"A problem with one or more vFAT bootbank partitions was detected", Corrupted ESXi vFAT partitions causing upgrade or pre-check failures
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"A problem with one or more vFAT bootbank partitions was detected", Corrupted ESXi vFAT partitions causing upgrade or pre-check failures

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Article ID: 345227

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This KB provides guidance on recovering from one or multiple vFAT partition issues during an ESXi upgrade.

  • During ESXi upgrade the VC UI reports the pre-check message :
Hardware precheck of the profile <ProfileName> failed with errors: <VFAT_CORRUPTION ERROR: A problem with one or more vFAT bootbank partitions was detected. Please refer to KB 91136 and run dosfsck on bootbank partitions.
  • Lifecycle log on ESXi host (/var/run/log/lifecycle.log) will show similar to below entries :
yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ In(14) lifecycle[pid]: runcommand:199 runcommand called with: args = ['/bin/dosfsck', '-V', '-n', '/dev/disks/naa.<id>:<partition>'], outfile = None, returnoutput = True, timeout = 10.
  • When upgrading to ESXi 7.0 Update 3l or ESXi 8.0 Update 1 or later, the operation fails with a purple diagnostic screen and an error such as:
An error occurred while backing up VFAT partition files before re-partitioning: Failed to calculate size for temporary Ramdisk: <error>.
An error occurred while backing up VFAT partition files before re-partitioning: Failed to copy files to Ramdisk: <error>.


Corrupted vFAT partitions may cause upgrades from ESXi 6.5 and 6.7 to versions up to ESXi 7.0 Update 3k or ESXi 8.0c to exhibit the following symptoms.

  • Logs indicating that the ramdisk (root) is full can be found in the vmkwarning.log file.
  • Unexpected reversion to ESXi 6.5 or 6.7 following an upgrade to ESXi 7.0.x or ESXi 8.0.
  • After a host upgrade, the boot banks are not linked to (/bootbank and /altbootbank), and OSDATA is missing.
  • The backtrace from the jumpstart-native-stdout.log will display the following errors.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS SystemStorage t10.ATA_____<ID>___________________________________<ID>: upgrading partition layout...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/bin/initSystemStorage", line 1354, in <module>
    storage.setupSystemPartitions()
  File "/bin/initSystemStorage", line 659, in setupSystemPartitions
    self.upgradePartitionTable(bootDisk)
  File "/bin/initSystemStorage", line 413, in upgradePartitionTable
    upgradeBackup()
  File "/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/systemStorage/upgradeUtils.py", line 307, in upgradeBackup
  File "/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/systemStorage/upgradeUtils.py", line 201, in calculateDirMiBSize
  File "/lib64/python3.8/genericpath.py", line 50, in getsize
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/vmfs/volumes/5d031f44-########-####-########/log/\x03\x05\x03\x01yd\x1fy.\udce8g\udcdd'
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.523Z Plugin system-storage failed Invoking method start (rc=1)
  • After the upgrade is complete, you may experience the following PSOD.

Environment

8.0.x
7.0.x

Cause

Reason for the dirty bit: the dirty bit is set by another OS, as ESXi does not utilize this bit. It indicates that the partition was mounted without a corresponding unmount operation.

The cause of the other vFAT failures is currently under investigation.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, follow below steps to repair the faulty vFAT partitions by using dosfsck.

Identify all vFAT partitions:

  1. Each ESXi host has 4 or 5 vFAT partition on ESXi 6.5 and ESXi 6.7: 2 Bootbanks, Scratch, and Locker

    # esxcli storage filesystem list
    Mount Point                                        Volume Name  UUID                                 Mounted  Type            Size          Free
    -------------------------------------------------  -----------  -----------------------------------  -------  ------  ------------  ------------
    /vmfs/volumes/63fe1b2d-########-####-########46fa  datastore1   63fe1b2d-########-####-########46fa     true  VMFS-6  129385889792  127599116288
    /vmfs/volumes/63fe1b26-########-####-########46fa               63fe1b26-########-####-########46fa     true  vfat       299712512     108437504
    /vmfs/volumes/079b6e7e-########-####-########2ce5               079b6e7e-########-####-########2ce5     true  vfat       261853184      88797184
    /vmfs/volumes/63fe3b74-########-####-########46fa               63fe3b74-########-####-########46fa     true  vfat      4293591040    4079943680
    /vmfs/volumes/7ad83874-########-####-########05b5               7ad83874-########-####-########05b5     true  vfat       261853184     261849088


  2. From the mount points, it's possible to identify disk and partition

    # vmkfstools -P /vmfs/volumes/63fe1b26-#######-####-########46fa
    vfat-0.04 (Raw Major Version: 0) file system spanning 1 partitions.
    File system label (if any):
    Mode: private
    Capacity 299712512 (36586 file blocks * 8192), 108437504 (13237 blocks) avail, max supported file size 0
    Disk Block Size: 512/0/0
    UUID: 63fe1b26-########-####-########46fa
    Partitions spanned (on "disks"):
        mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:8
    Is Native Snapshot Capable: NO

    The disk and partition id is mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:8.

    Note: The "mpx ID" strings are just examples; in your case, you might see "naa.*** ID."

    Repeat this step for all vFAT partitions. Finally, you will have list like this

mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2 (scratch)
mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:5 (bootbank 1)
mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:6 (bootbank 2)
mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:8 (locker)

Enter maintenance mode and stop all daemons

Note: This step is only required for upgrades from 6.5 and 6.7.

To avoid any interference between the following steps and any daemon writing on the disk, its required to check for open file handles and close them.

  1. Stop crond, which periodically schedules backup.sh, updating the active bootbank 
    # kill $(cat /var/run/crond.pid)
  2. Stop vmsyslogd, which has open file handles on /scratch (log files) 
    # /usr/lib/vmware/vmsyslog/bin/shutdown.sh

  3. Check for further daemons having open file handles on the scratch partition and stop these daemons

    # lsof |grep scratch
    1001391762  vmfstracegd           FILE                        4   /scratch/vmfstraces/vmfsGlobalTrace.trace.0.gz
     
    # /etc/init.d/vmfstraced stop
    watchdog-vmfstracegd: Terminating watchdog process with PID 1001391748
    vmfstracegd stopped
    [root@localhost:~] lsof |grep scratch
     
    -- note: 63fe3b74-########-####-#######46fa is the UUID of the scratch partition
    # lsof |grep 63fe3b74-########-####-########46fa
    1001391489  rhttpproxy            FILE                       18   /vmfs/volumes/63fe3b74-########-####-#######46fa/log/rhttpproxy-1001391489-000000db02450060-lo0-1.pcap
    1001391489  rhttpproxy            FILE                       19   /vmfs/volumes/63fe3b74-########-####-#######46fa/log/rhttpproxy-1001391489-000000db024501a8-vmk0-1.pcap
    # /etc/init.d/rhttpproxy stop
      
    # lsof | grep var/run/log
2101088    python               FILE                       5  /var/run/log/vsandevicemonitord.log

# /etc/init.d/vsandevicemonitord stop


Perform any of below Solutions to recover the corrupted vFAT partitions.

===========================================================================

Solution 1 (Preferred solution) -  Use dosfsck as a first solution

For all identifies vFAT partitions, check the file system integrity and repair the disk as needed

  1. Check the health of the vFAT partition 
    1. # dosfsck -Vv /dev/disks/<disk and partition id>
      disk and partition id was derived in the previous step

    2. For instance, the output for a healthy partition

      # dosfsck -Vv /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0\:C0\:T0\:L0:2
      dosfsck 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
      dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN
      Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem
      Boot sector contents:
      System ID "MSDOS5.0"
      Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk)
             512 bytes per logical sector
           65536 bytes per cluster
               2 reserved sectors
      First FAT starts at byte 1024 (sector 2)
               2 FATs, 16 bit entries
          131072 bytes per FAT (= 256 sectors)
      Root directory starts at byte 263168 (sector 514)
             512 root directory entries
      Data area starts at byte 279552 (sector 546)
           65515 data clusters (4293591040 bytes)
      32 sectors/track, 64 heads
               0 hidden sectors
         8386560 sectors total
      Starting check/repair pass.
      Checking for unused clusters.
      Starting verification pass.
      Checking for unused clusters.
      /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2: 222 files, 3279/65515 clusters
  2. If the command reports any failures or hangs, then try to repair the partition 
    # dosfsck -a -w /dev/disks/<disk and partition id>
  3.  If the command reports any orphaned files, delete the file(s). Then, write the changes.
  4. Repeat step 1. If dosfsck still report failures, proceed with the next step to re-create the partition
  5. After you have checked all ESXi partitions, reboot the ESXi host (this will restart all previously stopped daemons)

===========================================================================

Solution 2 - Re-create a corrupted vFAT partition

  1. Backup all files. In this example, we will backup /scratch and keep a copy on datastore1
    # cp /scratch/ /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/scratchBackup

    (At this point its very likely that the cp command returns a failure. Note, the filesystem is corrupted and one or more files or filenames will be invalid. A this point copy folder by folder or file by file and leave the corrupted files on the disk. After re-formatting, the  file will be lost!)
  2. (Re-)Format the corrupted partition

    # vmkfstools -C vfat /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2
    create fs deviceName:'/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2', fsShortName:'vfat', fsName:'(null)'
    deviceFullPath:/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2 deviceFile:mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2
    Checking if remote hosts are using this device as a valid file system. This may take a few seconds...
    Creating vfat file system on "mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2" with blockSize 1048576 and volume label "none".
    Successfully created new volume: 640748a7-########-####-########46fa


    (Note: If the command returns a busy error, this indicates that a file on this disk is still open. See above steps to identify the open handles.)
  3. Restore the content
    Get the volume ID from the previous command (e.g., 640748a7-########-####-##########fa)

    # cp -r /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/scratchBackup/* /vmfs/volumes/640748a7-########-####-##########fa/
  4. Reboot the ESXi host, after you have checked and repaired all vFAT partitions.

===========================================================================

Scenario : If Partitions spanned (on "disks") is of the format: t10.ATA______DELLBOS_VD___________________________________a5##############:5

For all identified vFAT partitions, check the file system integrity and repair the disk as needed

  1. Run the command to check if the vFAT partition is corrupted # dosfsck -Vv /dev/disks/<disk and partition id>  (Note: disk and partition id was derived in the previous step)

     

  2. Select: Delete (Note: This option only repairs the corrupted vFAT partition)
  3. Select: Keep the Changes
  4. Then, proceed with the ESXi upgrade.

Additional Information

If following messages are prompted after running command, choose 'No action'. 

# dosfsck -Vv /dev/disks/<disk and partition id>

0x25: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.

1) Remove dirty bit

2) No action

[12?1]

 

Partition will be repaired by command below

# dosfsck -a -w /dev/disks/<disk and partition id>.

Note: This issue has been permanently fixed in the VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3b.


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