Missing datastore, partition seems present but no extent mapping

[ttmcmurryHIT]

After dealing with a hard drive failure on a Dell Perc H700 array (local storage), The array appears intact, ESXi 5.5 U2 boots up, however the datastore is missing.  What I can see is the block volume is there (naa.6782bcb006aad6001ca542740b1db63f), the partition table looks good, but the VMFS-5 datastore is otherwise inaccessible from ESXi itself.

When I attempt to add it back in vSphere Client, I get an error "Either the selected disk already has a VMFS datastore or the host cannot perform a partition table conversion.  Select another disk".  Note the last primary partition entry "VMFS (Local Dell Disk (naa.6782bcb006aad6001ca542740b1db63f:3) 2.03TB" - this should be automatically mounting at boot.

When I change views to look at storage device, the VMFS-5 partition is missing.

If I drop to command line and issue "esxcli storage vmfs extent list" - there are no datastores & no associations. partedUtil shows the VMFS partition (#3 at the bottom of the output), and upon closer inspection, the VMFS-5 datastore isn't associated with anything.

The question is - if I can see the partition, and ESXi can see the partition, why can't it be mounted?  I scoured the vmkernel for anything to indicate the partition couldn't be mounted (errors, warnings) and came up empty handed.  Is there a manual way to mount a partition?

# partedUtil get /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6782bcb006aad6001ca542

740b1db63f 271853 255 63 4367319040

1 64 8191 0 128

4 8224 520191 0 0

5 520224 1032191 0 0

6 1032224 1257471 0 0

7 1257504 1843199 0 0

8 1843200 7086079 0 0

2 7086080 15472639 0 0

3 15472640 4367319006 0 0

# esxcli storage filesystem list

Mount Point                                        Volume Name     UUID                                 Mounted  Type        Size        Free -------------------------------------------------  --------------  -----------------------------------  -------  ----  ----------  ---------- /vmfs/volumes/5512d32d-c152c825-483a-001e4fca6d94                  5512d32d-c152c825-483a-001e4fca6d94  true     vfat  4293591040  4277403648

/vmfs/volumes/953aeb7e-df5c90a0-2880-4e85306b7d3c                  953aeb7e-df5c90a0-2880-4e85306b7d3c  true     vfat   261853184    86986752

/vmfs/volumes/94231076-6a7c3db8-75c5-8afd7df5d8ca                  94231076-6a7c3db8-75c5-8afd7df5d8ca  true     vfat   261853184    88207360

/vmfs/volumes/5512d319-0a836ccf-dcab-001e4fca6d94                  5512d319-0a836ccf-dcab-001e4fca6d94  true     vfat   299712512    96919552

[cykVM]

Maybe you can mount it manually via commandline, see: VMware vSphere 5.1

Or this might help: VMFS Resignaturing

[ttmcmurryHIT]

Thanks for the suggestion - the only problem with that is if you see in the first post, the UID for the VMFS datastore is missing, so I don't know how to mount a datastore when I don't have a UID for it.

That's the central problem - I see the disk and the partition.  I don't see the volume to mount & I don't have a UID to mount, either.  vSphere Client is saying the same thing, it sees the partition, but not the volume to mount.

[lpapaleo]

I've similar problem with HP ML350 G6 and P410i controller.

I've 4 couple of local HD, one of them (with just one datastore on it and one VM on it) can't be mount anymore.

I can see that is formatted VMFS but if I try to add it doesn't ask me about resignature, but the only possibility is to format all of it

Any idea? vSphere ESXi 4.1.

Thanks

Luca

ps: attached some screenshot

[xxxss]

I have same problem. have you resolved it?

[VCPJOHN20111014]

I just had this same issue.  I clicked on add storage, and the missing lun was there.  Added it back, keep signature.

[juansilva]

how did you fix it?

[continuum]

Please create a new post if you have a similar problem - there is no one-size-fits-all solution for this type of problems.