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Discovery Process for iSCSI Software Initiator Appears to Hang ESX Server (3344257)

Details

The ESX Server system freezes for a long period of time while waiting for the iSCSI discovery process to run, and the system has to be rebooted.
 
The following text might appear in /var/log/messages:

iscsid[13755]: short PDU header read from socket 21: Connection reset by peer
iscsid[13755]: failed to recv a PDU response, reconnecting

Solution

When the iSCSI discovery process runs for the software initiator, the process can loop and consume all the service console resources, preventing other applications from running or starting. This might occur when an iSCSI target device terminates a discovery session. The ESX Server discovery process initiates a new process to establish a discovery session with this target, but it doesn't always completely clear the previous process.
 
To avoid the iSCSI Software Initiator discovery problem:
  1. Log into the service console of the ESX Server system as root.

  2. Edit the following file in a text editor, such as nano.

    [root@esxhost]# nano -w /etc/vmkiscsi.conf

    Caution: Do not make any other changes in this file, except for the change described in these steps, unless VMware Technical Support or official VMware documentation instructs you to do so.

  3. Look for the section Continuous Discovery Settings and look for an entry that looks like this:

    #Continuous=yes (or #Continuous=no )

  4. Uncomment the line (remove the #) and edit it if necessary so it looks like the following example (case-sensitive):

    Continuous=no

    If the line doesn't exist, override the default "yes" setting by adding Continuous=no as a new line at the end of the file.

  5. Save the file and exit the text editor.

Note: You do not need to reboot the ESX Server host for the changes to take effect.

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