Loss of vmdk files after cold migration

[Virtualizethis]

Hello to the all knowing:

Last Thursday I upgraded my three Dell 2950 servers (3) from ESX 3.5 update 3 to update version 153875. Just to be safe I shut down my VM machines and migrated them to another host in the same VC. the migration went without any errors. I then updated that Host and migrated the two VM machines back.

Now, when I attempted to power up one of the VM's I received a CID mismatch error and it wouldn't boot. After some study, i was able to correct that mismatch and that problem was solved.

However, when I attempted to power up the second VM, I got the dreaded "File not found" error message. I went into the VC and discovered that both my main vmdk file and the Flat.vmdk files were missing. Needless to say, i think a have a problem. I do have all the snapshot files, the vmx files, log files, but no main vmdk HELP! Is there anyway to recover or recreate the missing files without the Flat or vmdk file?

I noticed that you can recreate a vmdk file but you need the exact size specs, which i don't have (where can i find those specs?), and by tape backup library failed.

I have attached some screen captures of the datastore. The LA-DECAF-01 was the oe with the mismath that was repaired. The LA-SHPT-01 is the problem child. The _2 folder ws recreated during the migration, which i don't unstand either.

I have been loosing sleep and my hair on this one, some guidence please Thank you all.

signed

A humble new admin

[malaysiavm]

did you try to browse the data store on the SSH level? which you use putty connection and browse the datastore to verify whether the vmdk and -flat.vmdk still exist? VC might not show everything as they had masked up the details of the virtual disk you have from the VC view.

Craig

vExpert 2009

Malaysia VMware Communities -

[Virtualizethis]

Yes i did do that, see the doc below gives the list of both floders LA-SHPT-01 and LA_SHPT-01_2

Thanks,

I am Craig D.

[Virtualizethis]

So, now I have gone in and repaired manually the CID mismatches between all of the snapshots. Any Ideas where i can go from here??? Anybody???

Thanks Craig D

[malaysiavm]

If you able to rebuild or recover the -flat.vmdk which is the original virtual disk, you should able to commit all your snapshot manually and rebuild the chain.

I had done that twice before and you can refer the information to my blog. But you must need to have the original virtual disk to be in place.

Maybe you should open a case with vmware support to recover the original virtual disk.

Craig

vExpert 2009

Malaysia VMware Communities -

[Virtualizethis]

Thanks, I will look into that.

CD

[Virtualizethis]

Just as an update, I have used some very unorthodox methods to recover the flat.vmdk file, which many said couldn't be done. Now that I have the file I am now in the process of restitching the snapshots back together (consolidating). once this is complete, i will post my methods and results.

Thanks to you all for your suggestions,

I will be back with the answer

Craig K

[Virtualizethis]

In the end, the file recovery tool that i used to recover the missing vmdk files failed. It recovered the files, but it wasn't able to read them.

Moral to the story, never migrate a VM machine with snapshots; clone it!!!!!!!!!!!! or you could ned up like me.

Regards

Craig K