001440000000xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
       ==> device_TestVolume (distributed raid-1)
       cluster-1:
           ==> device_TestVolume (raid-0)
               ==> extent_TestVolume
                   ==> TestVolume
                       ==> VPD83T3:60060160xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                           ==> EMC~CLARiiON~xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (EMC~CLARiiON)
       cluster-2:
           ==> device_TestVolume_1 (raid-0)
               ==> extent_device_TestVolume_1
                   ==> TestVolume_1
                       ==> VPD83T3:600601604xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                           ==> EMC~CLARiiON~xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (EMC~CLARiiON)


As shown above, the same-virtual-volume was exported to cross-connected storage-view with different LUN IDs on cluster-1 and cluster-2.

Resolution

VMware should be engaged to resolve the GPT table corruption. 

To avoid GPT table corruption and ensure the expansion is seen from the host side, on VPLEX, change the LUN ID of the virtual-volume to be the same on both cluster-1 and cluster-2 storage-views before expanding the datastore as follows: 

VPlexcli:/> cd /clusters/cluster-1/exports/storage-views/Test_Storage_View
VPlexcli:/clusters/cluster-1/exports/storage-views/Test_Storage_View>export storage-view addvirtualvolume (5, TestVolume ) --force

VPlexcli:/> cd /clusters/cluster-2/exports/storage-views/Test_Storage_View
VPlexcli:/clusters/cluster-2/exports/storage-views/Test_Storage_View>export storage-view addvirtualvolume (5, TestVolume ) --force

Note: Changing the LUN ID might be disruptive to the hosts.

Article Properties

Affected Product

VPLEX Series

Product

VPLEX for All Flash, VPLEX Series

Last Published Date

20 Nov 2020

Version

2

Article Type

Solution

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