We’ve all been there. You log into vCenter, click on a datastore, and your heart sinks. Instead of the happy green "Normal" status, you see "Not Mounted" or "Corrupted." Maybe an ESXi host lost power during a SAN firmware update, or someone accidentally deleted a LUN mapping.
esxcfg-volume -l # Find the volume name esxcfg-volume -U [Volume_Name] Run the repair. You must unmount the volume first, or you will crash the host.
esxcfg-scsidevs -l Look for the device with the correct size and LUN number that does not have a filesystem label next to it. Now, we attempt a manual mount. Use the -r flag for read-only to ensure we don't make the situation worse. recovery vmfs
voma -m vmfs -f fix -d /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000c29c4c5a2b1c:1 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. Once the repair completes (or the mount succeeds), rescan again and verify the heartbeat.
First, unmount the datastore (force if necessary). We’ve all been there
Once the partition is recreated, attempt the mount again:
Create a new partition (assuming a standard 1MB offset): esxcfg-volume -l # Find the volume name esxcfg-volume
Have you ever recovered a "dead" VMFS datastore? What trick worked for you? Let me know in the comments below. 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.