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OPERATIONAL DEFECT DATABASE
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Due to corrupted vFAT partitions,upgrades from ESXi 6.5 and 6.7 to versions upto ESXi 7.0 Update 3k or ESXi 8.0c may show the following symptoms. Logs such as ramdisk (root) is full in the vmkwarning.log file.Unexpected rollback to ESXi 6.5 or 6.7 after a host was upgraded to ESXi 7.0.x or ESXi 8.0.After a host upgrade bootbanks are not linked to (/bootbank and /altbootbank) and OSDATA is not present.The backtrace from jumpstart-native-stdout.log will show the below errors. 2022-12-08 11:07:23,082 SystemStorage t10.ATA_____MTFDDAV240TCB___________________________________18331E1948DD: upgrading partition layout...Traceback (most recent call last): File "/bin/initSystemStorage", line 1354, in <module> storage.setupSystemPartitions() File "/bin/initSystemStorage", line 659, in setupSystemPartitions self.upgradePartitionTable(bootDisk) File "/bin/initSystemStorage", line 413, in upgradePartitionTable upgradeBackup() File "/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/systemStorage/upgradeUtils.py", line 307, in upgradeBackup File "/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/systemStorage/upgradeUtils.py", line 201, in calculateDirMiBSize File "/lib64/python3.8/genericpath.py", line 50, in getsizeFileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/vmfs/volumes/5d031f44-ee1c17aa-16e8-506b4b1c574e/log/\x03\x05\x03\x01yd\x1fy.\udce8g\udcdd'2022-12-08T11:07:34.523Z Plugin system-storage failed Invoking method start (rc=1) When upgrading to ESXi 7.0 Update 3l or ESXi 8.0 Update 1,the operation fails with a purple diagnostic screen and an error such as: An error occurred while backing up VFAT partition files before re-partitioning: Failed to calculate size for temporary Ramdisk: <error>.An error occurred while backing up VFAT partition files before re-partitioning: Failed to copy files to Ramdisk: <error>.NOTE:The preceding log excerpts are only examples.Date,time and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.
This KB is to recover from a corrupted one or more vFAT partitions which is preventing a re-partitioning on upgrading to ESXi 7.0.x or ESXi 8.0.
The cause is under investigation.
None
This is a known issue and currently there is no resolution.
Identify all vFAT partition Each ESXi host has 4 vFAT partition on ESXi 6.5 and ESXi 6.7: 2 Bootbanks, Scratch, and Locker # esxcli storage filesystem list Mount Point Volume Name UUID Mounted Type Size Free ------------------------------------------------- ----------- ----------------------------------- ------- ------ ------------ ------------ /vmfs/volumes/63fe1b2d-6e3a9dc9-e809-000c298546fa datastore1 63fe1b2d-6e3a9dc9-e809-000c298546fa true VMFS-6 129385889792 127599116288 /vmfs/volumes/63fe1b26-fdea7ff3-f520-000c298546fa 63fe1b26-fdea7ff3-f520-000c298546fa true vfat 299712512 108437504 /vmfs/volumes/079b6e7e-bbef0920-3675-2a9602fe2ce5 079b6e7e-bbef0920-3675-2a9602fe2ce5 true vfat 261853184 88797184 /vmfs/volumes/63fe3b74-53874442-77fa-000c298546fa 63fe3b74-53874442-77fa-000c298546fa true vfat 4293591040 4079943680 /vmfs/volumes/7ad83874-adf59f0f-e7d7-7e4e5b6505b5 7ad83874-adf59f0f-e7d7-7e4e5b6505b5 true vfat 261853184 261849088 From the mount points, its possible to identify disk and partition # vmkfstools -P /vmfs/volumes/63fe1b26-fdea7ff3-f520-000c298546fa vfat-0.04 (Raw Major Version: 0) file system spanning 1 partitions. File system label (if any): Mode: private Capacity 299712512 (36586 file blocks * 8192), 108437504 (13237 blocks) avail, max supported file size 0 Disk Block Size: 512/0/0 UUID: 63fe1b26-fdea7ff3-f520-000c298546fa Partitions spanned (on "disks"): mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:8 Is Native Snapshot Capable: NO The disk and partition id is mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:8. Repeat this step for all vFAT partitions. Finally, you will have list like this mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2 (scratch)mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:5 (bootbank 1)mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:6 (bootbank 2)mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:8 (locker) Enter maintenance mode and stop all daemons To avoid any interference between the following steps and any daemon writing on the disk, its required to check for open file handles and close them. Stop crond, which periodically schedules backup.sh, updating the active bootbank # kill $(cat /var/run/crond.pid)Stop vmsyslogd, which has open file handles on /scratch (log files) # /usr/lib/vmware/vmsyslog/bin/shutdown.sh Check for further daemons having open file handles on the scratch partition and stop these daemons # lsof |grep scratch 1001391762 vmfstracegd FILE 4 /scratch/vmfstraces/vmfsGlobalTrace.trace.0.gz # /etc/init.d/vmfstraced stop watchdog-vmfstracegd: Terminating watchdog process with PID 1001391748 vmfstracegd stopped [root@localhost:~] lsof |grep scratch -- note: 63fe3b74-53874442-77fa-000c298546fa is the UUID of the scratch partition # lsof |grep 63fe3b74-53874442-77fa-000c298546fa 1001391489 rhttpproxy FILE 18 /vmfs/volumes/63fe3b74-53874442-77fa-000c298546fa/log/rhttpproxy-1001391489-000000db02450060-lo0-1.pcap 1001391489 rhttpproxy FILE 19 /vmfs/volumes/63fe3b74-53874442-77fa-000c298546fa/log/rhttpproxy-1001391489-000000db024501a8-vmk0-1.pcap # /etc/init.d/rhttpproxy stop # lsof | grep var/run/log 2101088 python FILE 5 /var/run/log/vsandevicemonitord.log # /etc/init.d/vsandevicemonitord stop To resolve this issue follow one of below solutions.Solution 1 (Preferred solution) - Use dosfsck as a first solution For all identifies vFAT partitions, check the file system integrity and repair the disk as needed Check the health of the vFAT partition # dosfsck -Vv /dev/disks/<disk and partition id> disk and partition id was derived in the previous step For instance, the output for a healthy partition # dosfsck -Vv /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0\:C0\:T0\:L0:2 dosfsck 2.11 (12 Mar 2005) dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem Boot sector contents: System ID "MSDOS5.0" Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk) 512 bytes per logical sector 65536 bytes per cluster 2 reserved sectors First FAT starts at byte 1024 (sector 2) 2 FATs, 16 bit entries 131072 bytes per FAT (= 256 sectors) Root directory starts at byte 263168 (sector 514) 512 root directory entries Data area starts at byte 279552 (sector 546) 65515 data clusters (4293591040 bytes) 32 sectors/track, 64 heads 0 hidden sectors 8386560 sectors total Starting check/repair pass. Checking for unused clusters. Starting verification pass. Checking for unused clusters. /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2: 222 files, 3279/65515 clusters If the command reports any failures or hangs, then try to repair the partition # dosfsck -a -w /dev/disks/<disk and partition id>Repeat step 1. If dosfsck still report failures, proceed with the next step to re-create the partitionAfter you have checked all ESXi partitions, reboot the ESXi host (this will restart all previously stopped daemons) Solution 2 - Re-create a corrupted vFAT partition Backup all files. In this example, we will backup /scratch and keep a copy on datastore1 # cp /scratch/ /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/scratchBackup (At this point its very likely that the cp command returns a failure. Note, the filesystem is corrupted and one or more files or filenames will be invalid. A this point copy folder by folder or file by file and leave the corrupted files on the disk. After re-formatting, the file will be lost!) (Re-)Format the corrupted partition # vmkfstools -C vfat /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2 create fs deviceName:'/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2', fsShortName:'vfat', fsName:'(null)' deviceFullPath:/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2 deviceFile:mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2 Checking if remote hosts are using this device as a valid file system. This may take a few seconds... Creating vfat file system on "mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2" with blockSize 1048576 and volume label "none". Successfully created new volume: 640748a7-86efb63c-0e53-000c298546fa (Note: If the command returns a busy error, this indicates that a file on this disk is still open. See above steps to identify the open handles.) Restore the content Get the volume ID from the previous command (e.g., 640748a7-86efb63c-0e53-000c298546fa) # cp -r /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/scratchBackup/* /vmfs/volumes/640748a7-86efb63c-0e53-000c298546fa/ Reboot the ESXi host, after you have checked and repaired all vFAT partitions.