ls -l /vmfs/devices/disks/ Look for the device that should be your datastore (e.g., naa.6001234567890 ). Note if there are no :1 , :2 , etc. partitions listed—only the base device.
Before you panic or reach for the latest backup (assuming you have one—and you should), take a breath. In many cases, the data on your VMFS datastore is still perfectly intact. The problem is often just the partition table —the map that tells ESXi where the VMFS volume starts and ends on the raw LUN or disk.
The Ultimate Guide to VMFS Partition Table Recovery: When Your Datastore Goes Dark vmfs partition table recovery
vmkfstools -V --config /scratch/config Or more directly:
sudo apt-get install vmfs-tools Then scan: ls -l /vmfs/devices/disks/ Look for the device that
dd if=/vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6001234567890 bs=512 count=1 skip=END_SECTOR_NUMBER | hexdump -C | grep "EFI PART" But skip math is error-prone. Instead, use partedUtil :
Good luck, and may your sector scans be clean. Have your own VMFS partition table horror story or recovery trick? Share it in the comments. Before you panic or reach for the latest
partedUtil get /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6001234567890 If it shows a table but complains about checksum, you may repair the primary from the backup (see recovery section). Method A: Restore partition table from a known backup (Best case) If you have a backup of your ESXi host configuration (e.g., from vicfg-cfgbackup ), you might have saved the partition layouts. Or if you have another identical datastore, compare.