Volume on device is locked, possibly because some remote host encountered an error during a volume operation - Unable to mount the datastore

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms

• Trying to mount the volume on the host fails with below error -
  
  "Mount VMFS volume failed!
An error occurred during host configuration: .Operation failed, diagnostics report: Unable to complete Sysinfo operation. Please see the VMkernel log file for more details.: Lock was not free"
  
  
  
  
• On Multiple hosts following alert for one datastore might be triggered by internal monitoring tool - "Volume on device naa.<device_ID>:1 is locked, possibly because some remote host encountered an error during a volume operation and could not recover"
• VM on the problematic datastore shows up as inaccessible.
  

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 

Cause

A VMFS datastore typically becomes locked when a host fails during a metadata operation (e.g., grow extent, add extent, or create datastore). Because the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) locks the VMFS datastore before making metadata changes, the lock may remain orphaned if the host performing the update fails or loses connectivity before completing the operation.

• In the /var/run/log/vobd.log of the lock owner host storage lun inaccessible events logged:

2026-03-30T17:45 vobd[2097668]:  [vmfsCorrelator] 1575309135us: [esx.problem.vmfs.extent.offline] An attached device  may be offline. The file system [Datastore, ########-########-####-############] is now in a degraded state. While the datastore is still available, parts of data that reside on the extent that went offline might be inaccessible.

• In /var/run/log/vobd.log, below entries will be seen -
  

  2026-03-30T18:11:12.826Z In(14) vobd[2097957]:  [vmfsCorrelator] 9449268354847us: [esx.problem.vmfs.error.volume.is.locked] Volume on device naa.<device_ID>:1 is locked, possibly because some remote host encountered an error during a volume operation and could not recover.

Parallelly, in /var/run/log/vmkwarning.log  -

2026-03-30T19:27:24.297Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu14:2098658 opID=8f4e0616)WARNING: LVM: 17704: The volume on the device naa.<device_ID>:1 locked, possibly because some remote host encountered an error during a volume operation and could not recov
2026-03-30T19:27:24.297Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu14:2098658 opID=8f4e0616)WARNING: LVM: 7493: If you are _sure_ this is the case, please break the device lock with `vmkfstools -B /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.<device_ID>:1

2026-04-01T18:28:07.669Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu12:2097508)LVM: 7385: Device <naa.<device_ID>:1> locked by 69cabcb8-273920da-d387-############ at 1774897444123181 (1 tries left)  

Resolution

Resolution :

To resolve this issue, remove the lock on the affected ESXi host, run the below command:

1. Connect to the ESXi host with an SSH session and root credentials.
   
   
2. Break the existing LVM lock on the datastore:

[root@esxi1:~] vmkfstools –B /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:1

Note: You can use the parameter --breaklock instead of -B with the vmkfstools command.

3. You will prompted similar to:

VMware ESX Question:

LVM lock on device /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:<partition number> will be forcibly broken. Please consult vmkfstools or ESX documentation to understand the consequences of this.

Please ensure that multiple servers aren't accessing this device.

Continue to break lock?

0) Yes

1) No

Please choose a number [0-1]:

4. Enter 0 to break the lock.

Select a number from 0-1: 0

Successfully broke LVM device lock for /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:1

4. Re-read and reload VMFS datastore metadata to memory with:

[root@esxi1:~] vmkfstools –V

6. From the vSphere UI, refresh the Storage Datastores View under Configuration tab.
   
   
7. If the above steps, does not release the lock, reboot the ESXi host.