Recovery options for a virtual machine accidentally deleted from disk from vSphere UI

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x

Issue/Introduction

A VM is accidentally deleteed from the disk using the vSphere user interface.
You are unable to locate the VM folder or its associated files (such as .vmdk or .vmx) on the datastore.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

 The issue occurs due to a user error where the "Delete from Disk" option is selected in the vSphere client. This action permanently removes the virtual machine's files from the datastore.

Resolution

When a virtual machins is deleted from disk, its files cannot be restored to the VMFS datastore.

It will be necessary to restore the VM from backup. 

If this is not possible, recovery may be attempted by one of the following: 

• Recovering a Deleted VM via a Temporary Storage Array Snapshot LUN
  

  • Present the Snapshot: A snapshot LUN must not be restored directly over the production LUN. Instead, clone the storage-level snapshot captured prior to the deletion and present it to the ESXi hosts as a temporary, standalone LUN.
    Note: Since the snapshot LUN provides a crash-consistent, point-in-time image from before the VM's deletion, the recovered VM will be restored to that specific historical state.

  • Mount Safely (Resignature): Because the original production datastore remains online, this temporary LUN must be mounted using a new signature to prevent signature conflicts. Troubleshooting LUNs detected as snapshot LUNs in vSphere

  • Register the VM: Browse the temporary snapshot datastore, locate the deleted VM's configuration file (.vmx), and register it back into the vCenter inventory. Add or Register a Virtual Machine (VM) in vCenter Server

  • Migrate to Production: Perform a Storage vMotion to migrate the VM's files from the temporary snapshot datastore back to the live, production datastore.

  • Clean Up: Once the VM is successfully restored to production storage, unmount and detach the temporary snapshot datastore. Finally, delete the clone on the storage array to reclaim storage space.  Detach a LUN device from ESXi hosts

     

    
    
    
• Engage a Data Recovery Service.
  
  If no backups or storage snapshots are available, you can consider contacting professional third-party data recovery services
  
  Data recovery services for data not recoverable by VMware Technical Support