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cuti92
Contributor
Contributor

Restore VM from flat and delta .vmdk files

Hello VMware community. I use VMware ESXI vSphere Client 5.5.

I've changed the Hard Disks of my Server , before doing that I did take a backup of all files in Data, replaced the disks and recovered the files.

I have now flat and delta files ( 2 and 2 cause it's a VM with 2 local disk drives )

if I try to run the VM it will show error with dependencies or descriptor.

the files are really big ( 34gb , 41gb , 80gb , 159gb ) so I can't really upload those.

if it can help I can upload .vmx file

I have the full backup of the VM in my computer, so i'd like to work outside of the esxi but like in vmware workstation and when successfully recovered, i'll re-upload in my server .

I will be grateful for any help. 

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6 Replies
maksym007
Expert
Expert

If you have a backup - so where is a problem? you can restore VM from backup. 

vmx file should be also in vm datastore folder. 

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cuti92
Contributor
Contributor

thanks for your reply.

I have a manual backup of flies from Data , i'll attack a jpeg of all the files i have and how the VM was set, cause it's not powering on

I don't know how, but I have only Data folder, Datastore folder is missing now..

 

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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


I admit to being a little ignorant about your specific problem but, reading your ".vmx" file, something doesn't add up:


scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:0.fileName = "NCDeploy-000001.vmdk"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"


scsi0:1.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:1.fileName = "NCDeploy_2-000001.vmdk"
scsi0:1.present = "true"


scsi0:2.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:2.fileName = "NCDeploy_3-000001.vmdk"
scsi0:2.present = "FALSE"


I have the impression that you (or someone else) have taken a snapshot some time ago an then, and at a later time, edited that configuration file and then deleted some file by hand without first making sure having a valid (working) backup. That "data" it's not a "folder", it's the name of your datastore whose content, in a folder, shoul be the whole of your virtual machine.


Long story short, if you want someone to try and help you, and there are no guarantees, you need to be more specific in describing everything you did or happened.


Regards,
Ferdinando

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cuti92
Contributor
Contributor

Hi, 

any help is welcome, I appreciate you use some of your time for trying to help me. 

The 3rd .vmdk is a old drive that got deleted, the file is no more existing too. the .vmx is set for not check for that disk, and that worked well.

This is all I did: 

- manually backep up the full folder of my VM , that you can see in the previous reply's attached file.

- Replaced 6 HDD with 6 SSD inside the Server.

- Uploaded back the full data of the VM.

Tried to Power On, but error that cannot find file NCDeploy-000001.vmdk and NCDeploy_2-000001.vmdk.

Inside the folder i had: NCDeploy-000001.-flatvmdk , NCDeploy_2-000001-flat.vmdk , NCDeploy-000001-delta.vmdk , NCDeploy_2-000001-delta.vmdk and the other files in pic.

I did rebuild descriptor file pointing on those files using vmkfstools and vi using SSH.

VM did power ON but on a old state, so I think it didn't attach the delta files .

I have all the backup of before swap disks on my HDD.

I'm not an expert, i saw someone suggested to use fakedisk and attach , but I don't really know how to fix this problem.

Thanks again for trying to help me

Regards,

Mirko

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

>>> I did rebuild descriptor file pointing on those files using vmkfstools and vi using SSH.
>>> VM did power ON but on a old state, so I think it didn't attach the delta files .

Seems you only rebuilt the descriptor for the base disk, but not for the snapshots.

To see what needs to be done, please run ls -lisa > filelist.txt in the VM's folder for a complete file listing, then compress/zip filelist.txt, the recreated .vmdk descriptor files, the .vmsd file, and the .vmx file, and attach the .zip archive to your next reply.

Since - from what I understand - you powered on the VM from the base disks, I'd recommend that you restore the flat files again to avoid possible guest OS data corruption.

André

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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


At this point, follow @a_p_'s directions, but avoid saying you have a "full backup" otherwise you would have recovered the "file descriptors" files in a few minutes and would not have had "the problem". As I told you, for certain things I'm a little bit ignorant, but only up to a certain point.  🤣


Regards,
Ferdinando

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