Skip to main content

“esxconsole.vmdk” mssing, ESX host boot stops at the error: VSD mount/Bin/SH:cant access TTY job control turned off

“esxconsole.vmdk” mssing, ESX host boot stops at the error: VSD mount/Bin/SH:cant access TTY job control turned off

 

This issue occurs if an esxconsole.vmdk file is missing in which the service console resides. We will need to recreate esxconsole.vmdk file and associate with esxconsole-flat.vmdk.
  1. Identify the location esxconsole.vmdk by running this command #grep -i cosvmdk /etc/vmware/esx.conf
  2. Output will similar to /boot/cosvmdk = "/vmfs/volumes/<uuid>/<dir>/esxconsole.vmdk" .
  3. Make note of the <uuid> and the <dir> values in the output.
  4. Verify that the files exist by running the command: #ls -al /vmfs/volumes/<uuid>/<dir>/*.vmdk  The output is similar to:
    5. total 7906560
    drwxr-xr-x 1 root root        840 May 21 00:45 .
    drwxr-xr-t 1 root root       2660 Oct 21 09:10 ..
    -rw------- 1 root root 8095006720 Oct 26 15:37 esxconsole-flat.vmdk
    -rw------- 1 root root        475 May 21 00:32 esxconsole.vmdk
    drwxr-xr-x 1 root root        980 May 21 00:45 logs
  5. Navigate to the directory that contains the virtual machine disk with the missing descriptor file using the command: #cd "/vmfs/volumes/<uuid>/<dir>
  6. Identify the type of SCSI controller the virtual disk is using. You can do this by examining the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx). The controller is identified by the line scsi#.virtualDev, where # is the controller number; there may be more than one controller and controller type attached to the virtual machine. This example uses bslgic:
    7. scsi0.present = "true"
    scsi0.sharedBus = "none"
    scsi1.present = "true"
    scsi1.sharedBus = "virtual"
    scsi1.virtualDev = "buslogic”
  7. Identify and record the exact size of the -flat file using a command similar to:
    8. # ls -l vmdisk0-flat.vmdk
    -rw------- 1 root root 4294967296 Oct 11 12:30 vmdisk0-flat.vmdk
  8. Use the vmkfstools command to create a new virtual disk:
    9. # vmkfstools -c 4294967296 –a buslogic temp.vmdk
    This command uses these flags:
    -c <size>  (This is the size of the virtual disk).
    -a <virtual controller> (Whether the virtual disk was configured to work with BusLogic or LSILogic).
    -d thin  (This creates the disk in a thin-provisioned format).
    Note: To save disk space, we create the disk in a thin-provisioned format using the type thin. The resulting flat file then consumes minimal amounts of space (1MB) instead of immediately assuming the capacity specified with the -c switch. The only consequence, however, is the descriptor file contains an extra line that must be removed manually in a later step.
    The files temp.vmdk and temp-flat.vmdk are created as a result.
  9. Delete temp-flat.vmdk, as it is not needed. Run the command:# rm temp-flat.vmdk
  10. Rename temp.vmdk to the name that is required to match the orphaned .flat file (or esxconsole.vmdk,in this example): # mv temp.vmdk esxconsole.vmdk
  11. Edit the descriptor file with a text editor (VI) : a) Under Extent Description section, change the name of the .flat file to match the orphaned .flat file you have. b) Find and remove the line ddb.thinProvisioned = "1" if the original .vmdk was not a thin disk. If it was, retain this line.
    12. # Disk DescriptorFile
    version=1
    CID=fb183c20
    parentCID=ffffffff
    createType="vmfs"
    # Extent description
    RW 4294967296 VMFS "esxconsole-flat.vmdk"
    # The Disk Data Base
    #DDB
    ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4"
    ddb.geometry.cylinders = "522"
    ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
    ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
    ddb.adapterType = "buslogic”
    ddb.consoleOsDisk = "True"ddb.thinProvisioned = “1”
  12. Restart the host to make the changes get affected.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quick Guide to VCF Automation for VCD Administrators

  Quick Guide to VCF Automation for VCD Administrators VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9) has been  released  and with it comes brand new Cloud Management Platform –  VCF Automation (VCFA)  which supercedes both Aria Automation and VMware Cloud Director (VCD). This blog post is intended for those people that know VCD quite well and want to understand how is VCFA similar or different to help them quickly orient in the new direction. It should be emphasized that VCFA is a new solution and not just rebranding of an old one. However it reuses a lot of components from its predecessors. The provider part of VCFA called Tenenat Manager is based on VCD code and the UI and APIs will be familiar to VCD admins, while the tenant part inherist a lot from Aria Automation and especially for VCD end-users will look brand new. Deployment and Architecture VCFA is generaly deployed from VCF Operations Fleet Management (former Aria Suite LCM embeded in VCF Ops. Fleet Management...
Post a Comment
Read more
  Issue with Aria Automation Custom form Multi Value Picker and Data Grid https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleNumber=345960 Products VMware Aria Suite Issue/Introduction Symptoms: Getting  error " Expected Type String but was Object ", w hen trying to use Complex Types in MultiValue Picker on the Aria for Automation Custom Form. Environment VMware vRealize Automation 8.x Cause This issue has been identified where the problem appears when a single column Multi Value Picker or Data Grid is used. Resolution This is a known issue. There is a workaround.  Workaround: As a workaround, try adding one empty column in the Multivalue picker without filling the options. So we can add one more column without filling the value which will be hidden(there is a button in the designer page that will hide the column). This way the end user will receive the same view.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Step-by-Step Explanation of Ballooning, Compression & Swapping in VMware

 🔹 Step-by-Step Explanation of Ballooning, Compression & Swapping in VMware ⸻ 1️⃣ Memory Ballooning (vmmemctl) Ballooning is the first memory reclamation technique used when ESXi detects memory pressure. ➤ Step-by-Step: How Ballooning Works  1. VMware Tools installs the balloon driver (vmmemctl) inside the guest OS.  2. ESXi detects low free memory on the host.  3. ESXi inflates the balloon in selected VMs.  4. Balloon driver occupies guest memory, making the OS think RAM is full.  5. Guest OS frees idle / unused pages (because it believes memory is needed).  6. ESXi reclaims those freed pages and makes them available to other VMs. Why Ballooning Happens?  • Host free memory is very low.  • ESXi wants the VM to release unused pages before resorting to swapping. Example  • Host memory: 64 GB  • VMs used: 62 GB  • Free: 2 GB → ESXi triggers ballooning  • VM1 (8 GB RAM): Balloon inflates to 2 GB → OS frees 2 GB → ESXi re...
Post a Comment
Read more