Recovery Vmfs 📥

(Replace the path with your actual NAA identifier)

In this post, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of diagnosing a missing datastore, repairing VMFS metadata, and getting your VMs back online.

First, list all detected storage devices. You need to find the canonical name (NaML ID) of the missing LUN.

Always ensure you have current, restorable backups before attempting filesystem repairs. The author assumes no liability for data loss resulting from the misuse of these commands. recovery vmfs

Stay calm. Run esxcfg-scsidevs . Use vmkfstools -V . And whatever you do,

Let’s be honest: You don't want to be typing voma commands at 2 AM on a Sunday. Here is how to avoid this next time:

Understanding the root cause is the first step in determining the correct recovery strategy: (Replace the path with your actual NAA identifier)

Create a new partition (assuming a standard 1MB offset):

Recovery VMFS: A Comprehensive Guide to Restoring VMware Datastores

Before resorting to third-party software, VMware provides several command-line utilities for diagnosing and fixing minor datastore issues: VOMA (vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer) Always ensure you have current, restorable backups before

The LUN may lose its partition table (GPT/MBR), making the datastore appear as "uninitialized" or "raw" to the ESXi host.

Once the repair completes (or the mount succeeds), rescan again and verify the heartbeat.

voma will scan every file descriptor, fix chain corruption, and rebuild the allocation map. This tool has saved my bacon more times than I can count.