Recovering VMFS Datastore

[OM4EVER]

Hello. I've ran into an issue with my existing Datastore. When doing adding the disk with all my VMs I'm getting a message that the disk is blank. Now I have reviewed the PPT doc from TSX and I'm trying to follow the procedure step-by-step. When I run esxcfg-vmhbadevs -m I only get the datastore that is currently visible to the server. How do I add this existing disk so that ESX can see it without having to format the drive. From the doc it says to use fdisk at some point but I'm just at the start of the entire procedure.

[virtualdud3]

It sounds as though you are trying to create an additional VMFS volume, using the desired disks.

Once you have "attached" the disks to the desired HBA, log on via the VI client.  Then, click on the "Configuration" tab, and select "Storage Adapters" (as opposed to "Storage").

Select the correct HBA, then click on "Rescan".  Leave both the "Scan for New Storage Devices" and "Scan for New VMFS Volumes" checked, and click "OK".

Once the scan completes, the newly-connected VMFS volumes should be accessible.

You may have to click on the "Storage" menu, then click on "Refresh" before they show up.

[OM4EVER]

thanks for replying. The LUN shows up in storage Adapters, however the problem is when I go to storage and do a Refresh it doesn't show up. When I then do add storage, it finds it but now tries to do a format on the drive which we don't want.

[sbeaver]

Check your logs and see if it sees that lun as a snapshot. Thought would explain why it does not show up during a rescan and refresh

Steve Beaver

VMTN Forum Moderator

*Virtualization is a journey, not a project.*

[OM4EVER]

Thanks. Looking at the vmkernel log file don't see any errors during the rescan. All looks clean. I have 2 datastores mapped to these servers, I don't see one with over half my VMs.

[troberts]

Most of the time this is because the lun is being recognized as a snapshot. See the kb below.

VMFS Volume Can Be Erroneously Recognized as a Snapshot

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/6482648

Also check the output of the esxcfg-vmhbadevs command. Check to see that the vmhba device has a related block device. If not, the the partition table may not be able to be read because the lun is locked.

[OM4EVER]

Thanks.

Turns out my problem was lost partition table. I was able to follow the instructions posted here http://communities.vmware.com/message/723827#723827 and was able to recover my datastore. It seems there may have been some issues on my storage side we're still looking into why this occurred. Thanks for all the tips guys.