Increase a datastore from different one

[PELEGIT]

     Hey guys how are you?

     This week I have experienced a very strange scenario on my VMware infrastructure, I have Exchange datastore called Exchange_LUN somehow it was comprised of two different datastore [LUN's].

apparently, someone from our team has extended the main exchange datastore with another one (probably there was free available space and he thought it belongs to this datastore), we didn't know that until deleting unassigned LUN 1_exchange LUN in the storage side, certainly, we tried finding any connectivity between this LUN to production systems and didn't find anything, not by name and not by LUN ID.

Thereby, my question is how can I avoid this happening again? I mean can I know if any current datastore is expended with a different one?

Many thanks, guys

[daphnissov]

You can avoid this by simply not ever, ever doing it. There should be a 1:1 ratio between mapping a LUN/extent to a VMFS datastore. Doing otherwise inevitably leads to problems as you've now seen firsthand.

[PELEGIT]

Hey, thanks for replying.

You are right but we have to knwo if there is any current database which extended with other one.

Do you have any idea how can we reveal this?

[daphnissov]

You should be able to check it with PowerCLI. I'd search that forum because there's probably so code already posted out there which accomplishes this.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

One quick way to get an overview is to use RVTools (https://www.robware.net/) which lists the number of extents for a datastore in the "vDatastore" tab.

Once a datatstore with extents is identified, open the datastore's properties in the vSphere Client (depending on the client you are using) to to see the extents.

André

[PELEGIT]

Thanks again.

How do we define this situation? in Windows it names "Dynamic Disk" comprised two disks to one... how it called in VMware? (I need it for searching).

[SupreetK]

From the SSH session of the ESXi host, run the command <esxcli storage vmfs extent list | grep -i datastore_name>. This should show you the LUNs on which the datastore is spanned.

Please consider marking this answer as "correct" or "helpful" if you think your questions have been answered.

Cheers,

Supreet

[PELEGIT]

Hey, yes I do see the value 2 on extended TAB thanks! however, right now this datastore is "Inaccessible"  there are several production machines on this datastore and the properties tab is as grayed out.

BTW, is there any way to make it "Active" without dismounting and mounting the datastore?

[a_p_]

I'm afraid that there's no supported way to recover from a datastore with a deleted extent, at least I'm not aware of one.

Maybe someone here in VMTN has an idea, but you should be very careful to not make things worse.

What you may do - other than restoring the VMs from your backup -  is to either open a support case with VMware, or to contact continuum​ who is a data recovery specialist. Maybe one of them can help.

André