Remediating an ESXi 5.x or ESXi 6.x host fails with the error: There was an error checking file system on altbootbank

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You cannot remediate an ESXi 5.x/6.x host.
• Remediation of an ESXi 5.x or 6.x host using vCenter Update Manager fails.
• You see the error:
  
  The host returns esxupdate error code:15. The package manager transaction is not successful. Check the Update Manager log files and esxupdate log files for more details

• In the /var/log/esxupdate.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: InstallationError: ('', 'There was an error checking file system on altbootbank, please see log for detail.')

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.1.x
VMware Update Manager 6.5
VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Update Manager 6.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Cause

This issue occurs due to file system errors on the altbootbank partition.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, repair the altbootbank partition.

To repair the altbootbank partition:

1. Run this command to determine the device for /altbootbank:
   
   # vmkfstools -P /altbootbank
   
   You see output similar to:
   
   mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:5
    
2. Run this command to repair the altbootbank filesystem:
   
   # dosfsck -a -w /dev/disks/device_name
   
   For example:
   
   # dosfsck -a -w /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:5
   
   For non-local storage, the device may be called something like "naa.60a98000443331744f5d444a6d71724e:6", so command would then be:
   
   # dosfsck -a -w naa.60a98000443331744f5d444a6d71724e:6
   
   Note that we always include the partition number in the command, in this case, ":6"
   
   If dosfsck reports 'Root folder out of space':
           Move or delete the .REC files generated in the altbootbank folder and run the repair operation again to complete the process.
   
   If dosfsck reports "Input/output error":
           Disk health is likely bad and likely the vendor for the disk or storage array needs to be consulted.
    
3. If remediation fails at this stage, reboot the host.
4. If remediation continues to fail, a restart of the vSphere Update Manager service may be required.

Additional Information

These command flags can be used with /sbin/dosfck:

• -a – Indicates automatically repair the filesystem
• -w – Writes changes to the disk immediately

"The pending transaction requires xxx MB free space" error when installing VIBs
"The host returns esxupdate error code:15" error when remediating an ESXi 5.x and 6.x host
Resolution: "esxupdate error codes: -1. Check the Update Manager log files and esxupdate log files for more details."
ESXi 5.x および 6.0 ホストで Update Manager による修正が “There was an error checking file system on altbootbank” エラーにより失敗する
使用 Update Manager 修复 ESXi 5.x 主机失败，并显示以下错误：在 altbootbank 上检查文件系统时出错
Resolution: