VPLEX: While creating Extent from VPLEX getting WARNING: Could not determine thin-capability for storage-volume

Summary: This article talks to when creating an extent a warning that appears about not being able to determine if the storage-volume the extent is made on top of is thin capable.

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Symptoms

New Storage-Volumes have been presented to the VPLEX yet the 'array re-discover' command was not run after the storage was provisioned to the VPLEX.

While creating an extent from a storage-volume on the VPLEX provisioned from an backend array you the following warning:

VPlexcli:/clusters/cluster-1> extent create -d xxxxx_7475_xxxxx01_02_data_xx
WARNING: Could not determine thin-capability for storage-volume: xxxxxx_7475_xxxxx01_02_data_xx. Any new extents supported by this storage-volume could potentially lose thin-capability.

Cause

This warning appears when the 'array re-discover' command has not been performed after presenting a Storage-Volume/LUN to the VPLEX.


Resolution

Before performing the 'array re-discover' check the status and storage-volume to confirm if everything looks good.

To avoid this warning always  perform an 'array re-discover' immediately after provisioning a new LUN(s)  to VPLEX.  

1. Run the following command after provisioning storage to VPLEX:

VPlexcli:/> array re-discover --array <Array Name>-<array serial number> --cluster cluster-x

If you do not know the array name and serial number you can check those array's attached to the VPLEX by using the command 'll /clusters/*/storage-element/storage-arrays'

      Sample output:
VPlexcli:/> ll /clusters/*/storage-elements/storage-arrays/

/clusters/cluster-1/storage-elements/storage-arrays:
Name                         Connectivity  Auto    Ports                Logical
---------------------------  Status        Switch  -------------------  Unit
---------------------------  ------------  ------  -------------------  Count
---------------------------  ------------  ------  -------------------  -------
EMC-CLARiiON-APM00xxxxxxxx  ok            true    0x500xxxxxxxx0084b,  9
                                                  0x500xxxxxxxx0084b,
                                                  0x500xxxxxxxx0084b,
                                                  0x500xxxxxxxx0084b


/clusters/cluster-2/storage-elements/storage-arrays:
Name                         Connectivity  Auto    Ports                Logical
---------------------------  Status        Switch  -------------------  Unit
---------------------------  ------------  ------  -------------------  Count
---------------------------  ------------  ------  -------------------  -------
EMC-CLARiiON-APM00xxxxxxxxx  ok            true   0x500xxxxxxxx0084b,  6
                                                  0x500xxxxxxxx0084b,
                                                  0x500xxxxxxxx0084b,
                                                  0x500xxxxxxxx0084b

2. After performing the 'array re-discover', try to create an extent again to confirm the issue is resolved.

3. In case issue is still persist you will need to confirm if the backend array is configured with VPLEX correctly. Refer to the best practices guide to properly connect a backend array to VPLEX.

    Refer to the VPLEX SAN Connectivity Best Practices Guide: VPLEX SAN Connectivity Best Practices Guide

4. If everything looks correct, the end user may need open a Live Chat with Dell EMC Customer Service for further assistance and reference this article.

Additional Information

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Affected Products

VPLEX Series

Products

VPLEX for All Flash, VPLEX GeoSynchrony, VPLEX Series, VPLEX VS2, VPLEX VS6
Article Properties
Article Number: 000168350
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2025
Version:  4
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