Summary
When a LUN is exposed from the filer to an ESX for the IV/FV job and there is a LUN with the same ID in the ESX in a dead state, the IV/FV job fails with error: Newly created LUN with id {idNumber} has an existing dead path for target {Target iSCSI Name}". "
Symptoms
Dead LUNs appear in the ESX if a virtual machine on an ESX has LUNs mapped to a filer and the LUNs are deleted from the filer.
To see if an ESX server has dead LUNs or not, from vCenter, click the ESX. On the right panel, select the Configuration tab, then select Storage Adapters under the Hardware section. Select the iSCSI adapter that was chosen for the IV/FV job and view the details. Under View, you will see two options: Devices and Paths. Click Paths to see the list of LUNs with their IDs, target and state. LUNs with a Dead status are the dead LUNs present in the ESX.
When an IV/FV job runs, a LUN is created in the filer with an ID. If the ID and target matches any of the dead LUN IDs and target name, then the IV/FV job fails with an error regarding the presence of dead LUNs in the ESX.
Note: An error message in the job log shows both ID and target name.
Resolution
When the IV/FV job runs, the LUN ID checks against the LUNs in the ESX. If a LUN is found with the same ID and a Dead state, then an error message displays and the IV/FV job fails. Remove the dead LUNs manually.
To remove the dead luns from the ESX, choose Rescan HBA from the Configuration > Storage Adapters on the ESX. Or, reboot the ESX to remove the dead LUNs.