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iSCSI adapter IQN may change during the upgrade of ESXi 7.0 U1

victorwu
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

According to VMware KB 84339, if the iSCSI adapter IQN is not the user setting then it is auto-generated by ESXi, and the IQN may change post upgrade. If access control is configured on the target side, based on the IQN, then the ESXi host may not be able to discover the LUN or datastore.

Today we will simulate this upgrade issue, we upgrade vSphere 7.0 U1c to 7.0U2a (build-17867351). This ESXi host is connected to an iSCSI datastore.

Demo Environment

  • vSphere 7.0 U1c build-17325551
  • iSCSI Software Adapter enabled
  • iSCSI Adapter IQN: iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:61dd29c9-bfb7-5707-6f97-000c29f2fde1-68ae16f6
  • Open Platform Software Defined Storage

Now we will upgrade vSphere 7.0 U1c to 7.0U2a. We can see the iSCSI adapter IQN is changed to "iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:localhost.localdomain:1988924762:65" after upgrading to vSphere 7.0 U2a. If the iSCSI LUN access control is configured on the target side based on the generated IQN, the ESXi host may not be able to discover the LUN or datastore.

To prevent this issue. Before upgrading to vSphere 7.0 U2, we need to use the esxcli get and set commands to set the generated iSCSI adapter IQN.

esxcli iscsi adapter get -A vmhba65

esxcli iscsi adapter set -A vmhba65 -n iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:61dd29c9-bfb7-5707-6f97-000c29f2fde1-68ae16f6

Now the iSCSI adapter IQN is a user setting, it won't change after the upgrade.

We can see the iSCSI adapter IQN won't change after the upgrade.

For details, please refer to this VMware KB https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/84339

Victor Wu

11 comments

regnor
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Thanks for posting about that issue @victorwu. I think I've ran into this some time ago and lost all iSCSI volumes after the upgrade; now I know the reason 😅

Max M. | Systems Engineer @Veeam | VMCE/VMCA | former Legend & Vanguard
victorwu
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Thanks for posting about that issue @victorwu. I think I've ran into this some time ago and lost all iSCSI volumes after the upgrade; now I know the reason 😅

Great! I can let you know the reason.:grin:

Victor Wu
JMeixner
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Thank you @victorwu , we have run into to this issue, too. I will forward this to our VMware admins.

Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2023 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) 2022 | Twitter: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
vNote42
Userlevel 7
Badge +13

Thanks for sharing! I also know this issue from an upgrade of an customer environment. 

BTW: in 6.7 releases it can happen that NICs get a new numbering after an update. This also leads to no access to iSCSI storage.

Wolfgang | vnote42.net | @vNote42
victorwu
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Thanks for sharing! I also know this issue from an upgrade of an customer environment. 

BTW: in 6.7 releases it can happen that NICs get a new numbering after an update. This also leads to no access to iSCSI storage.

Based on this VMware KB, this issue only exists in vSphere 7.0 U1. vSphere 6.7 and 7.0 are not affected during upgrade to 7.0 U2.

Victor Wu
JMeixner
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

We had this issue at update from 7.0 U2 to 7.0 U3, too….

Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2023 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) 2022 | Twitter: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
victorwu
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

We had this issue at update from 7.0 U2 to 7.0 U3, too….

vSphere 7.0 U3 is not stable due to critical issues. This version is not suggested for production environment.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/86398

Victor Wu
JMeixner
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

We had this issue at update from 7.0 U2 to 7.0 U3, too….

vSphere 7.0 U3 is not stable due to critical issues. This version is not suggested for production environment.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/86398

Yes, I know. The update was tested in a non-productive environment.

But this specific problem seems to exist with this version, too.

Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2023 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) 2022 | Twitter: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
victorwu
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

We had this issue at update from 7.0 U2 to 7.0 U3, too….

vSphere 7.0 U3 is not stable due to critical issues. This version is not suggested for production environment.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/86398

Yes, I know. The update was tested in a non-productive environment.

But this specific problem seems to exist with this version, too.

@JMeixner Thanks for your info. I will tell my team.

Victor Wu
vNote42
Userlevel 7
Badge +13

Thanks for sharing! I also know this issue from an upgrade of an customer environment. 

BTW: in 6.7 releases it can happen that NICs get a new numbering after an update. This also leads to no access to iSCSI storage.

Based on this VMware KB, this issue only exists in vSphere 7.0 U1. vSphere 6.7 and 7.0 are not affected during upgrade to 7.0 U2.

Yes, its another issue.

Wolfgang | vnote42.net | @vNote42
Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Yeah had this issue in my homelab when upgrading.  Nice to see it shared here. 

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2022 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 3* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech

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