| Structure | Sector offset (relative to partition start) | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------| | VMFS FDC (File Descriptor) | 1-63 | | Heartbeat region 1 | 128 | | Heartbeat region 2 | 256 | | File/directory tables | 4096+ |
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot resignature -l <original_label> Or mount as snapshot: recover vmfs 5 datastore
esxcli storage core adapter rescan --all From vSphere Client: . 3.2 Restore VMFS Volume from Remaining Partition Table If the VMFS partition is missing but the LUN still has valid GPT/MBR: | Structure | Sector offset (relative to partition
voma -m vmfs -f fix -d /dev/disks/naa.xxxxxx:1 ⚠️ Always take a backup before running fix . Major corruption may require full recovery tools. When native methods fail, use dedicated VMFS recovery software: When native methods fail, use dedicated VMFS recovery
(For recovery engineers – do not modify manually without full understanding.)
| Tool | Capability | |------|-------------| | | Scans entire LUN, rebuilds VMFS 5 structures, recovers files/folders. | | UFS Explorer Professional | VMFS 5/6 support, RAID reconstruction, deleted VM recovery. | | Stellar Data Recovery for VMware | Quick and deep scan for VMFS volumes. |
vmfs-fuse /dev/sdb /mnt/recover -o ro This allows read-only mounting of VMFS 5. voma is the primary native tool for diagnosing and fixing VMFS corruption.