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PeteJibe
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iSCSI DS LUN shows as blank hard disk

I had a iSCSI directory store with a single VM on it. The ESX 3.5i server no longer recognizes the LUN as a directory store. When I click on "Add Storage" it can see the LUN but reports that "The hard disk is blank."

I haven't proceeded through the add storage wizard since I do not want to lose the VM that resides on it.

Does anyone know of a method that will allow me to re-add this LUN as a DS so I can retrieve the data?

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a_p_
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If you have a backup and want to try you can go through the steps in "Recovering a lost partition table on a VMFS volume" http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002281

Make sure you read the warning, though.

Good luck.

André

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a_p_
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Has this LUN (accidently) been presented to another system (e.g. a Windows server)?

Please run "fdisk -lu" via ssh or on the console to see whether the LUN contains any partitions and post the output.

For how to access the console, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003677

André

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PeteJibe
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>>Has this LUN (accidently) been presented to another system (e.g. a Windows server)?

To my knowledge, no. When configuring a new ESX4 server for iSCSI it was detected on that server as a directory store at which point I removed it from the list. On this particular ESX server, after a restart of the hardware all iSCSI configurations were lost and had to manually be re-added. At that time I can't honestly recall adding this specific directory store back into the configuration.

Fdisk output for this particular LUN returns:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Disk /dev/disks/vmhba33:1:3:0: 1099.5 GB, 1099512152064 bytes

64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1048576 cylinders, total 2147484672 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Disk /dev/disks/vmhba33:0:3:0: 1099.5 GB, 1099512152064 bytes

64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1048576 cylinders, total 2147484672 sectors

Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

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a_p_
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When configuring a new ESX4 server for iSCSI it was detected on that server as a directory store at which point I removed it from the list.

To be sure I undersatnd this correctly. You saw this LUN on the ESX4 host and removed it in the vSphere Client?!

If this is what you did, you actually deleted the VMFS partition (the datastore).

André

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PeteJibe
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Ah, this is a sad day. I've already got a backup copy of the VM unpacking. Scratch that up as another hard lesson learned.

Thank you for your input, André.

~Pete

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a_p_
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If you have a backup and want to try you can go through the steps in "Recovering a lost partition table on a VMFS volume" http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002281

Make sure you read the warning, though.

Good luck.

André

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PeteJibe
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Your last response just saved me a lot of time. Since I hadn't touched that LUN since initially removing it, I was able to used the referenced document to recreate the VMFS volume.

After refreshing the storage listing in the VIClient it re-appeared, the clouds parted, a light shone down and a heavenly choir started to sing.

Thank you very much.

~Pete

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