Recovery Vmfs Online

Have you ever recovered a "dead" VMFS datastore? What trick worked for you? Let me know in the comments below. Always ensure you have current, restorable backups before attempting filesystem repairs. The author assumes no liability for data loss resulting from the misuse of these commands.

The Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) is incredibly resilient, but it isn't invincible. The good news? You just need to know the right commands and the right order of operations. recovery vmfs

vmkfstools -V -r /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000c29c4c5a2b1c:1 If the metadata is corrupt (files show up, but VMs won't power on), you need the VMFS Offline Metadata Analyzer ( voma ). Have you ever recovered a "dead" VMFS datastore

First, unmount the datastore (force if necessary). Always ensure you have current, restorable backups before

esxcfg-scsidevs -l Look for the device with the correct size and LUN number that does not have a filesystem label next to it. Now, we attempt a manual mount. Use the -r flag for read-only to ensure we don't make the situation worse.

Create a new partition (assuming a standard 1MB offset):

voma -m vmfs -f fix -d /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000c29c4c5a2b1c:1 voma will scan every file descriptor, fix chain corruption, and rebuild the allocation map. This tool has saved my bacon more times than I can count. Once the repair completes (or the mount succeeds), rescan again and verify the heartbeat.