Your monitoring platform would pick the error as /storage/ archive is full however this issue is an erroneous alarm that does not affect the operations of the vCenter Server. This is a common error that you would face on vCenter.
List of VMDKs/Partitions for a vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 – Size Mount point and Purpose
| Disk (VMDK) | Default Size (Tiny with Default Storage Size) | Mount Point | Purpose |
| VMDK1 | 12GB | / (10GB) /boot (132MB) SWAP (1GB) | Directory where the kernel images and boot loader configurations are stored. |
| VMDK2 | 1.8GB | /tmp | Directory used to store temporary files generated or used by services from vCenter Server |
| VMDK3 | 25GB | SWAP | Directory used when the system is out of memory to swap to disk |
| VMDK4 | 25GB | /storage/core | Directory where core dumps from VPXD process from the vCenter Server are stored |
| VMDK5 | 10GB | /storage/log | Directory where vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller store all logs for the environment |
| VMDK6 | 10GB | /storage/db | VMware Postgres database storage location |
| VMDK7 | 5GB | /storage/dblog | VMware Postgres database logging location |
| VMDK8 | 10GB | /storage/seat | Stats, Events, Alarms and Tasks (SEAT) directory for VMware Postgres |
| VMDK9 | 1GB | /storage/netdump | VMware Netdump collector repository that stores ESXi dumps |
| VMDK10 | 10GB | /storage/autodeploy | VMware Auto Deploy repository that stores the thinpackages used for stateless booting of ESXi hosts |
| VMDK11 | 10GB | /storage/imagebuilder | VMware Image Builder repository that stores the vSphere image profiles, software depots and VIB packages, such as driver VIBs and update VIBs. |
| VMDK12 | 100GB | /storage/updatemgr | VMware Update Manager repository where patches and updates are stored for Virtual Machine and ESXi hosts |
| VMDK13 | 50GB | /storage/archive | VMware Postgres database’s Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) location |
List of VMDKs/Partitions for a vCenter Server Appliance 7.0 – Size Mount point and Purpose
| Disk (VMDK) | Default Size (Tiny with Default Storage Size) | Mount Point | Purpose |
| VMDK1 | 48GB | / (46GB) /boot (132MB) SWAP (1GB) | Directory where the kernel images and boot loader configurations are stored. |
| VMDK2 | 1.8GB | /tmp | Directory used to store temporary files generated or used by services from vCenter Server |
| VMDK3 | 25GB | SWAP | Directory used when the system is out of memory to swap to disk |
| VMDK4 | 25GB | /storage/core | Directory where core dumps from VPXD process from the vCenter Server are stored |
| VMDK5 | 10GB | /storage/log | Directory where vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller store all logs for the environment |
| VMDK6 | 10GB | /storage/db | VMware Postgres database storage location |
| VMDK7 | 5GB | /storage/dblog | VMware Postgres database logging location |
| VMDK8 | 10GB | /storage/seat | Stats, Events, Alarms and Tasks (SEAT) directory for VMware Postgres |
| VMDK9 | 1GB | /storage/netdump | VMware Netdump collector repository that stores ESXi dumps |
| VMDK10 | 10GB | /storage/autodeploy | VMware Auto Deploy repository that stores the thinpackages used for stateless booting of ESXi hosts |
| VMDK11 | 10GB | /storage/imagebuilder | VMware Image Builder repository that stores the vSphere image profiles, software depots and VIB packages, such as driver VIBs and update VIBs. |
| VMDK12 | 100GB | /storage/updatemgr | VMware Update Manager repository where patches and updates are stored for Virtual Machine and ESXi hosts |
| VMDK13 | 50GB | /storage/archive | VMware Postgres database’s Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) location |
| VMDK14 | 10GB | /storage/vtsdb | VMware vTSDB Service Repository that stores the stats |
| VMDK15 | 5GB | /storage/vtsdblog | VMware vTSDB Service Repository that stores the logs of the service |
| VMDK16 | 100GB | /storage/lifecycle | Workload Control Plane service stage directory or software depot, this stores the binaries for install and update/upgrade. |
What is /storage/archive used for ?
This volume stores as much WAL history as possible, and is automatically cleaned up by the archiver service by automatically removing the oldest WAL segments
Verification
- Login to the VAMI UI as shown will root password and verify if all services are up . As seen all the vCenter services will be running fine.
- Login to the vCenter via ssh session.
- Execute the command df -H to view the file system space
As seen the /storage/archive partition is full and this is by design.
Perm Solution
This issue does not cause the vCenter services to go offline. The short term solution is just to increase the file system partition size however after a few weeks we will again face the same situation causing the partition to fill up again. The archiver service is responsible for truncating the old information as it reaches a full condition on its own so this partition by design is meant to fill up. This issue is an erroneous alarm that does not affect the operations of vCenter Server.
Temp Solution
Locate the disk holding the /storage/archive by running the command
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df-h;lsblk;lsscsi |
The /storage/archive mount point is disk label sdm..
The sdm is located on disk 13. Typically it’s not a best practice to extend disks on a Linux based system and the ideal scenario would have been to add a new disk and extend the partition via lvm but on the vCenter system, this is okay
On the vCenter VM, Click Edit settings, Locate disk 13 and choose to extend space
Temp Fix for the vCenter /storage/archive storage partition full error
Establish an SSH session to the vCSA and run the autogrow script as shown to automatically expand any logical volume that has space added.This script looks for changes in the underlying storage and expands the volume without the need to reboot.
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<strong>/usr/lib/applmgmt/support/scripts/autogrow.sh</strong> |
Execute the command df -H again to verify the size of the/storage/archive partition and we can see the partition has been extended.
References
Increasing the disk space for the vCenter Server Appliance in vSphere 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0 (2145603)
List of VMDKs/Partitions for a vCenter Server Appliance 6.7
List of VMDKs/Partitions for a vCenter Server Appliance 7.0