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I have lost a Datastore from my ESXi Host. The drive is still accessable, but it does not show up as Datastore (but as device). I can connect to it via SSH and copy data from it (I am getting all the vmdx at the moment, in case the drive dies).

Following issue came up in the log:

Host Connectivity Degraded in ESX/ESXi (1009557)

But it recovered

Host Connectivity Restored (1009556)

I can add it as a new Datastore but I would have to reformat it.

Is there a way to remount the drive so it is detected as a datastore?

It is also shown in the esxcli storage vmfs extent list

esxcli storage vmfs extent list
Volume Name  VMFS UUID                            Extent Number  Device Name                                                                Partition
-----------  -----------------------------------  -------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------
datastore1   4cf78219-37a48610-9f53-001b21811bd8              0  t10.ATA_____SAMSUNG_HE502HJ_______________________________S2B6J90ZA08075           3
datastore3   4ea13fa7-6e0b3afc-8741-b8ac6f95a15a              0  t10.ATA_____ST2000DL0012D9VT156__________________________________5YD4J7JA          1
datastore2   4cf7821a-60777308-3711-001b21811bd8              0  t10.ATA_____SAMSUNG_HE502HJ_______________________________S2B6J90ZA08046           3

Update

It reapeared after rescanning the drives, but it had an invalid Size, short after the drive disapeared again. Doesn't look good... but the data transfer via scp still works.

The blocksize of the device changed from 1 MB to 175 MB thuse the change in the device size

Maximilian Kindshofer
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1 Answers1

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According to the vSphere documentation esxcli does indeed have a mount subcommand.

  1. List all volumes that have been detected as snapshots.
    esxcli <conn_options> storage filesystem list
  2. Run esxcli storage filesystem mount with the volume label or volume UUID. By default, the volume is mounted persistently, use --no-persist to mount persistently.
    esxcli <conn_options> storage filesystem volume mount --volume-label=<label>|--volume-uuid=<VMFS-UUID>

So for your case, you can run the following commands to get the VMFS remounted. 

esxcli <conn_options> storage filesystem volume mount --volume-uuid=4cf78219-37a48610-9f53-001b21811bd8
esxcli <conn_options> storage filesystem volume mount --volume-uuid=4ea13fa7-6e0b3afc-8741-b8ac6f95a15a
esxcli <conn_options> storage filesystem volume mount --volume-uuid=4cf7821a-60777308-3711-001b21811bd8
GregL
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  • This worked kind of - it reapeared with a size of 7,497,075.00 Tb. What could cause this? The other details and the partitions seem to be ok. - OK it looks like the block size changed from 1 MB to 175 MB – Maximilian Kindshofer Apr 13 '15 at 12:06
  • And what size is the volume actually? What does `esxcli storage filesystem list` report as the size? – GregL Apr 13 '15 at 12:09
  • It fails to get the information on the Error getting data for filesystem on '/vmfs/volumes/4cf7821a-60777308-3711-001b21811bd8': Unable to get FS Attrs for /vmfs/volumes/4cf7821a-60777308-3711-001b21811bd8, skipping. But it should be 460,75 GB. The shown size is about 175 times as much – Maximilian Kindshofer Apr 13 '15 at 12:15
  • It can't get the drive information? Is this local storage or remote? – GregL Apr 13 '15 at 12:30
  • Its a local storage - Well I still can access it via scp – Maximilian Kindshofer Apr 13 '15 at 12:31
  • I think I well scrap of the data via scp and then replace the drive - maybe test it and use it somewhere else. If this fails I will have to pull the backup but I would rather not since it is a week old (management...) – Maximilian Kindshofer Apr 13 '15 at 12:46
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    Yeah, sounds like something has gone sideways with that disk. As you say, I'd get everything off it ASAP and replace it. – GregL Apr 13 '15 at 12:49
  • You don't have raid or a recent backup? You should have both. – JamesRyan Apr 13 '15 at 15:55