Loading

×Sorry to interrupt
CSS Error

Refresh

Cookie Preference Center

General Information on cookies

When you visit our website, we use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience. This information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies by clicking on the different category headings to find out more and change your settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on the site and the services we are able to offer. Further information can be found in our

Cookie Policy.

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary

Always Active

Strictly Necessary

Strictly necessary cookies are always enabled since they are essential for our website to function. They enable core functionality such as security, network management, and website accessibility. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but this may affect how the website functions. For more information please visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Cookie Details‎

Performance

Performance

Performance

Performance cookies are used to analyze the user experience to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. They allow us to know which pages are the most and least popular, see how visitors move around the site, optimize our website and make it easier to navigate.

Cookie Details‎

Please confirm your settings by refreshing the page.

Functional

Functional

Functional

Functional cookies help us keep track of your past browsing choices so we can improve usability and customize your experience. These cookies enable the website to remember your preferred settings, language preferences, location and other customizable elements such as font or text size. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Cookie Details‎

Advertising

Advertising

Advertising

Advertising cookies are used to send you relevant advertising and promotional information. They may be set through our site by third parties to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. These cookies do not directly store personal information, but their function is based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device.

Cookie Details‎

Advertising Cookies

Consent Leg.Interest

Select All Vendors

Select All Vendors

Select All Hosts

Select All

Clear Filters

Information storage and access

Apply

Confirm My Choices Reject All Allow All

Skip to main content

My Subscriptions

Loading

Knowledge Base

VMDK Recovery Tool (ESX 3.5 Update 3) (1007243)

Last Updated: 12/5/2014Categories: How toTotal Views: 97158Language:
Chinese (Simplified)Portuguese (European)JapaneseSpanishEnglish

5 like this article

Subscribe to get an email
newsletter with new updates

5 people found this helpful Please provide article feedback:

Details

Purpose

Use the VMDK Recovery Tool to:

Create a “block list” of your VMDK files. The block list file is a plain text file that keeps a record of all VMDKs of the virtual machines.

Recover VMDK files if they become deleted, or if the VMFS datastore gets deleted or corrupted.

Limitations

The VMDK Recovery Tool is a utility VMware provides in ESX 3.5 Update 3 as experimental software.

Experimental means that the tool is not supported and might not work as expected in all customer environments.

The tool is not available for VMware ESXi products.

You cannot restore from multiple block list files.

This tool is not available beyond in VMware ESX 4.0 and above. For additional information, see the Storage subsection under Known Issues, in the VMware ESX 4.0 Update 1 Release Notes.

Solution

For this tool to work, you must keep a current block list of your virtual machines. You cannot recover VMDK files for which you do not have a block list.

To create a block list using the VMDK Recovery Tool:

Launch the VMDK Recovery Tool, log in to the service console as root and run the command:

# vmfs-undelete.

Select option [b] to list all virtual machines registered to the host.

To create the block list, perform one of these options:

Select [99] to back up a vmdk block list of all virtual machines.

Or

Select a virtual machine ID from the list to back up a specific virtual machine.

During block list creation, the tool prompts you to specify the filename to backup the data. You can either give an absolute path (a new file is created by the tool) or it will be saved in the current working directory.

Sample session:

[root@esx11]# vmfs-undelete

########################################################
# VMFS Data Recovery and Backup #
# #
# This tool is NOT a replacement for regular backups #
# Please backup your data on a regular basis #
# There is absolutely no guarantee #
# Use at your own risk #
# #
# VMs with Raw Disks (virtual or physical) are #
# Not supported!!!! #
########################################################

--------------------------------------------------
Select [b]ackup, [r]estore [q] to quit: b
------------------------------------------

0 ) /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/Win2k3DC-64/Win2k3DC-64.vmx
1 ) /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/mandel-rhel3-32/mandel-rhel3-32.vmx
2 ) /vmfs/volumes/48da37be-22e0d1a4-b076-0019bbd51b56/spanis/spanis.vmx
3 ) /vmfs/volumes/48da37be-22e0d1a4-b076-0019bbd51b56/rhel4/rhel4.vmx
4 ) /vmfs/volumes/48da37be-22e0d1a4-b076-0019bbd51b56/spanfc/spanfc.vmx
5 ) /vmfs/volumes/48932bc1-a4b8a07e-ac22-0019bbd51b58/Win2k3DC-32/Win2k3DC-32.vmx
------------------------------------------

found 6 vms
Choose a VM to backup, [99] for all registered VMs or [q] to quit: 1
number of vms to backup 1
Ready to write to data to disk
Enter path and filename of where to save the recover log to:/back/test
________________________________________
working on VM: /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/mandel-rhel3-32/mandel-rhel3-32.vmx
Checking for VM Snapshots...
Creating Snapshot...
read block list for /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/restore/mandel-32.vmdk
removing snapshot....
Done......

########################################################
# VMFS Data Recovery and Backup #
# #
# This tool is NOT a replacement for regular backups #
# Please backup your data on a regular basis #
# There is absolutely no guarantee #
# Use at your own risk #
# #
# VMs with Raw Disks (virtual or physical) are #
# Not supported!!!! #
########################################################

--------------------------------------------------
Select [b]ackup, [r]estore [q] to quit: q

In the previous example, the user:

Is logged into the service console as root and enters the vmfs-undelete command.

[root@esx11]# vmfs-undelete

Presses the b key (for [b]ackup ), and then presses the Return key.

Select [b]ackup, [r]estore [q] to quit: b

Six virtual machines are listed from 0-5.

Enters 1 to back up the second virtual machine.

Choose a VM to backup, [99] for all registered VMs or [q] to quit: 1

(Instead, you can enter 99 to select all virtual machines in the list.)

Specifies /back/test as the location for the backup file.

Enter path and filename of where to save the recover log to:/back/test

The block list backup is completed without any errors and the /back/test file is created.

Enters q to quit the tool.

Select [b]ackup, [r]estore [q] to quit: q

To restore a VMDK file:

Run the tool and select [r] to restore the missing file.

Sample session:

[root@esx11 /]# vmfs-undelete

########################################################
# VMFS Data Recovery and Backup #
# #
# This tool is NOT a replacement for regular backups #
# Please backup your data on a regular basis #
# There is absolutely no guarantee #
# Use at your own risk #
# #
# VMs with Raw Disks (virtual or physical) are #
# Not supported!!!! #
########################################################

--------------------------------------------------
Select [b]ackup, [r]estore [q] to quit: r
enter file name to restore from: /back/test

----------------------------------------
1) /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/mandel-rhel3-32/mandel-rhel3-32.vmx

Found 1 VMs available to restore

select VM to restore [1 - 1] or 'q' to quit:1
Available VMDKs to restore:

----------------------------------------
1) /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/restore/mandel-32.vmdk

select VMDK to restore [1 - 1 ]: 1
1) /vmfs/volumes/spannedISCSI ------> [VMFS UUID: 48ad7ec0-e325a051-b085-0019bbd51b56]

2) /vmfs/volumes/esx11:storage1 ------> [VMFS UUID: 48ad95b7-a4fbcfd2-3ae5-0019bbd51b58]

3) /vmfs/volumes/datastore4 ------> [VMFS UUID: 48da37be-22e0d1a4-b076-0019bbd51b56]

4) /vmfs/volumes/100gb ------> [VMFS UUID: 48932bc1-a4b8a07e-ac22-0019bbd51b58]

5) /vmfs/volumes/spannedFC ------> [VMFS UUID: 48ada29d-e6f0dd4b-c312-0019bbd51b58]

6) /vmfs/volumes/templib ------> [VMFS UUID: 000a8416-362eaee8-b274-00145e5a474f]

select VMFS DataStore to restore to [1 - 6] : 4
Enter the directory to restore to: restore
/vmfs/volumes/100gb/restore already exists
Are you sure you want to restore to /vmfs/volumes/100gb/restore [y/n]: y
Enter the file name to restore to: [ex: recovered.vmdk]: test.vmdk
restoring VM: /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/mandel-rhel3-32/mandel-rhel3-32.vmx
Disk: /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/restore/mandel-32.vmdk
to : /vmfs/volumes/100gb/restore/test.vmdk

restoring data....

[==> 4%

In the previous example, the user:

Enters option r.

Select [b]ackup, [r]estore [q] to quit: r

Specifies the /back/test file to restore.

enter file name to restore from: /back/test

The virtual machine is listed from the backup file.

1) /vmfs/volumes/48b033a5-b8c3c297-424d-0019bbd51b56/mandel-rhel3-32/mandel-rhel3-32.vmx
Found 1 VMs available to restore

(If the 99 option were used to create the backup file, all virtual machines would be listed.)

Enters 1 to select the specific virtual machine.

select VM to restore [1 - 1] or 'q' to quit:1

All available datastores are listed.

Chooses 4 to save the restored vmdk.

select VMFS DataStore to restore to [1 - 6] : 4

Specifies the directory to restore to as "restore."

Enter the directory to restore to: restore

Enters y to confirm this choice. The directory is created automatically.

Are you sure you want to restore to /vmfs/volumes/100gb/restore [y/n]: y

Specifies test.vmdk as the restore filename for the vmdk.

Enter the file name to restore to: [ex: recovered.vmdk]: test.vmdk

Additional Information
For translated versions of this article, see:

Español: Herramienta de recuperación de VMDK (ESX 3.5 Update 3) (2046760)

Português: Ferramenta de recuperação VMDK (ESX 3.5 Atualização 3) (2046066)

日本語: VMDK 回復ツール (ESX 3.5 Update 3) (2080186)

简体中文: VMDK 恢复工具 (ESX 3.5 Update 3) (2087172)

Detectable by VMware SkylineTM

Actions

Copy

link to clipboard
copied!

Print

Language:
Chinese (Simplified)Portuguese (European)JapaneseSpanishEnglish

Attachments

Additional Resources

KB
•
End Of General Availability of the Free vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 7.x and 8.x) (2107518)

Result 1 of 1

Ask The Community

Get answers quickly from VMware experts in the community

Post Subject

CONTINUE IN COMMUNITIES

Related Products:

VMware ESX Server

Related Versions:

VMware ESX Server 3.5.x

Take Our Survey

Was this article helpful?

YES

NO

Copyright © 2005-2024 Broadcom. All Rights Reserved. The term “Broadcom” refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Terms of Use

Your California Privacy Rights

Privacy

Accessibility

Cookie Settings

Support Assistant