Followed a suggestion from Lenovo support I installed CIM provider which was reporting as missing:
[root@esxi60:/var/log/vmware] esxcli software vib install -d VMW-ESX-6.0.0-emulex-cim-provider-11.4.142.11-01-offline_bundle-6422346.zip
Installation Result
Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
Reboot Required: true
VIBs Installed: EMU_bootbank_emulex-cim-provider_11.4.142.11-01OEM.600.0.0.2768847
VIBs Removed:
VIBs Skipped:
esxcli software vib list | grep cim
emulex-cim-provider 11.4.142.11-01OEM.600.0.0.2768847 EMU VMwareAccepted 2020-11-04
This was followed by a reboot but unfortunately my problem persists. The CIM provider still reports to be missing. ESXi can only see virtual drives in degraded state (which is a false positive) and hasn't got a clue about individual disks and their health
