VMFS volume is locked by another host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The esx.problem.vmfs.error.volume.is.locked message is received when an ESXi host makes an unsuccessful attempt to access a VMFS datastore that is locked by another host.

Impact

When a VMFS datastore is locked, no host can access it and perform any operations.

Example

A VMFS datastore might become locked when a host fails in the middle of a datastore operation that requires metadata updates, such as grow extent, add extent, create datastore, and so on. Because LVM locks the VMFS datastore before making metadata changes, the datastore might remain locked for all hosts accessing the datastore if the host performing the update fails or loses connectivity to the datastore during the update.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

Resolution

After verifying that the host performing the datastore operation has failed or lost connectivity, break the datastore lock from another host by running the following command:

vmkfstools -B|--breaklock device_path