✅ Cleaning up phantom file locks after a host failure.
Unlike standard Linux filesystems, you do not run fsck on the block device directly in a way that automatically fixes things.
fsck on a VMFS partition can lead to further data corruption as it does not recognize the VMFS metadata structure. Broadcom Community +2 2. Diagnosis with vOMA VMware provides the vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer (vOMA) to identify metadata inconsistencies. This tool is primarily for read-only diagnosis to check if a volume is "fixable". Broadcom Community Common vOMA Command Structure: bash voma -m vmfs -f check -d /vmfs/devices/disks/[naa_id]:[partition] Use code with caution. Copied to clipboard Note: While vOMA can detect errors, VMware documentation often advises that significant corruption may require rebuilding the volume rather than manual in-place repair. Broadcom Community +1 3. Data Recovery Strategies When a VMFS volume is corrupted and cannot be mounted, the following recovery paths are recommended: 11 sites How to fsck (repair vmfs 3 volume) with ESXi? Nov 19, 2010 —
Some older community tools (like vmfs-tools on Linux) provide a limited fsck.vmfs . VMware does not support this. Using it on a production datastore is a fast track to a support ticket denial.
If you suspect corruption, do run fsck immediately. Follow this hierarchy:
In the ESXi environment, fsck is typically used only for the Linux-based OS partitions of the host. For datastores where your virtual machines reside, VMware provides to handle metadata corruption, block allocation errors, and directory inconsistencies. When to Perform a VMFS Repair Consider a VMFS metadata check if you encounter:
Use with extreme caution. The fsck tool for VMFS (VMware Virtual Machine File System) is not a "fix-it-all" utility like standard Linux fsck . It is a low-level consistency check that can result in data loss if used incorrectly. It should only be used as a last resort when the VMFS datastore is corrupted and mounting fails, and you have no other recovery options (backups or snapshot restoration) available.
After a RAID volume rebuild or physical disk replacement. Step-by-Step Guide to VMFS Repair using VOMA 1. Prepare the Environment (Safety First)
VMFS (versions 5, 6, and 8) uses a journaling mechanism and heartbeat writes. For minor inconsistencies (dirty shutdowns, power loss), ESXi automatically replays the journal on datastore mount.