Run the VOMA command: voma -m vmfs -d /vmfs/devices/disks/DEVICE_NAME -f check
This command attempts to recover the filesystem by replaying journals. This is generally safe.
VMFS File System Repair Target Users: VMware Administrators, Storage Engineers, Disaster Recovery Teams Problem Solved: VMFS datastores (especially VMFS-5/6/6.5) can become corrupted due to abrupt power loss, faulty HBAs, improper VMFS resignaturing, or metadata inconsistencies. Current recovery options (e.g., fsck.vmfs , ESXCLI, or third-party tools) are fragmented and lack clear GUI guidance. Goal: Provide a safe, guided, and robust repair mechanism for corrupted VMFS volumes without requiring full datastore reformatting.
: If a Virtual Machine is running on the volume, VOMA may fail to get an exclusive lock. You may need to power off VMs or unmount the datastore. vmfs repair file system
vmkfstools -F /vmfs/devices/disks/<DEVICE_ID>
vmkfstools -P /vmfs/devices/disks/<DEVICE_ID>
Before attempting any repair operations: Run the VOMA command: voma -m vmfs -d
If the LUN was presented to multiple hosts or is part of a snapshot/replication, ESXi might mark it as a snapshot and refuse to mount it to prevent corruption.
Note: This attempts to fix the filesystem label. If successful, run vobd or check /var/log/vobd.log to see the result.
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot resignature --volume-label="<VolumeLabel>" Current recovery options (e
The safest way to attempt a repair is using the VMFS file system checker built into vmkfstools .
This guide provides a comprehensive approach to diagnosing and repairing a corrupted VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) datastore on VMware ESXi.
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list