Why system receives error message "kernel: sd x:x:x:x: timing out command, waited Xs" ?

Issue

• IO operation on filesystems created on VMware (or other hypervisor) Virtual disks are failing and following errors are logged in /var/log/messages:

        Oct  3 22:45:37 node1 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: timing out command, waited 7s
        Oct  3 22:45:44 node1 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: timing out command, waited 7s

Similar logs may be seen in dmesg and console (if redirect is configured):

[18994.823654] sd 3:0:0:0: [sda] tag#143 timing out command, waited 1080s
[18994.823654] sd 3:0:0:0: [sda] tag#144 timing out command, waited 1080s