# Unmount if mounted vmkfstools -V /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000...:1 # Remount to replay journal esxcfg-volume -M <datastore_name> If corruption is due to ESXi detecting a duplicate UUID, resignaturing preserves metadata but changes datastore identity:
# Find backup superblock locations (example for VMFS6) # Primary at LBA 1, backup at LBA 2048, 4096, etc. dd if=/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000... of=/tmp/backup_superblock bs=512 count=1 skip=2048 # Restore primary dd if=/tmp/backup_superblock of=/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000... bs=512 count=1 seek=1 Incorrect offsets can destroy data. Only attempt if you have exact documentation for your VMFS version. 3.3 Third-Party Recovery Tools (Recommended for Critical Data) Several commercial tools specialize in VMFS metadata reconstruction. They work by scanning the raw device for file signatures and rebuilding the allocation map. recover vmfs metadata
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: # Unmount if mounted vmkfstools -V /vmfs/devices/disks/naa
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. bs=512 count=1 seek=1 Incorrect offsets can destroy data