I ran into an issue with vcsa appliance running version 8 in my home lab. I was able to fix it by using Option1 of this article from vmware.
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2149838
- Reboot the virtual appliance, and immediately after the OS starts, press e to open the GNU GRUB Edit Menu.
- Locate the line that begins with the word linux.
- Option 1
- At the end of the line, add fsck.repair=yes then reboot the appliance. This will force the default filesystem check to auto-resolve any issues, and does not require emergency mode.