Recovering raid-formatted vmfs partition

[joepresto]

Have a situation where vmfs volume was formatted via raid controller (non-destructive, i'm hoping)

esxi 6, upgraded from 5 so i'm assuming it was gpt

i may have had esx5 installed on that raid volume so the vmfs volume might not be right at the beginning. I tried using vmfs-tools but doesn't like that the partition is unformatted.

Any help would be appreciated - how can i best recreate the partition info?

Thanks - Joe

partition info-->

Disk /dev/disks/naa.600605b006bb16c01a73aed623fd738a: 1999.3 GB, 1999307276288 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243068 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/disks/naa.600605b006bb16c01a73aed623fd738a doesn't contain a valid partition table

[root@localhost:~] partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600605b006bb16c01a73aed623fd738a

unknown

243068 255 63 3904897024

[cykVM]

If that formatting from RAID BIOS was kind of a low-level format there might not be much hope.

You may try some of the steps mentioned in VMware KB: Troubleshooting the Add Storage Wizard error: Unable to read partition information from t...

[continuum]

Try to scan for the VMFSvolume with hexdump

hexdump -C /dev/disks/naa.600605b006bb16c01a73aed623fd738a | grep "0d d0 01 c0 d5"
That string should appear 1mb into the VMFS-partition

[joepresto]

Scanning now thank you - fingers crossed.

[continuum]

you should have found it already

[continuum]

oops - sorry. Had a typo in the scan: the string should be : 0d d0 01 c0 05
hope that makes a difference

[joepresto]

Found it -

38400000  0d d0 01 c0 05 00 00 00  15 00 00 00 02 16 00 00  |................|

[continuum]

good
that means that the VMFS-volume starts at 899 MB after the beginning of the disk/raid-set.
Let me look that up to see if it makes sense.

[continuum]

Can you tell us which version that was exactly ?
the value does not fit for 5.5 and 5.1

[joepresto]

I'm not positive - as I probably installed vsphere on that array then moved to USB drive - but notes say 5.5

[supportplus]

good news: the value fits for esxi 5.0u3

so to recreate the partition use a starting value of 102297760

[continuum]

dont worry - last reply was by me - accidentaly using a different account

Ulli

[joepresto]

Thank you again - going to have to ask for a little more help with the partedUtil setptbl command - what do i need for the rest of the parameters?

[continuum · Accepted solution]

you still need to use the getUsableSectors command to find out the endsector - it is probably a good idea to use the function from a ESXi 5.0.
Or tell me the exact size of the volume and I try to use a vmdk in the size of your raid to get the value.pe

Feel free to call me via skype "sanbarrow" if you need more help

Ulli

[joepresto]

Ulli was a great help in getting this solved - with his help we were able to recreate the partition and extract using vmfs-tools - server is back up and running!

[miksem]

Ulli, thanks a ton for your help with the similar issue. Your LiveCD is awesome and you are a "Prachtkerl" to deal with

Thanks again!