vmx and vmdk missing

[krosoft]

Hello,

I have a server running under vSphere 6.5, I tried running it but it shows an error telling that vmx is missing, the display name of the machine has changed to(/vmfs/volumes/59e899ae-406dedc8-420f-288023b0e720/new virtual machine 2), when I verified the Datastore, I founed only one file (new virtual machine 2-flat.vdmk).

Can I restore the hole server with the flat.vdmk file?

Help please.

Thanks in advance.

[ashilkrishnan · Accepted solution]

Hi

Seems like there was some storage  outage/issue that caused vmx and VMDK corruption. If the flat file is still available, you can re-create the VMDK

For VMX, you can either create a new vmx or create a new VM and attach existing disks to it

Re-creating VMDK --> VMware Knowledge Base

Re-creating VMX --> VMware Knowledge Base  or VMware Knowledge Base

Hope that helps

Please mark helpful or correct if my answer resolved your issue

[scott28tt]

Moderator: Thread moved to the vSphere Backup & Recovery area.

[NathanosBlightc]

No need to worry about the VMX file, because you can easily create a new virtual machine and add existing VMDK files. Whenever your VM is in orphaned state for any reasonable/unexpected reason (like array failure on your storage for example ...) you will see the registration of VM path as its UUID (as you mentioned) ...

For recreating the virtual disks from the descriptor file, please check that mentioned link (KB1002511) ...

At last you can contact with continuum​ for you problem ...

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

if you are going to try to recreate the missing descriptor .vmdk file, please be very careful to not accidentally overwrite the flat.vmdk file!!!

In doubt, please provide:

• the flat file's exact size in bytes (the output of ls -lisa)
• the guest OS, i.e. the OS installed on this virtual disk
• additional details about the VM's configuration that you remember (CPUs/Cores, memory size, network controller, BIOS or EFI boot, ...)

André