remount Esxi boot bank

In certain scenario when Esxi’s local/alt boot bank/ boot volume goes offline (symlinks broken),if the boot device is available, it needs to be remounted via CLI

To remount bootbank, run the below command.

localcli --plugin-dir=/usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ boot system restore --bootbanks

To determine if the boot device is available, run through the below:

Determining the boot volume:

[root@AMD-fx:~] ls -ltrh /
total 1161

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          49 Mar 24 05:44 store -> /vmfs/volumes/5c963b7e-a90346aa-0102-0007e9b5fb18
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          49 Mar 24 05:44 bootbank -> /vmfs/volumes/fbff1b71-b140971e-160d-5c5f543035b8     <------------
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          49 Mar 24 05:44 altbootbank -> /vmfs/volumes/29249a7e-c37cdaf0-dbe5-30b1bb5afdd9  <------------
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          49 Mar 24 05:44 scratch -> /vmfs/volumes/5c963b87-d1260d20-cc4a-0007e9b5fb18      <-------------
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          29 Mar 24 05:44 productLocker -> /locker/packages/vmtoolsRepo/
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           6 Mar 24 05:44 locker -> /store

If the symlnks to the UUID are not created, look at the /var/log/boot.gz to determine why the device was not detected (most likely bad/missing drivers or passed through USB

Determine boot device (use the UUID of bootbank/altbotbank)

[root@AMD-fx:~] vmkfstools -P /vmfs/volumes/fbff1b71-b140971e-160d-5c5f543035b8
vfat-0.04 (Raw Major Version: 0) file system spanning 1 partitions.
File system label (if any):
Mode: private
Capacity 261853184 (63929 file blocks * 4096), 108040192 (26377 blocks) avail, max supported file size 0
Disk Block Size: 512/0/0
UUID: fbff1b71-b140971e-160d-5c5f543035b8
Partitions spanned (on "disks"):
        t10.ATA_____HTS721010G9SA00_______________________________MPCZN7Y0GZ452L:5
Is Native Snapshot Capable: NO

Determining if the boot devise is available:

[root@AMD-fx:~] esxcli storage core device list -d t10.ATA_____HTS721010G9SA00_______________________________MPCZN7Y0GZ452L
t10.ATA_____HTS721010G9SA00_______________________________MPCZN7Y0GZ452L
   Display Name: Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____HTS721010G9SA00_______________________________MPCZN7Y0GZ452L)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 95396
   Device Type: Direct-Access
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____HTS721010G9SA00_______________________________MPCZN7Y0GZ452L
   Vendor: ATA
   Model: HTS721010G9SA00
   Revision: C10H
   SCSI Level: 5
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: on                         
   Is RDM Capable: false
   Is Local: true
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: false
   Is VVOL PE: false
   Is Offline: false                   <-------------------------------------------------
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
   Attached Filters:
   VAAI Status: unsupported
   Other UIDs: vml.01000000002020202020204d50435a4e375930475a3435324c485453373231
   Is Shared Clusterwide: false
   Is SAS: false
   Is USB: false
   Is Boot Device: true
   Device Max Queue Depth: 31
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 31
   Drive Type: unknown
   RAID Level: unknown
   Number of Physical Drives: unknown
   Protection Enabled: false
   PI Activated: false
   PI Type: 0
   PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
   Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   DIX Enabled: false
   DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false