Aria Operations Boots into Emergency Mode after Power Outage
search cancel

Aria Operations Boots into Emergency Mode after Power Outage

book

Article ID: 439615

calendar_today

Updated On:

Products

VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

After a power outage, storage disconnection, or environmental disaster event, the VMware Aria Operations appliance fails to boot and drops into emergency/initrd mode.

The following symptoms are observed:

  • The Aria Operations UI is inaccessible.
  • The VM console displays filesystem mount failures such as:
    • [FAILED] Failed to start File System check on /dev/disk/by-label/root
    • [DEPEND] Dependency failed for /sysroot
    • [DEPEND] Dependency failed for Initrd Root File System
  • Pressing Enter for maintenance mode does not provide a password prompt or a usable shell.
  • Standard GRUB recovery parameters (e.g., init=/bin/bash) may fail to drop the system into a repairable state.

Environment

VMware VCF Operations

Cause

The issue is caused by OS filesystem corruption. When the backing storage for the appliance is abruptly disconnected or loses power, the Photon OS filesystem can become inconsistent, preventing the sysroot from mounting correctly during the boot sequence.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must force an automatic filesystem check and repair via the GRUB boot menu.

Prerequisites:

  • Access to the VM console via vCenter or ESXi.
  • (Recommended) A snapshot of the affected VM before proceeding, if possible.

Steps:

  1. Reboot the Aria Operations appliance.
  2. Immediately after the OS starts (at the GRUB boot loader screen), press the 'e' key to open the GNU GRUB Edit Menu.
  3. Locate the line starting with linux.
  4. Move the cursor to the end of that line and add a space followed by: fsck.repair=yes
  5. Press Ctrl+X or F10 to continue booting with the repair option.
  6. The system will automatically run a filesystem check (fsck) and attempt to repair any inconsistencies. This process may take several minutes.
  7. Once the repair is complete, the appliance should continue booting to the standard login prompt.
  8. Repeat these steps for any other affected nodes (e.g., Data Nodes or Witness Nodes) in the cluster.

If the appliance remains in emergency mode after these steps, it may indicate severe disk corruption that requires restoring the VM from a backup or redeploying the appliance. 

Additional Information

Powered by Wolken Software