Need to add an existing local datastore (from before a re-install) to the new install of ESXi 6.7 host

[nimasvm]

Hi,

Need ASAP help. I'm not a VM expert by any means.

Had a power outage, some VMs on my ESXi 6.5 did not boot up after the host powered back up (were not set to auto). My AD integration was broken AND my root password stopped working a few weeks ago. I did not have a chance to address it. This morning I tried unsupported methods of resetting the root password with no luck. After a few hours I decided to reinstall ESXi, was originally 6.5, but I decided to install  6.7 (ESXi build number: 13006603). During the install I could see both datastores from the previous install. I Installed ESXi on the same instillation datastore as the previous install, leaving alone the other 26TB datasore. Now I can see both datastores if browse to Storage then Devices, but only see the system datastore under Datastores. I need to add (or mount) the 26TB datastore back to the host without formatting it, to hopefully be able to register the VMs on the host.

I looked everywhere and cannot find an article with my specific situation.

Please help.

[ThompsG · Accepted solution]

Hi nimasvm and welcome to the community!

Try running the following from the ESXi shell:

esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list

See if this returns your missing datastore. If so the try mounting with:

esxcfg-volume -M <volume_UUID/Datastore label>

Kind regards.

[nimasvm]

Hi ThompsG,

I had tried esxcfg-volume -M <volume_UUID/Datastore label>, but it wasn't accepting the Datastore label, because it had a space in the label. Tried it without providing the datastore  label, just specifying the volume_UIDD and it accepted and worked!

Thank you!

[noobKhikes]

Had a similar problem.

Worked for me.

Thank you very much!

[Brendan01]

Thanks, worked like a charm!

[theturtle32]

This solved my problem perfectly, thank you!

I had moved all my drives from one physical machine to another and one of my two local datastores didn't appear in the ESXi management UI afterwards, even though everything else was fine. This solved getting it remounted perfectly.

Also, I'm on ESXi 7.0.3 so the procedure is the same as ESXi 6.7

It seems strange that there's no capability to do this via the management GUI.