Restoring OLD vm doesn't bring back data :-( Should I just cry now?

[EBSD]

Hi, we are helping out a school who after a power outage couldn't boot their old 5.5 esxi server.  It was on a USB drive, so we just put 5.5 on another USB drive, booted in and using vsphere client, just created a new machine (with a different name) and made the old hard drive the drive of this machine.

It boots just fine however they are missing things like data directories, it isn't recognized at the Domain Controller any longer, all the network settings are gone... I am thinking I did something dumb and didn't set this up right?

Does anyone have any ideas why this would be?  I thought it maybe reverted to an old version of the VM but it has newer tools on it that we installed a few months ago ?

Thank you for any and all help!

[a_p_]

Why in first place did you create a new VM instead of just registering the existing one?

From what you explain, I assume that the VM has/had snapshots, and that you mapped the virtual disk without the snapshots to the new VM.

Please provide a cpmplete file listing of the VM's files. For this run ls -lisa > filelist.txt in the VM's folder, and attach the filelist.txt to your next reply.

André

[EBSD]

Hi I wasn't sure of the correct way to do this as there weren't many options in vshpere client other than the mounting of the hard disk.  I do have the data store backed up in a couple of places so if I screwed something up, there is no problem going back to those files.

I wasn't sure where to run that command in vcenter but I have an image of the files that are in the datastore.  i have attached them here.   If you need me to run the command, can you just let me know where to run it from and I will get it done right away!

Thank you for the help!

[a_p_]

There's no snapshot in the file listing.
Is this a listing of the files that you found right after reinstalling the ESXi host?

If you did backup the original files prior to powering on the VM, please see whether there are some vmware*.log files from before the power outage.

André

[EBSD]

 To answer your question "Is this a listing of the files that you found right after reinstalling the ESXi host?" the answer is yes... as soon as we got the esxi host installed on a usb and booted it, before we did anything else, we copied these files off to two different places.  then i used the esxi to create a new VM and used the hard drive of the old machine.

I have one additional directory on the datastore that is named .locker and has the following directories in it.  Would that be of any help?

[a_p_]

I'm afraid that in this case there's nothing I can help you with.
I was hoping to find any hints in one of the older vmware*.log files.

André

[EBSD]

Thank you for all you help!  Is there another place I can look for these log files? 

When you are saying that you can't help, are you saying because you don't see any snapshot files (I think that is what you are calling them)?  If we don't have these snapshot files, then all the files are lost and we just have a blank server?

Thanks again, I know these are dumb questions.

[EBSD]

Also,

  I just looked at the log files on datastore and while they have todays date, they go all the way back to 2022... I am attaching those here to see if this helps...

Again, thank you so very much!

[a_p_]

There's nothing like dumb question, just dumb answers.

I indeed expected that the VM had snapshots before. This usually explains missing data in cases like yours.
The vmware.log files (stored in the VM's folder) would show such things. Unfortunately, all of these files have the same time stamps, and just a small size. Anyway, you could take a look at the files. Maybe the entries within the file are different than the files' time stamps!?

André

[a_p_]

I just saw your latest reply after I posted mine.

The vmware.log shows that the VM had another, secondary virtual disk attached.

2022-04-15T16:57:02.953Z| vmx| I120: DICT scsi0:1.fileName = /vmfs/volumes/5998793f-0e0c7778-08ae-00219b8989a7/Server1/Server1_1.vmdk

Did you attach that virtual disk to the VM yet?

André

[EBSD]

I am guessing this is supposed to be under the datastore on the server in the same directory (Server1)?

I don't see that vmdk available under the server1 directory and as far as I know the server was running fine on Thursday?

[EBSD]

Hi,

 I just looked at the server logs from the 9th of April until just a couple of days ago and it references server1.vmdk but not server1_1.vmdk. 

I am wondering if this VMDK file was only used for a temporary thing? 

Is it possible to see the configuration of the VM from one of the files on the server?  I also have the old ESXi server that was on the USB.. it has a bad block but can be accessed if that can tell us anything?

[a_p_]

Which log is it that you looked at?

I looked at the vmware.log which contains entries until April, 10th.
According to this there's got to be another disk on another datastore, that was attached to the VM.

André

[EBSD]

I know you underlined it but I just want to double check... ANOTHER DATASTORE... not the same one we are using?

possibly an additional partition on this server or something like that?  Is there a way in vsphere client 5.5 to search for another datastore?  When I load it up, it shows only one?

[a_p_]

How many disks/RAID sets are configured?
Do you see another device/disk attached to the storage adapter?
I assume that this is a standalone host, not connected to shared storage?

André

[EBSD]

I just checked the raid controller and it is just these two disks in a raid, no other storage is attached.  there is a NAS here but I connected to the GUI through the web interface and didn't see any files on it.  I am not sure how to "browse" the network to get to this thing with vmware to see if there are any files on it.

Nothing else I can see here.   Here is what I found in vcenter....

[EBSD]

Were thinking that the path to the server1_1 file is on another data store like a physical drive or a network connection?

Again, thanks for the support!

[EBSD]

Spoiler

Ok, I have an update that I hope is good..


I found this on the NAS.. is there a way that I can mount it.. it is not local storage but over the network.







Thank you again for all the help!

[a_p_]

I may be missing something, but you say "2 disks", and the screenshot shows 4 drives!?
How many physical disks (and their sizes) are in the host?

The NAS LUN might of course be another option, but let us first look at the internal storage and the RAID configuration for these disks.

André

[EBSD]

Hi,

  There are 2 physical disks in a raid configuration as one drive.  I just rebooted the server to verify.  So I think that is the one datastore.  I am guessing the other is the LUN on the NAS device?

1. Should I add the NAS LUN under the new machine as a scsi device (if possible)

2. Should I add it a different way (I have a backup but don't want to screw up the storage by adding it wrong)

3. Based on your first comment to me, should I go back and register the VM as opposed to the way I did it?  Would that bring back settings and things that are needed.

Once again, thank you for your help!