The vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer (VOMA) scans the VMFS volume metadata and highlights any inconsistencies to which you may be required to open a support request.
To perform a VOMA check on a VMFS datastore and send the results to a specific log file, the command syntax is:
voma -m vmfs -d /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.00000000000000000000000000 -s /tmp/analysis.txt
voma -m vmfs -d /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.00000000000000000000000000:1 -s /tmp/analysis.txtWhere:
naa.00000000000000000000000000:1 is the LUN NAA ID and partition to be checked. For a VMFS6 multi extent volume, LUN NAA ID represents the head extent. Note the ":1" at the end of device. This is the partition number containing the datastore. Partition number is optional when the datastore resides on the first partition, i.e., VOMA cannot be run against the device if datastore resides on a partition other than the first partition.
Note:
1. VOMA is not supported on VMFS5 multi extent volume.
2. On running VOMA against a device, where datastore does not reside on the first partition, it produces an error similar to:
Error: Missing LVM Magic. Disk doesn't have a valid LVM Device
Error: Failed to Initialize LVM Metadata
In circumstances where the corruption is irreversible, VMware recommends that you restore from backup or consult with a data recovery organization as VMware does not perform data recovery. For more information, see Data recovery services for data not recoverable by VMware Technical Support (1015413).
Before running VOMA you must ensure that:
- All virtual machines on the affected datastore are powered off or migrated to another datastore. See Impact/Risks section.
- For VMFS-5/VMFS-6 datastores, the datastore is unmounted on all ESXi 6.x/7.x hosts.
If you attempt to run VOMA against a volume that is still being accessed by one or more ESXi hosts, VOMA produces a message similar to:
voma -m vmfs -d /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.00000000000000000000000000:1
Checking if device is actively being used by other hosts
Found 1 actively heartbeating hosts on device '/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.00000000000000000000000000:1'
1): MAC Address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
VOMA command syntax options
Option | Description |
-m or --module | Specify whether the module to run is vmfs or lvm. When vmfs is specified, the lvm check is also performed. The default check is vmfs. |
-d or --device | Device/disk to be inspected. |
-s or --logfile | Used to specify the output log file. |
-v or --version | Display the VOMA version. |
-h or --help | Displays the VOMA command help message. |