: Immediately stop all access to the affected storage from any ESXi host to prevent further damage or changes to the data.
Losing access to a VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) volume can be a high-stakes emergency for any IT administrator. Because VMware ESXi uses VMFS as a cluster file system to store massive virtual disk files (.vmdk), a single point of failure can render dozens of virtual machines inaccessible.
For less severe issues, VMware provides built-in tools to re-mount or restore datastores. recovering vmfs
: For Linux-based recovery, install vmfs-tools . This package allows you to work with VMFS partitions.
: Use tools like fdisk or parted to identify the VMFS partition. : Immediately stop all access to the affected
| Mistake | Consequence | |---------|-------------| | Creating a new datastore on the same LUN | Overwrites VMFS header → makes recovery much harder | | Restoring a snapshot of a VM without fixing the datastore first | May write partial data and worsen corruption | | Using vmkfstools repair options incorrectly | Can corrupt other datastores on the same device |
Tell me exactly what happened, for example: For less severe issues, VMware provides built-in tools
: On an ESXi host, rescan the storage adapters to detect the affected VMFS partition.
Re-initializing a LUN or creating a new datastore over an existing one can physically overwrite vital VMFS pointers. Phase 1: Immediate Triage and Preparation
This works if the partition table is damaged but the VMFS header is intact.