Virtual Machine unresponsive and inaccessible, user unable to browse the backing datastore.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• All virtual machines stored on a datastore are non responsive and or inaccessible  
• Datastore is still mounted to the ESXi host, but is not browsable and shows as unclaimed with 0 bytes used

Environment

ESXi 7.x

ESXi 8.x 

 

Cause

• VMFS partition has been over written by another Operating System 
• PatrtedUtil show the correct VMFS partition table

 Example:

 # partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.######000000000000000#######
gpt
1871445 255 63 30064771072
1 2048 30064771038 AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8 vmfs 0

• At the same time, Hex dump reports that there is no VMFS file system and that the device has been reformatted by another Operating System 
• Information similar to the below is returned by Hexdump
• Example command: 

  hexdump -c  /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.######000000000000000#######

• Example output:

00200000 58 46 53 42 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 9f ff fc 00 |XFSB. 00200010

This line indicates that the XFS file system is installed and not a VMFS

 

• Further review of Hexdump output shows the name of the machine that accessed the LUN and the date when the file system was recreated  

=
|AD", "WRITE"].fl| Tags |size |lv
[].extent |
=
= 8192.max 0.max_pv
=
10.metadata_copiel
Is = 0..physical_| Ivolumes ..pv0 {| I.id =
"ycRdRX-k5| mi-Ys2h-VIjr-YNP| |M-E25U-zTk7in".d] levice = "/dev/sd| |c1"..device id t
Type
=
"sys_wwid" | |.device id = "eu] i.flle91ca64c5831
["A
1666c9ce9007e7cdd| |10".status = |LLOCATABLE"].fla| Igs = [].dev size| 21474834399.pl le_start = 2048.pl le count = 2621431
=
=
19. } . } . . . } .# Genel Irated by LVM2 vel Irsion 2.03.28 (2) | |-RHEL9 (2024-11-1 104): Tue Jul 22 | 108:02:22 2025..cl Tontents = "Text | Format Volume Gr loup".version = 11 |..description "Write from vgcr| Teate VolGroup02 | /dev/sdc1."..cre lation host "IT| |"VIRTUAL OR PHYSICAL SERVER NAME"".# Lin] lux "VIRTUAL OR PHYSICAL SERVER NAME" 51 1.14.0-570.23.1.el 119 6.x86 64 #1 S |MP PREEMPT DYNAM IC Sat Jun 14 131 |:10:47 EDT 2025 | x86 64.creation | Itime 175316414| 12.# Tue Jul 22 01 18:02:22 2025....|
=

Resolution

• The datastore is not recoverable and the impacted Virtual Machines will need to be restored from backup
• A data recovery company may be able to recover the lost data by alternative means