Why does fstrim fail on Red Hat Enterprise Linux VMs on VMware hypervisors?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • fstrim fails on VMware guests with messages similar to the following:

    • On ext4 filesystems:

      fstrim: /path/to/mountpoint: the discard operation is not supported
      
      fstrim: /path/to/mountpoint: FITRIM ioctl failed: Input/output error
      
      fstrim: /path/to/mountpoint: FITRIM ioctl failed: Operation not supported
      
    • On XFS filesystems:

      fstrim: /path/to/mountpoint: the discard operation is not supported
      
      fstrim: /path/to/mountpoint: FITRIM ioctl failed: Input/output error
      
  • The exact error message depends on filesystem type, system state and version.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux VM (So far, the problem has been observed in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7. However, in theory, it can affect all versions)
  • VMware Hypervisors

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