VMFS version: 6.81 Volume UUID: 4a5b3c2d-... Number of heartbeats: 3 If it fails with No VMFS filesystem found , metadata is corrupt or missing. Use dd and hdparm to check if basic partition table is readable:
esxcfg-volume -l # List snapshot volumes esxcfg-volume -r <vol_name> # Resignature (keeps data) VMFS6 stores redundant copies of critical metadata structures. You can manually copy a backup superblock: recover vmfs metadata
Without valid metadata, a datastore appears as a raw partition, empty, or reports the dreaded "Not a VMFS datastore" error. However, the actual virtual machine data (VMDK files, memory state, logs) often remains physically present on the disk. Recovering the metadata is therefore less about file “undelete” and more about reconstructing the logical map that points to existing data blocks. VMFS version: 6
vmfs-fs-rescue /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000...:1 This creates a lost+found directory with recoverable files. It does not preserve original folder structure but may recover VMDK and VMX files. VMFS does not have an fsck like ext4. Instead, VMware relies on journal replay on mount. To force replay: You can manually copy a backup superblock: Without
Introduction VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) is the backbone of vSphere environments, designed for high-performance concurrent access by multiple ESXi hosts. Despite its robustness, VMFS is not immune to corruption. Among the most dreaded scenarios for a storage administrator is the loss or corruption of VMFS metadata—the critical set of structures that tells the hypervisor where files (virtual disks, configurations, snapshots) reside on the underlying LUN or disk device.
# List all partitions on a device (e.g., naa.6000...) partedUtil get /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000... fdisk -l /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000... Attempt to probe filesystem vmfs-fs-probe /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000...:1 View kernel VMFS errors tail -100 /var/log/vmkernel.log | grep -i vmfs