vCert Fails with OSError: [Errno 28] No space left on device

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to run the vCert utility on a VMware appliance (such as vCenter Server or SDDC Manager), the tool fails to initialize and returns the following error: OSError: [Errno 28] No space left on device: '/var/log/vmware/vCert'

Environment

vCenter Server

Cause

The error is a standard Linux system error indicating that a write operation was attempted on a mount point with no available blocks or inodes. Specifically, the /storage/log partition (which mounts to /var/log) has reached 100% utilization, preventing vCert from creating its required log files in the /var/log/vmware/vCert subdirectory

Resolution

1. Verify Partition Utilization: Log in to the appliance via SSH using root credentials and execute the following command to check disk space:

    

   df -h /var/log/storage/

   Confirm if the partition shows 100% usage or 0 bytes available.

2. Verify Inode Utilization: If disk space appears to be available, check if the partition is out of inodes:

    

   df -i /var/log/storage/

   Workload Automation AE

3. Identify Large Log Files: Identify the largest files contributing to the space exhaustion:

    

   du -a /storage/log/ | sort -n -r | head -n 10

4. Remediation: Clear space by deleting or moving old, unused log files from the identified directories. Once the /storage/log partition has available space, vCert should execute successfully.