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Siverian
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Missing datastore but still VMFS partition (and others) on it. Can I recover or recreate the datastore?

Dear all,

This is my first post, so hopefully this is in the right place. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

ESXi 6.5

Host: Dell R910

Local Disks: Two 3.5tb  , 3par 8000 Series, RAID 5

When I logged in today, I quickly realized that all of my VM's were down:

pastedImage_0.png

Datastore look this, 2 datastore missing.

pastedImage_2.png

On device are available

pastedImage_5.png

When I click one of my two devices

pastedImage_6.png

Partition

pastedImage_7.png

I'm really at a loss as to what to do. Any advice is greatly appreciated. If there is any other information that I can provide

Thank you

Siverian

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1 Solution

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continuum
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script starts like this:

##### dd command for E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk  #####

##### 

##### 

##### enter devicename for the VMFS-partition in the next line

IF=

##### 

##### 

##### check name for the outputfile - usually name-flat.vmdk -  in the next line

OF=E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk

##### 

##### run this command in a directory that has enough free space for the vmdk-file

##### 

##### 

CMD="dd if=$IF of=$OF  conv=notrunc bs=1M "

#####

$CMD seek=66536  count=1  skip=1375017 # E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk  fragment=14537#

$CMD seek=66537  count=1  skip=1375020 # E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk  fragment=14538#

$CMD seek=66538  count=1  skip=1375049 # E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk  fragment=14539#
....
obviously it will not work if you specify
IF=naa.number
use full path for the decive such as
IF=/dev/disks/naa,blablabla:1


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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14 Replies
MikeStoica
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Any changes on the storage side?

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npadmani
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log a call with VMware Support, that will make things lot quicker to get a definitive answer since you are dealing data.

Narendra Padmani VCIX6-DCV | VCIX7-CMA | VCI | TOGAF 9 Certified
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Siverian
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No changes on Storage, When i Reboot the server is what all these happens

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a_p_
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I saw something similar with a 3par, and it required a rescan on the FC adapters to make d´the daatstores available again.

If that doesn't help, please run

esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list

from the command line to see whether the LUNs were detected as so called Snapshot LUNs.

In that case you may follow the steps in the "Command line" section of https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1011387​ to mount the datasatores again.


André

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continuum
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Did you try the first script I send you ?
let me know if you want the other 2 scripts as well ....
Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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Siverian
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the query did not return any information

[root@Esxi65:~] esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list

[root@Esxi65:~]

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Siverian
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i did not manage to run the script, it give me the error on failing to read the device name

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continuum
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script starts like this:

##### dd command for E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk  #####

##### 

##### 

##### enter devicename for the VMFS-partition in the next line

IF=

##### 

##### 

##### check name for the outputfile - usually name-flat.vmdk -  in the next line

OF=E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk

##### 

##### run this command in a directory that has enough free space for the vmdk-file

##### 

##### 

CMD="dd if=$IF of=$OF  conv=notrunc bs=1M "

#####

$CMD seek=66536  count=1  skip=1375017 # E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk  fragment=14537#

$CMD seek=66537  count=1  skip=1375020 # E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk  fragment=14538#

$CMD seek=66538  count=1  skip=1375049 # E10_AP_DEMO-flat.vmdk  fragment=14539#
....
obviously it will not work if you specify
IF=naa.number
use full path for the decive such as
IF=/dev/disks/naa,blablabla:1


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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continuum
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First missing VM is back and running.

Let me know if you want the rest of them .....

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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continuum
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So you lost interest ?

what a waste of time ....

I wll delete the other scripts in an hour Smiley Sad

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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Siverian
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Don't delete the scripts please i need them badly

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Siverian
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Actual size for E10_DB_01 is  2,089,072,092,774 Byte but descriptor vmdk is  2,089,070,624,768 Byte, so descriptor  is 1.4MB less. Actual size for E10_AP_PILOT is  150,323,855,360 Byte but descriptor vmdk is 150,322,806,784 Byte, so is 1MB less. please can you help me to extract 2 scripts for the missing MBs?

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continuum
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Recovery of three VMs was successful.


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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Siverian
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continuum you are an absolute genius,I have no idea how you did to create the recovering script from my devices  but I could  be more thankful. So far, we were able to recover my 3 Vms. I learned a lot of best practice for my environment . I really appreciate your patience when working with me on this!

As far as a solution to the problem, I think continuum would be able to better explain it.

Thank you so much again!

Siverian

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