ESXi 7.0 virtual machine and datastore error

[davehii]

Hi I am considerable new to ESXi and to this forum. Background of the problem, I have 4 virtual machine: Windows 7, Windows 10, Linux and etc. I was copying a 30GB iso file to datastore last night. When I woke up I found the datastore browser in webclient is timing out so I'm not sure the 30GB upload had been completed. Then I put to maintenance mode so I can restart the host. However after restarting then I found that all of my 4 virtual machine become in accessible, see below screenshot. Please assist what is the next step?  Thanks.

[maxime9001]

Hi,

I have simulate issue on my ESXI, finally i check Datastore with VOMA tools and seen that partition was corrupt.

Try and if error try to fix with VOMA Option or finally contact vmware support.

Regards,

[davehii]

Interesting to know that.

While continuum is helping me out with the problem, I'm just curious are you a paying customer that's why you can contact vmware for support?

[daphnissov]

If you're a paying customer and have purchased support, yes.

[continuum · Accepted solution]

Update:

today we  meet via skype and I explained how to create a VMFS-header dump in a tricky environment using my Linux LiveCD.

We had to split the dump into 3 pieces as we were running out of free space in /tmp

Once I had downloaded the dump I analysed it and offered Dave a short list of VMs that looked recoverable.

He told me that a Windows7-64 VM was his top priority.

Ok - I created a small archive with the vmx-file, nvram, vmdk-descriptorfile and so on.

Those small files are contained in such a vmfs header dump.

The larger Windows7-64-flat.vmdk obviously is not included in a 2gb dump so Dave gets a scripts like this one:

### script to manually extract a flat file to a new location

### please check the IF parameter

### please check the OF parameter

### put script into a new directory for the VM - no spaces in the name

### make script executable and run it

### if you run the script via putty launch it as "nohup script &"

IF="/dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD2500BEVT2D22A23T0_______________________WD2DWXC1A4040288:1"

OF="Windows7-64-flat.vmdk"

dd if=$IF of=$OF bs=1M conv=notrunc seek=0 skip=83985 count=1

exit

dd if=$IF of=$OF bs=1M conv=notrunc seek=0 skip=83985 count=6144

dd if=$IF of=$OF bs=1M conv=notrunc seek=6144 skip=81937 count=2048

dd if=$IF of=$OF bs=1M conv=notrunc seek=8192 skip=90129 count=24576

echo  "### script finished" >> copy.log

When that script runs it first extracts the very first MB only.

I do that to check if the parameters are ok.

If they are ok the Windows7-64-flat.vmdk

can be tested with the Linux-command

sgdisk -p Windows7-64-flat.vmdk

If my numbers are good sgdisk should display the partitiontable and that should match the expected size of the flat.vmdk - 32gb in this case.

When the test is successful Dave can remove the exit from the script and run the full version.

So times the flat.vmdk is a tiny bit to short - which can be fixed by adding one or two empty MBs at the end.

Hope that helps other folks who consider calling me for help in similar cases ...

Ulli

[continuum]

small files extracted from the header-dump in attachement

[continuum]

The attachement has the script you are supposed to execute ...

Extract the zip archive.

Upload x.sh with WinSCP into the directory you created before - you need at least about 40 gb of free space.

Use putty:

change to the directory where you uploaded x.sh and run

chmod 755 x.sh

./x.sh

Now the x.sh will extract the first mb of your Windows7-64.vmdk

Send that 1mb piece to me so that I can verify if the parameters are ok.

If they are

edit x.sh with the embedded editor of WinSCP and remove the line that has "exit" and safe the file.

Again with putty run

./x.sh

Now it will run for a while until the 32gb are complete.

[continuum]

x.sh in attachment