• ESXi 5.0 experiences a delay when booting during the software-iscsi step.
• After the boot process completes, the sysboot.log file contains entries similar to:
  
  [01:57:50.925338] sysboot: software-iscsi
  [02:28:22.330320] sysboot: restore-paths
  
  
• After the boot process completes, the syslog.log file contains entries similar to:
  
  iscsid: cannot make a connection to 192.168.1.20:3260 (101,Network is unreachable)
  iscsid: Notice: Reclaimed Channel (H34 T0 C1 oid=3)
  iscsid: session login failed with error 4,retryCount=3
  iscsid: Login Target Failed: iqn.1984-05.com.dell:powervault.md3000i.6002219000a14a2b00000000495e2886 if=iscsi_vmk@vmk8 addr=192.168.1.20:3260 (TPGT:1 ISID:0xf) err=4
  iscsid: Login Failed: iqn.1984-05.com.dell:powervault.md3000i.6002219000a14a2b00000000495e2886 if=iscsi_vmk@vmk8 addr=192.168.1.20:3260 (TPGT:1 ISID:0xf) Reason: 00040000 (Initiator Connection Failure)

This issue occurs because ESXi 5.0 attempts to connect to all configured or known targets from all configured software iSCSI portals. If a connection fails, ESXi 5.0 retries the connection 9 times. This can lead to a lengthy iSCSI discovery process, which increases the amount of time it takes to boot an ESXi 5.0 host.

Resolution

• VMware ESXi 5.0, Patch Release ESXi500-201111001 (2008017)
• VMware ESXi 5.0 Patch ESXi500-201111401-BG: Updates esx-base (2008018)

• When you are upgrading to ESXi 5.0, there are two ISO files: one for systems without software iSCSI configured and one for systems with software iSCSI configured. If you have configured software iSCSI devices, or if you think you might use software iSCSI in the future, ensure that you choose the ISO image for systems with software iSCSI.
• This express patch ISO contains all of the fixes in ESXi 5.0 Patch 01, plus the software iSCSI fix.

• VMware is delivering an ISO file for this patch release due to the nature of this issue. This is not common practice and is only done in special circumstances.

Note: The ISO containing ESXi 5.0 Patch 01 is only available to licensed customers, and is not available for download without an entitlement. However, non-licensed customers can download Patch 01 to upgrade an existing version of ESXi 5.0 to resolve this issue.

Workaround

To list the current number and configuration of an ESXi host's network portals, run this command:

esxcli iscsi networkportal list

The output is similar to this:

vmhba34:
Adapter: vmhba34
Vmknic: vmk6
MAC Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
MAC Address Valid: true
IPv4: 192.168.1.206
IPv4 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
IPv6:
MTU: 1500
Vlan Supported: true
Vlan ID: 10
Reserved Ports: 63488~65536
TOE: false
TSO: true
TCP Checksum: false
Link Up: true
Current Speed: 10000
Rx Packets: 656558
Tx Packets: 111264
NIC Driver: ixgbe
NIC Driver Version: 2.0.84.8.2-10vmw-NAPI
NIC Firmware Version: 0.9-3
Compliant Status: compliant
NonCompliant Message:
NonCompliant Remedy:
Vswitch: dvSwitch0
PortGroup: DvsPortset-0
VswitchUuid: 26 46 30 50 c0 cf df 1e-52 ef ab d7 a2 ab 96 f9
PortGroupKey: dvportgroup-78003
PortKey: 1731
Duplex:
Path Status: active


Note: This is an example of one network portal (HBA34).

To list currently running targets, run this command:

vmkiscsi-tool -T vmhba##