What are .nnaxxx .vSphere-HA and vmkdump folders in datastore ?

[TonyJK]

Hi,

We are using ESXi 6.

When I browse a datastore, I find that there are some folders that doesn't created for Virtual Machines.

May I seek your advice what are those folders for

1) .naa.xxxx

2) .vSphere-HA

3) vmkdump ?

From my understaning, vmkdump is for ESXi Host dump files when it crashes.  How an ESXi Host choose which datastore to store its dump ?  Can I find out which ESXi Host is using this folder ?

Thanks

[conyards · Accepted solution]

.vSphere-HA - This folder resides on shared datastore that is used as a secondary communication channel in HA architecture. This folder contains;

• host-xxx-hb files - The heartbeat mechanism uses the part of the VMFS volume for regular updates. Each host in cluster has it’s own file like this in the .vSphere-HA folder.
• protected list file – List of VMs protected by a HA.
• host-xxx-poweron files – Used to track the running VMs for each host of the cluster.

.naa.xxxx - This is a reference to a particular datastore, you can compare the ID from a storage adapter view to find out which datastore.  My guess is this directory probably contains a .slotsfile, which is created if you have enabled Storage IO Control (SIOC).

vmkdump - This is the core dump location. During a purple diagnostic screen, ESXi/ESX will attempt to write a VMkernel core dump to a previously-configured VMKCore partition. This file is normally created during start up or while collecting vm-support logs.

I wouldn't necessarily consider moving or deleting the folders prefaced with '.' as directories that start with '.' are hidden and will be in use.

You can look at the following guide if you need to move the core dump location;

Configuring a diagnostic coredump partition on an ESXi 5.x/6.x host (2004299) | VMware KB

hope this helps

Simon

[singhraj]

we are bulding new ESXi 6.5 hosts on HPE g9 blades.

and i am seeing coredump files are saving on different shared data storeage (VNX) and also on three blades it saved on local drive .

i am trying to find how ESXi pick where to save its core dump files (Location). (note: there were no error when i cofigure these blades.)

i am not able to find how ESXi decide where to save its coredump file.

[TheBobkin]

Hello singhraj​

You can check where core-dumps are currently directed to for storageusing:

# esxcli system coredump partition get

VMware Knowledge Base

Bob

[singhraj]

ESXi hosts are picking datastore randomly on VNX and local disk.

we have shared VNX data store. thats is why i am trying to find out

how ESXi chose its SAN strorege or local storege to store dump files.

i am not seeing any pattern ESXi is following.