ESXi 4 lost vmdf

[vladaman]

We've been experiencing some slowdown issues with one Guest running on VMware ESXi 4. After reboot this server did not come up. When I checked the VMWare host I found that the vmdk has disappeared. It must have been deleted while server was shutting down.

Is there any way we can undelete this file? I assume in must exist on filesystem but I need some tool to recover it. Attached log when server was shut down.

Oct 25 03:12:19.333: vmx| DISK: Cannot open disk "/vmfs/volumes/4c1b92b2-11b5a2a0-5691-001f29325139/MailServer52/MailServer52.vmdk": Connection timed out (7208969).

Oct 25 03:12:19.333: vmx| Msg_Post: Error

Oct 25 03:12:19.333: vmx| http://msg.disk.noBackEnd Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/4c1b92b2-11b5a2a0-5691-001f29325139/MailServer52/MailServer52.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

Thanks for help,

Vladimir

[f10]

Hi Vladimir,

If the .vmdk file is missing however the corresponding flat.vmdk is available, the missing vmdk file can be re-created by following

Or you may attach a new Virtual Disk of the same SIZE to this or any other virtual machine (ensure that the hardware version is the same) and then login to the ESX host using putty and copy the vmdk file and to the problem VM directory and change the name of the file and also change the reference to the flat.vmdk file.

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

f10

VCP3, VCP4, HPCP, HP UX CSA

[vladaman]

I am afraid the -flat.vmdk does not exists.

My directory:

/vmfs/volumes/4c120f21-c526a070-6943-001f29325139/MailServer52 # ls -la

drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1120 Oct 25 03:12 .

drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1260 Oct 20 02:19 ..

-rw------- 1 root root 8684 Oct 25 02:06 MailServer52.nvram

-rw------- 1 root root 0 Oct 12 19:26 MailServer52.vmsd

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3109 Oct 25 02:10 MailServer52.vmx

-rw------- 1 root root 267 Oct 25 02:10 MailServer52.vmxf

-rw-rr 1 root root 649480 Oct 25 02:09 vmware-1.log

-rw-rr 1 root root 24711 Oct 25 03:12 vmware.log

[f10]

Well, if the flat.vmdk is deleted then the only I am aware about recovering it is from the backup's. Do you have one ?

The other thing you might want to check the location for the flat.vmdk, it could be saved in a different datastore. You may try to find the flat.vmdk using the # find -name /vmfs/volumes nameofthefile.

However if you are sure that the flat.vmdk is deleted, restoring from the backup would be faster and more reliable.

All the best.

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

f10

VCP3, VCP4, HPCP, HP UX CSA