i deleted a VM from datastore (somewhat), now what?

[RFTadmins]

Good Day!

I was clearing out “test” data from a datastore when I got a locked file warning.  After some digging I found that one of the “test” servers in the datastore was renamed in vSphere and was a production server that was running.  I shutdown this VM and now I am not able to boot it up again.

The Storage Views tab >> Show all Virtual Machine Files lists this:
vmware-1.log @ 172.75 KB
vmware-2.log @ 48.49 KB
vmware.log @ 48.32 KB
testrlp03test.nvram @ 8.48 KB
testrlp03test.vmx @ 3.29 KB
testrlp03test.vmxf @ 268.00 B
testrlp03test.vmsd @ 0.00 B  <----  Note this is zero bytes

Now when I browse the datastore everything is the same but I have two additional files:
testrlp03test-flat.vmdk @ 41,943,040.00 KB  <----  Note this is 41 GB
testrlp03test-ctk.vmdk @ 2,560.50

So now my question is, Since it looks like the main data is still in testrlp03test-flat.vmdk @ 41,943,040.00 KB, is there a way I can restore this servers functionality? Also are there other files missing that would prevent this VM from functioning? Because this was listed as TEST, I do not know if it made it to our backup software.

[sajal1]

hello RFTadmins,

Can you please provide the error message that you are seeing. Based on that the troubleshooting would vary. Since you have all the files you should be able to recreate and troubleshoot. Lets first have a look at the exact error and then work on it.

[a_p_]

According to the file listing, it's the .vmdk descriptor file which is missing. Each virtual disks consists of two files, a descriptor file (<vmname>.vmdk) and the data file (<vmname>-flat.vmdk), although only one of them shows up in the datastore browser.

Please take a look at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002511 which explains how to recreate a missing descriptor .vmdk file. What the KB article doesn't show, is how to find out whether the existing virtual disk was thin or thick provisioned. To find this out, run ls -lisa from the command line and compare the used blocks column with the file size column. If both sizes match, it's most likely a thick provisioned virtual disk.

If you are unsure or need/want assistance, please attach the VM's vmware.log as well as the testrlp03test.vmx to a reply post (click the "Use advanced editor" link).

André