Recovering Vmfs — Datastore

Always test recovery steps on a dummy LUN before attempting on production data.

esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list Output example: recovering vmfs datastore

(if original datastore is gone):

Volume Name UUID Extent Number Snapshot UUID Datastore1 abc123... 0 def456... To mount without resignaturing (temporary, read-only): Always test recovery steps on a dummy LUN

Use UFS Explorer – it automatically detects VMFS5/6 and can rebuild the partition table. Scenario B: Corrupted VMFS Metadata (Superblock, File Allocation) Symptoms: Datastore shows as "Unmounted" or "Corrupt," VMs missing, but LUN size correct. " VMs missing

# Find VMFS partition start (in sectors) using a hexdump dd if=/dev/disks/naa.XXX of=/tmp/header bs=512 count=2048 | hexdump -C | grep "VMFS" Recreate partition entry (example: start sector 2048, end sector auto) partedUtil set /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.XXX 1 2048 <end> 0