Virtual Machine showing Status 'Invalid' on ESXi 6.7

[jason3]

I'm running ESXi 6.7 on a box with a single disk containing a single VM.  Following a Power Outage (VM not running at the time), the Virtual Machine has been renamed to '1' and the Status is showing as 'Invalid'.

In the Storage section, the Datastores tab does not display the data store I had previously created.  The drive can be seen in the Devices tab and selecting it confirms that it contains a VMFS volume.

If I SSH into the server the /vmfs/volumes/ folder contains the link to the original data store named 'Disk 1'.  I can 'cd' into the guid and see the VM folder along with all the VMs files.

Is there a way to remount the data store so that I can access the VM again?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Jason

[xingchan]

You say ESXi still sees the VMFS volumes. Did you try to remove the vm from inventory. The go to the datastore and add the vm back to the inventory.

[jason3]

I may not have explained what I am seeing very well.

The Datastores tab is empty:

But clicking the device show the disk with the vmfs:

So I can't browse the data store and add the VM back in.  Somehow need to add the data store again.

Jason

[xingchan]

In the last screenshot Under Actions you have the option Rescan. Did you try this yet?

[HassanAlKak88]

Hello,

Try to rescan all storage devices for datastores, from Storage, Devices.

Also go to Storage -> Adapters and Rescan.

Else try to restart the server.

Please consider marking this answer "CORRECT" or "Helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

Cheers,

VCIX6-NV|VCP-NV|VCP-DC|

@KakHassan

linkedin.com/in/hassanalkak

[jason3]

I had tried a 'Rescan' from Devices but not 'Adapters'.  I've now tried both and a reboot but the data store is still missing.

Thanks,

Jason

[HassanAlKak88]

Hello,

Try the following command to work with VMFS volumes "esxcfg-volume" through SSH to host:

esxcfg-volume <options>

-l|--list       List all volumes which have been detected as snapshots/replicas.

-m|--mount <VMFS UUID|label>     Mount a snapshot/replica volume, if its original copy is not online.

Please consider marking this answer "CORRECT" or "Helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

Cheers,

VCIX6-NV|VCP-NV|VCP-DC|

@KakHassan

linkedin.com/in/hassanalkak

[xingchan]

Can you try to add a new VMFS volume. At step 2 you might see an existing vmfs volume. If this is the case choose to keep existing disk signature.

[jason3]

I've tried 'esxcfg-volume -l' but it isn't listing any volumes.

I have also tried using the UI to a new VMFS volume but it also isn't listing any exisiting VMFS volumes.

Last night I updated 6.7 to the latest build but that didn't help.

Thanks,

Jason

[HassanAlKak88]

Hello,

Try the following please:

Use the following and check the status of your data store under Mounted column: esxcli storage filesystem list,

If your Datastore mounted status is false, try the following to mount it:  esxcli storage filesystem mount [-u UUID | -l label | -p path ]

Please consider marking this answer "CORRECT" or "Helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

Cheers,

VCIX6-NV|VCP-NV|VCP-DC|

@KakHassan

linkedin.com/in/hassanalkak

[jason3]

I think I'm starting to get somewhere now.  Running:

esxcli storage filesystem list

Returns:

Error getting data for filesystem on '/vmfs/volumes/5c385bc3-aa2c175e-4e5b-0010182dcdee': Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/5c385bc3-aa2c175e-4e5b-0010182dcdee, skipping

After 'Googling' 'Unable to get FS Attrs' it appears that my issue is most likely to be a physical issue with the disk.  This isn't a disaster, the lost VM is for testing but wanted to understand the cause and solution in case it happened again in the future.

While doing the above I remembered I had another box contain three disks, one of which was also not showing in the Datastores tab.  I therefore tried above command, followed by the mount command and this successfully mounted.  So I've had some success.

Thank you for your help,

Jason

[HassanAlKak88]

Good to hear from you,

Please consider marking this answer "CORRECT" or "Helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

Cheers,

VCIX6-NV|VCP-NV|VCP-DC|

@KakHassan

linkedin.com/in/hassanalkak

[continuum]

> This isn't a disaster, the lost VM is for testing but wanted to understand the cause and solution in case it happened again in the future.

VMFS-volumes on a standalone ESXi host dont react well to power failures.
You were lucky that the VM was powered off - this often ends with a complete loss.
Solution: do not allow power failures !!!
In other words - get a decent USV and make sure it is implemented correctly.