Manually running fsck on vCenter Server Appliance 6.5, 6.7, 7.x, 8.x

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

This article explains how to manually run fsck to perform a file system consistency check on vCenter Server Appliance.

Important: This article is explicitly for vCenter Server Appliance 6.5, 6.7, 7.x, 8.x and will not work for previous versions.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5, 6.7, 7.x, 8.x

Resolution

To manually run fsck on vCenter Server Appliance 6.5, 6.7, 7.x, 8.x:

Note: Ensure to take a snapshot or backup of vCenter Server Appliance before proceeding.

1. Reboot vCenter Server Appliance and immediately after the OS starts, press the key e to enter the GNU GRUB Edit Menu.
    
2. Locate the line that begins with the word linux.
    
3. Append the following to the end of that line:
   
   systemd.unit=emergency.target
   
   The line should look like the following screenshot
   
   
   
    
4. Press F10 to continue booting.
   
   Note: You will be prompted for the root password. You may have to enter this in password twice.
    
5. Change the BASH Shell by entering the command Shell.
    
6. Run this command df to list the available file systems:
   
   root[ ~ ]# df
   Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
   devtmpfs 8205180 0 8205180 0% /dev
   tmpfs 8211976 8 8211968 1% /dev/shm
   tmpfs 8211976 712 8211264 1% /run
   tmpfs 8211976 0 8211976 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
   /dev/sda3 11089144 4078128 6441060 39% /
   tmpfs 8211976 10760 8201216 1% /tmp
   /dev/mapper/netdump_vg-netdump 1007640 1304 954320 1% /storage/netdump
   /dev/mapper/dblog_vg-dblog 15342576 104144 14452412 1% /storage/dblog
   /dev/mapper/db_vg-db 10181944 98716 9559352 2% /storage/db
   /dev/mapper/autodeploy_vg-autodeploy 10181944 23168 9634900 1% /storage/autodeploy
   /dev/mapper/imagebuilder_vg-imagebuilder 10181944 23172 9634896 1% /storage/imagebuilder
   /dev/mapper/seat_vg-seat 25663804 72344 24281152 1% /storage/seat
   /dev/mapper/updatemgr_vg-updatemgr 103073056 64728 97765860 1% /storage/updatemgr
   /dev/mapper/log_vg-log 10181944 67664 9590404 1% /storage/log
   /dev/mapper/core_vg-core 51466876 53200 48792648 1% /storage/core
   /dev/sda1 122835 27169 89113 24% /boot
    
7. Run this command to perform a consistency check on the specified file system:
   
   #e2fsck -y filesystem
   
   For example:
   
   e2fsck -y /dev/sda1
    
8. Reboot vCenter Server Appliance by running this command:
   
   reboot -f

Additional Information

TSE Note: running this command in emergency/ GRUB mode, helped me fix all orphaned inodes  fsck -y /dev/mapper/*