DLeece
asked on
recover a VM with .vmdk files?
Hi all,
My VMware server appears to have a permanent disk issue, and sectors are no nolger readable so replacement is obvious. The problem is I want to get one machine off the system before it dies totally and certain key things like VMware being able to see the datastore are now broken, likely due to the read erros on the disk.
Looking at the file system the sym link to "store" points to a /vmfs/volumes directory that is no longer there. The only good news is the one machine I care about seems to still have some files under /vmfs/volumes and I was hoping there was :
1. a way to get them off the server -- SCP, FTP are not there and the file is 260gigs, or mount as a spare disk on a new system and copy over that way.
2. I am hoping the .vmdk files are enough to import from.
Any leads would be appreciated. I do have an open filer SAN that I could create an NFS share and maybe copy things that way but how would I mount it so VMware ESXi can see it and would the files I have even be enough to recover from?
Thanks
Doug Leece
My VMware server appears to have a permanent disk issue, and sectors are no nolger readable so replacement is obvious. The problem is I want to get one machine off the system before it dies totally and certain key things like VMware being able to see the datastore are now broken, likely due to the read erros on the disk.
Looking at the file system the sym link to "store" points to a /vmfs/volumes directory that is no longer there. The only good news is the one machine I care about seems to still have some files under /vmfs/volumes and I was hoping there was :
1. a way to get them off the server -- SCP, FTP are not there and the file is 260gigs, or mount as a spare disk on a new system and copy over that way.
2. I am hoping the .vmdk files are enough to import from.
Any leads would be appreciated. I do have an open filer SAN that I could create an NFS share and maybe copy things that way but how would I mount it so VMware ESXi can see it and would the files I have even be enough to recover from?
Thanks
Doug Leece
l--------- 0 root root 1984 Jan 1 1970 store -> /vmfs/volumes/3abb47ef-875ea67c-c948-7bf6ff8d3c38
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 512 Jul 3 12:39 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 512 Jun 16 14:47 usr
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 512 Jun 16 14:47 var
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 512 Jun 16 14:47 vmfs
l--------- 0 root root 1984 Jan 1 1970 vmupgrade -> /locker/vmupgrade
/var/log # ls /store
/store
/var/log # ls /store/
ls: /store/: No such file or directory
/var/log # ls -la /vmfs/volumes/3abb47ef-875ea67c-c948-7bf6ff8d3c38
ls: /vmfs/volumes/3abb47ef-875ea67c-c948-7bf6ff8d3c38: No such file or directory
/var/log # df -k
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
unknown 188336 122872 65464 65% /
unknown 4192960 1048960 3144000 25% /vmfs/volumes/4959340c-0f612a5a-980c-000d603f1e74
unknown 266862592 265865216 997376 100% /vmfs/volumes/4a4df4b1-351f3118-0537-00096b62f0e4
/var/log # ls /vmfs/volumes/4a4df4b1-351f3118-0537-00096b62f0e4
marge
/var/log # ls /vmfs/volumes/4a4df4b1-351f3118-0537-00096b62f0e4/marge
marge_2-flat.vmdk marge_2.vmdk
/var/log # ls -la /vmfs/volumes/4a4df4b1-351f3118-0537-00096b62f0e4
drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1120 May 30 18:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 512 Jul 3 13:19 ..
-r-------- 1 root root 1409024 May 30 18:50 .fbb.sf
-r-------- 1 root root 63143936 May 30 18:50 .fdc.sf
-r-------- 1 root root 255655936 May 30 18:50 .pbc.sf
-r-------- 1 root root 260374528 May 30 18:50 .sbc.sf
-r-------- 1 root root 4194304 Jul 3 12:08 .vh.sf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 560 May 30 18:55 marge
/var/log # ls -la /vmfs/volumes/4a4df4b1-351f3118-0537-00096b62f0e4/marge
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 560 May 30 18:55 .
drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1120 May 30 18:55 ..
-rw------- 1 root root 271656681472 Jun 17 09:48 marge_2-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 402 Jun 16 22:48 marge_2.vmdk
Use veeams FASTSCP (www.veeam.com) ... much quicker for moving files than WinSCP. Using FASTSCP you can copy the vmdk to your local machine or to another ESX server.
The VMDK is the main file for you VM - you are correct. But the VMX file is equally important. However you can normally just create a new VM (with similar settings) and attach this disk to it. You may need to reconfigure networking in your VM, due to new MAC addresses being generated (all this is stored in the VMX file) if you end up creating a new VM and attaching the existing disk.
Good luck
The VMDK is the main file for you VM - you are correct. But the VMX file is equally important. However you can normally just create a new VM (with similar settings) and attach this disk to it. You may need to reconfigure networking in your VM, due to new MAC addresses being generated (all this is stored in the VMX file) if you end up creating a new VM and attaching the existing disk.
Good luck
ASKER
Hi ZA,
Turns out sftp does not work on the VMware side but I found you could symlink the sbin/dropbearmulti binary so scp and I could push the files off the server. Built an NFS share on my san and I am now pushing the 260 gigs across the lan.
I will have to go buy a new drive and build a new vmware esxi server I guess. HOpefully I can expoert most of the config so I don't neet to start completely from scratch.
Turns out sftp does not work on the VMware side but I found you could symlink the sbin/dropbearmulti binary so scp and I could push the files off the server. Built an NFS share on my san and I am now pushing the 260 gigs across the lan.
I will have to go buy a new drive and build a new vmware esxi server I guess. HOpefully I can expoert most of the config so I don't neet to start completely from scratch.
I'm on the same line with Mikealcl, winscp should work just fine if ssh is running
If it is critical .. you should at least have a RAID 1 setup for your VMFS volume, so if one drive fails, your VM continues to run ... my 2p worth..
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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I sftp to my servers all the time using WinSCP
Once you get them off you might be able to tell esx its a virtual appliance to get the import to work. The options in vcenter on the file menu. Worked for me in the past.