PowerEdge: Create a Persistent Scratch Location on Dell ESXi Hosts
Summary: This How-To article provides a comprehensive guide on how to create a persistent scratch location on Dell ESXi hosts. A persistent scratch location is essential for retaining temporary files, logs, and diagnostic data even after host reboots, contributing to effective troubleshooting and system maintenance. ...
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Instructions
Create a persistent scratch location.
- Enter Maintenance Mode
- Access Host: Use
SSH - List Datastores:
ls /vmfs/volumes
- Create a Scratch Directory:
mkdir /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/DirectoryName Example: mkdir /vmfs/volumes/Datastore1/.locker-ESXHostname
- Check Current Scratch Location:
vim-cmd hostsvc/advopt/view ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation
- Set New Scratch Location:
vim-cmd hostsvc/advopt/update ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation string /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/DirectoryName
Example:
vim-cmd hostsvc/advopt/update ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation string /vmfs/volumes/Datastore1/.locker-ESXHostname>
- Syslog Configuration: Confirm
esxcli system syslog config get
- Local Log Output: Ensure
/scratch/log
esxcli system syslog config set --logdir=/scratch/log
- Reload Syslog Configuration:
esxcli system syslog reload
- Reboot ESXi Host
- Exit Maintenance Mode
ESXi uses scratch space in the following order of preference: configured location, Fat16 file system, VMFS datastore, or a ram disk at /tmp/scratch.
Remove the configuration or restore to RAM disk:
- Enter Maintenance Mode
- Change
ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocationto/tmpin the host's Advanced Settings. - Save
- Reboot host.
- After reboot,
ScratchConfig.CurrentScratchLocationshould be updated to/tmp. - If the change does not reflect, Reboot the host again and you can remove the VMFS datastore.
Alternatively, you can use the following command to clear the scratch configuration directly:
vim-cmd hostsvc/advopt/update ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation string ""
Reboot the host to apply the changes. After reboot, this should prompt ESXi to use /tmp/scratch as the scratch location on the RAM disk.
Additional Information
For vSAN:
- If using vSAN, see the VMware Article Storing ESXi Coredump and Scratch Partitions in vSAN
- vSAN does not support having scratch connect the vSAN Datastore as this can result in a stopped responding host. For more information, see Redirecting system logs to a vSAN object causes an ESXi host lock up (2147541)
.
Affected Products
VMware ESXi 7.x, VMware ESXi 8.x, VMware ESXi 9.xArticle Properties
Article Number: 000217150
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 23 May 2025
Version: 5
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