vsphere ramdisk 'tmp' is full

The ramdisk ‘tmp’ is full. As a result, the file /tmp/bbJ7VowB.tmp could not be written.

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Today we will see about the error message “The ramdisk ‘tmp’ is full. As a result, the file /tmp/bbJ7VowB.tmp could not be written.” in VMware ESXi.

What is ESXi ramdisk?

Ramdisk is a container inside the memory (RAM) for that working read/write copy. Using the branching technique, ESXi VMkernel uses the read/write copy instead of the original read-only one, and any modification is done to this read/write copy.

Possible Errors

  • An ESXi host upgrade fails due to /tmp being full.
  • An ESXi host is not responding in the vCenter Server inventory.
  • The ams-bbUsg.txt file consumes a large amount of /tmp.
  • vMotion of a virtual machine fails
  • You see an error similar to General System Error Occurred.

This error occurred because the HPE servers running VMware ESXi version 6.X with Agentless Management Service (AMS) version 11.4.x will enter a not responding state because AMS data fills up /tmp.

Solution

To work around this issue, clear the ams-bbUsg.txt file contents.

  1. Connect to affected host through SSH.
  2. Navigate to /tmp directory and list the files in it.
    Using username “root”.
    esxi01-techyguy.com
    ~ # cd /tmp
    /tmp # ls
    altbootbank.lck ams-iscsi1.txt ams-sas2.txt amsfc.done
    ams-bbUsg.txt ams-iscsiC1.txt ams-swrun.txt amsfsys.done
    ams-ent.txt ams-iscsiP1.txt ams-sysmod.txt amshrsw.done
    ams-fc.txt ams-iscsiS1.txt ams-usb1.txt amsiscsi.done
    ams-hrswrun.txt ams-mem.txt ams-vsw.txt amsnic.done
    ams-ip.txt ams-nic-list.txt amsbb.done amssas.done
    ams-ipv4.txt ams-route.txt amscpqsw.done amssysmd.done
    ams-ipv6.txt ams-sas.txt amsent.done probe.session
  3. Type vdf -h and hit enter. You will be able to see the Size and Use% of the tmp directory.
    /tmp # vdf -h

Ramdisk Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
root 32M 2M 29M 9% —
etc 28M 484K 27M 1% —
opt 32M 392K 31M 1% —
var 48M 3M 44M 7% —
tmp 256M 256M 0B 100% —
iofilters 32M 0B 32M 0% —
shm 1024M 0B 1024M 0% —
vsantraces 300M 300M 0B 100% —
hostdstats 2053M 14M 2038M 0% —

  1. It shows the /tmp does not has free space so need to delete ams-bbUsg.txt files.
  2. For this you need to run the following commands one by one:

/tmp # du -hal /tmp | grep ams-bbUsg.txt
255.9M /tmp/ams-bbUsg.txt
/tmp # rm ams-bbUsg.txt
/tmp # du -hal /tmp | grep ams-bbUsg.txt
/tmp # vdf -h

Ramdisk Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
root 32M 2M 29M 9% —
etc 28M 484K 27M 1% —
opt 32M 392K 31M 1% —
var 48M 3M 44M 7% —
tmp 256M 128K 255M 0% —
iofilters 32M 0B 32M 0% —
shm 1024M 0B 1024M 0% —
vsantraces 300M 300M 0B 100% —
hostdstats 2053M 14M 2038M 0% —

Once you delete the ams-bbUsg.txt file, there will enough free space available and your operation will be done without any further issues.

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