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Plenar
Contributor
Contributor

Datastores no longer visible

Hi,

I lost all datastores on a ESXi 7.0. How to get them back?

What happened:

I deleted a no longer used client and run a rescan of the devices (VMWAre ESXI WebGui - Storage - Devices - Rescan). At the same time the WebGui crashed/closed.

After I logged back on the WebGui, there were no more datastores (Storage - Datastores) -> see picture 

VMWare_DatastoresNotVisible.jpg

 

However, if I use ssh to connect to the esxi, I can still see all 7 datastores (LUN1_R6_360, ...LUN6_R5_2700). See picture

VMWAre_DatastoresExist.jpg

The Devices seem to be fine too. See picture

VMWare_Devices.jpg

 

The 6 virtual servers are still running and so far no issue with the VMs. I can log on to all and read or write data. But I am afraid to reboot the VMs.

As there are no datastores, I cannot create a new virtual machine. 

How can I get the datastores back, so I see them in the WebGui? 

Thanks for any help,

Roland

 

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Virt-aid
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It doesn’t seem to be related to datastore availability, it’s rather an UI Glitch. Since you are able to R/W datastore and it’s resident files, you should be in good shape even after restarting the management agents and/or reboot the host. Give it a try and let us know. 

Plenar
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks, I also thought so, but I am still worried that the system is not coming up after the reboot. So, I was hoping for another check.

Anyway, I will have to reboot the server later tonight.

Thanks again.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

You are right to be worried.

The datastore may not come back after a reboot.
So before you reboot try to mount it again with
vmkfstools -V

if that does not help it would be a good idea to create a vmfs-header dump first - just in case ...
See vsphere-documents ... one of the first items is a post where I explain how to create a headerdump

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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Plenar
Contributor
Contributor

Good morning

Thanks a lot for the ideas. The reboot resolved the issue and all datastore came up automatically without any intervention. So I assume it was a glitch in the UI as Virt-aid suggested , thanks Virt-aid.

Prior to the reboot, I tried to mount them with "vmkfstools -V", but nothing happened and the datastores did not come up.
I also saved the fmfs-headers, just to feel safe, but did not use them. Thanks continuum.

Thanks again and have a great day.

Roland

 

 

 

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