Changing the Scratch Config partition on an ESXi 4.x host fails with the error: a specified parameter was not correct

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Changing the Scratch Config partition via the vSphere Client (by navigating to ESXi host > Configuration > Software > Advanced Settings > Scratch Config) fails.
• Cannot change the configuration parameter.
• You see the error:
  
  a specified parameter was not correct

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable

Resolution

This issue may occur if the directory that was previously set no longer exists and was manually removed. For example, the directory was set to the location /vmfs/volumes/9a086243-6ace771a/scratch, but the scratch directory was removed and no longer exists.

To resolve this issue, recreate the directory that was removed. In this example, recreate the scratch directory. For more information, see Creating a persistent scratch location for ESXi (1033696).