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Nkorsakov
Contributor
Contributor

How to recover VM from flat.vmdk and delta.vmdk

Hello.

I have a grate problem:

One week ago ouer nw system admin tryed to delete one folder from data store, in this folder was powerd on VM, so he recive some error but:

Today when we restart ESXi server we have inaccessible VM !!!

And only some files in data store: !1.jpg!

As I read I can restore my VM from flat.vmdk and delta.vmdk, BUT HOW ?

I iven can't connect this files to another VM.

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idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

seems like the snapshot files are there. one way is to commit the snapshot or clone the VM to another VM which would commit all snapshot.






iDLE-jAM | VCP 2, VCP 3 & VCP 4

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Nkorsakov
Contributor
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No, we have got only 2 weeks old snapshots (we have a lot of data in this 2 weeks)

this how my VM look's like:

So I can't clone it and I cant commit snapshot.

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idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

commit and clone does not delete any of the 2 weeks data but to consolidate them into a single VMDK.






iDLE-jAM | VCP 2, VCP 3 & VCP 4

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Nkorsakov
Contributor
Contributor

So may be I didnt understand how to commit or clone.

may be you have some link to manual about it ?

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idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuWLyA_woyU

clone is only available when you have vcenter server. when committed to a single VMDK you might have a chance to power up the VM again. good luck.






iDLE-jAM | VCP 2, VCP 3 & VCP 4

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Nkorsakov
Contributor
Contributor

One question:

In KB said to use .vmx but I have only .vmdk files

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WessexFan
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

You can recreate your descriptor file (thats all a .vmx is) the .vmdk is the important file.

http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-esx-how-to-easily-recreate-a-missing-or-corrupt-vmx-file

VCP5-DCV, CCNA Data Center
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jamesbowling
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

You can also clone the vmdk through the cli with vmkfstools. You would need to make sure that your VMDK CID and ParentCID's are in order and looking for the appropriate VMDK that the snapshots belong to. Once that is verified you can run vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/If you found this at all helpful please award points by using the correct or helpful buttons! Thanks!

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Nkorsakov
Contributor
Contributor

That What I recive after vmkfstools -i (After recreating .vmdk and changing CID) :"

Destination disk format: VMFS zeroedthick

Failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/4c063858-cde838d1-051f-001635372d35/FireFly/FireFly_2-000001.vmdk':

The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created (18)."

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jamesbowling
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

See this KB article to resolve that issue: 1007969

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

In addition to the link mentioned, you will find helpful information about how to recover/create snapshot chains at Troubleshooting Virtual Machine snapshot problems

André

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Nkorsakov
Contributor
Contributor

Thank's to every body ... everything solved.

I wright post in blog with full solution.

Sorry it in russian, but you can use translate.google.com

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Nkorsakov
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Contributor

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