ESXi host reports insufficient locker partition space during Lifecycle Manager compliance check

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

In vCenter Lifecycle Manager, an ESXi host shows a non-compliant status with the following alert:

The locker partition on the host has xxx MB free space available, the image requires yyy MB.
Cleanup the locker partition on the host, and retry check compliance.

This indicates that the software image requires yyy MB of free space, but the locker partition currently has only xxx MB available.

The locker partition resides under /vmfs/volumes/OSDATA-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and uses the available space from this OSDATA volume.

Environment

 

• ESXi 8.x

• vCenter 8.x with Lifecycle Manager (vLCM)

• Image-based lifecycle management

• Compliance check showing insufficient locker space

 

Cause

The free space in the ESX-OSData partition (which contains the locker area) is insufficient for the image required by Lifecycle Manager. If the available space is less than yyy MB, the image cannot be staged or validated, resulting in the non-compliant condition.

Resolution

SSH into the ESXi host and check the free space of the OSDATA volume /vmfs/volumes/OSDATA-<UUID> by "df -h".

* If the free space is greater than yyy MB, the locker space is no longer an issue. Return to vCenter and click CHECK COMPLIANCE again. The alert should clear.

* If the free space is less than yyy MB, identify which directories are consuming significant space inside the OSDATA volume:

  1. SSH to the ESXi host
  2. Navigate into the OSDATA directory by "cd /vmfs/volumes/OSDATA-<UUID>" (replace the <UUID> with the real UUID)
  3. Run the command "du -sch *"
  4. This displays the disk usage of all subdirectories and helps identify which paths are consuming most of the locker/OSDATA space.

Additional Information

• In ESXi 7.x and later, the locker, scratch, and several system components are consolidated into the ESX-OSDATA partition.

• Lifecycle Manager compliance checks validate whether sufficient free space exists to apply the desired image.

• If the host is booted from USB/SD, the ESX-OSData partition may be more limited. Transition to a supported high-endurance boot device is recommended for long-term stability.

• After freeing disk space, always re-run CHECK COMPLIANCE in vCenter to confirm the host status.