Recovering Accidentally Deleted VM Folder in DataStore

[vajpaca]

I accidentally deleted a folder while browsing datastore thru VSphere Client containing the VM on ESXi 5.5 hypervisor. Can I recover it, I am new to this, can someone please help me.

[antonmajor]

VMware does not work that way. Check your backups and restore.

[continuum]

Did you have a bad day or why do you give an answer like that ???
Not very helpful ...

@OP

Stop all activities on the datastore.
Use a Linux LiveCD that has vmfs-tools and cross your fingers - there is a good chance that you can copy the missing files out that way.

Here is a link to a CD I made and use myself for similar scenarios.

http://sanbarrow.com/MOA64-Recovery-environment.html

If vmfs-fuse does not display the files - there are a few more options to get the data extracted.

If you require help - I listen on skype "sanbarrow"
At the moment I have 2 similar cases - so you would have to wait

Ulli

[antonmajor]

I Am not having a bad day

the the chances of recovery from a vm's ds are very slim. You are going to waste precious time when you can just run a restore operation.

[continuum]

The folks that call me either tell me
- have no backup system at all
- the backups for the mission critical VMs failed during last month
- they just sold the old hardware and the new SAN will be delivered next week

So it made sense to find a procedure and practice it.

[antonmajor]

vajpaca, if you think that you have lost pertinent data and absolutely need it back, spend the time with some of the recommendations about vmfs file recovery mentioned here in the blog post and other blog posts. Going this route will undoubtedly allow you to get closer to the linux side of life and have some fun doing things you can't easily/normally do in most windows environments.

If you can restore from a backup, do that.

If you are using  using any type of snapmirror/replication technology in your environment, check the mirror/dr side..