Step 4: She used dd to copy that backup block over the primary superblock (after making a full LUN image with ddrescue to a separate 12-TB drive—insurance). # dd if=/dev/sde1 bs=1M skip=512 count=1 of=primary_superblock_backup.bin Then, using vimfstools (from a recovered ESXi maintenance mode session): # vmkfstools -B recover /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000...:1
Post-mortem? They automated LUN binding policies, restricted SAN reconfiguration rights, and made the intern write a 10-page essay on SCSI device IDs. recover vmfs datastore
Step 1: Identify the device. fdisk -l showed /dev/sde as 12 TB, with partition 1 (VMFS) starting at sector 2048. Good—partition still there. Step 4: She used dd to copy that
Success: Found backup VMFS6 superblock at 0x20000000 . Step 1: Identify the device
Step 2: Use vmfs-fuse to try a read-only mount. # vmfs-fuse /dev/sde1 /mnt/recover → failed: "Unsupported VMFS version or corrupted heartbeat region" .