vCenter boots into emergency mode on startup

Apr 13, 2020
Graeme Lewis

I started up my virtual lab today and got the following error on my vCenter server:

 

"Generating "/run/initramfs/rdsosreport.txt"

Entering emergency mode. Exit the shell to continue."

 

Since my virtual lab runs off my gaming machine, it looks like something had happened during power down that had affected my vCenter appliance. Here’s how to resolve the issue:

 

1. Perform a snapshot of the VCSA server in its current state from the ESXi host portal where the VCSA is running.

2. Reboot the VCSA server and repeatedly press the ‘E’ key immediately upon boot until the GRUB boot startup screen appears.

3. Add the text systemd.unit=emergency.target to the end of line where it says ‘linux’ as per the below image. (This tells the OS to boot into emergency mode)

 

Screenshot 2021 05 12 at 9 32 56 pm

 

4. Press F10 to continue to boot

5. You should land at a terminal prompt. Enter the following commands:

  • /bin/sh
  • /bin/mount
  • blkid (this command shows a list of the storage devices)

 

 

You are looking for the ‘sda’ numbers of the ‘TYPE=”ext4″‘ (in the example above /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda3)

6. Type the following commands replacing it with your storage locations in step 5. This checks the file systems of the storage and perfoms any corrections.

  • e2fsck -y /dev/sda1

 

 

  • e2fsck -y /dev/sda3

 

 

7. Restart the VCSA (Action > Power > Reset)

 

 

8. The VCSA should restart and hopefully be fixed

 

 

9. Test your VCSA to make sure it’s working

10. Finally once your happy remove the snapshot from the host