Indicators-
After upgrading ESXi on Dell/HP ProLiant server to ver.6.5, you may run into a Ramdisk error.
Below are the indicators.
- Can’t connect to ESXi server from vCenter Server.
- Below error message displayed when creating a virtual machine on an affected ESXi host:
- A general system error occurred: failed to create journal file provider:failed to open “/var/log/vmware/journal/1349795091.4″ for write:no such file”
- In vCenter Server and vmkernel logs, you see the message:
The Ramdisk ‘root’ is full.
Reason-
This issue occurs if the root Ramdisk is filled with logs. IBM/Dell/HP custom ESXi points the scratch partition to a folder, which resides on the root Ramdisk.
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To verify-
Login to ESXi by using SSH and run the vdf -h command.
If you have the root uses as 100%, they confirm that you are having a Ramdisk utilization issue.
Solution-
Rebooting the host can temporarily resolve the issue, but it will reoccur in a few days.
However, moving the Scratch partition to a different local data store will fix this issue permanently.
*Do not use ISCSI or fibre datastore for Scratch partition.
Configuring a persistent scratch location by using the vSphere Client
To configure a persistent scratch space for ESXi by using the vSphere Client:
1. Connect to vCenter Server or the ESXi host by using the vSphere Client.
2. Click the ESXi host in the inventory.
3. Click the Configuration tab > Storage.
4. Right-click a datastore and click Browse.
5. Create a uniquely-named directory for this ESXi host.
For example – .locker-ESXHostname
6. Close the Datastore Browser.
7. Click Software > Advanced Settings.
8. Select the ScratchConfig section.
9. Change the ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation configuration option, specifying the full path to the directory.
For example:/vmfs/volumes/DatastoreUUID/.locker-ESXHostname
To Determine the Datastore UUID:
a.) Navigate to Configuration > Storage.
b.) Select the datastore.
c.) View Location under Datastore Details.
The Datastore UUID appears similar to /vmfs/volumes/51dda02d-fade5016-8a08-005056171889 where 51dda02d-fade5016-8a08-005056171889 is the UUID.
10. Click OK.
11. Put the ESXi host into maintenance mode and reboot for the configuration change to take effect.
Validating the Fix:
After reboot check ramdisk utilization, it should be below 10%.
The ScratchConfig.CurrentScratchLocation should not be set to /scratch.
In case of validation failure move to additional fixes.
Additional Fixes-
This is common when you are using the Dell/HP/IBM Customized image of ESXi 6.5.
This happens due to the elxiscsi driver and the associated shared library elx-esx-libelxima.
To check if an emulex driver is present
localcli software vib list |gerp elx-esx-libelxima.so
Login to the esxi host and check if the emulex driver vib is not in use, following which the same can be removed safely.
esxcfg-scsidevs -a
esxcfg-nics -l
The solution lies in uninstalling the elxiscsi driver and the associated shared library elx-esx-libelxima, if Emulex is not a part of the configuration. To uninstall the elxiscsi driver, run the following commands:
1. /etc/init.d/hostd stop
2. Localcli software vib remove -n elxiscsi -n elx-esx-libelxima.so
3. Reboot
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I’m thinking you should reboot this host to reset the root ramdisk as it may not be releasing space properly. Also, it’s probably worth applying patch 11 that came out in mid-September as it fixes a number of issues.
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