ESXi 6.5 - how to access data from old installation datastore

[bellocarico]

I had to reinstall my ESXi6.5 host. To my surprise by default it sees only the datastore linked to the system disk.

I have an additional SATA disk in the system which was unaffected by this reinstallation. It is seen as a device in the new ESXi but it's not automatically mounted as a usable Datastore as far as I can tell. It seems like the GUI allows me to create a Datastore on this disk, but I don't want that, I just want to access the old data.

How do I do that considering this is a standalone host (no vSphere)?

Thanks!!

[continuum · Accepted solution]

Hi

that maybe quite harmless

your first task: check if the volume is detected as a snapshot

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1011387

[bellocarico]

The vmkernel contains some information actually but I don't think it's related to snapshot. I guess it's the datastore signature. Still unsure on how to progress:

[root@BLUE:/vmfs/volumes] tail -300 /var/log/vmkernel.log  | grep 2ae446f500d00000

2019-05-25T00:41:30.117Z cpu11:65576)ScsiDeviceIO: 3001: Cmd(0x439d002019c0) 0x85, CmdSN 0x74 from world 67522 to dev "eui.2ae446f500d00000" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x20 0x0.

2019-05-25T03:11:40.832Z cpu8:65573)ScsiDeviceIO: 3001: Cmd(0x439d003b32c0) 0x85, CmdSN 0xdd from world 67522 to dev "eui.2ae446f500d00000" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x20 0x0.

2019-05-25T05:41:51.649Z cpu8:65573)ScsiDeviceIO: 3001: Cmd(0x439d0035ef40) 0x85, CmdSN 0x146 from world 67522 to dev "eui.2ae446f500d00000" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x20 0x0.

2019-05-25T08:12:02.530Z cpu10:65575)ScsiDeviceIO: 3001: Cmd(0x439d003cc540) 0x85, CmdSN 0x1af from world 67522 to dev "eui.2ae446f500d00000" failed H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x20 0x0.

https://www.virten.net/vmware/esxi-scsi-sense-code-decoder/?host=0&device=2&plugin=0&sensekey=5&asc=...

[bellocarico]

Let me rephrase my answer.

This i the issue actually but I had to go back further in the log to find the snapshot reference.

in my case the solution was a two liners:

[root@BLUE:~] esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list

55585bac-87ef2b9a-6299-00e081d04c38

   Volume Name: SSD

   VMFS UUID: 55585bac-87ef2b9a-6299-00e081d04c38

   Can mount: true

   Reason for un-mountability:

   Can resignature: true

   Reason for non-resignaturability:

   Unresolved Extent Count: 1

[root@BLUE:~] esxcli storage vmfs snapshot mount -n -u 55585bac-87ef2b9a-6299-00e081d04c38

Thanks you!!