Recover Vmfs Datastore !new! ✰ 【Official】

Step 4: She used dd to copy that backup block over the primary superblock (after making a full LUN image with ddrescue to a separate 12-TB drive—insurance). # dd if=/dev/sde1 bs=1M skip=512 count=1 of=primary_superblock_backup.bin Then, using vimfstools (from a recovered ESXi maintenance mode session): # vmkfstools -B recover /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000...:1

The datastore reappeared in the vSphere Client. VMs showed as "unknown"—expected. She browsed the datastore: all VM folders, .vmdk , .vmx files intact. recover vmfs datastore

She logged in. Heart sank. The 12-TB VMFS volume—hosting a real-time fraud detection system—wasn’t just offline. It was gone. ls -la /vmfs/volumes/ showed only the local datastore. Someone (an intern following an outdated runbook) had accidentally zapped the LUN mapping from the SAN side, then re-presented it—but as a new device signature. Step 4: She used dd to copy that

VMware now saw the storage, but as a fresh, unmounted volume. The partition table? Intact. The VMFS superblock? Unknown. She browsed the datastore: all VM folders,

Step 1: Identify the device. fdisk -l showed /dev/sde as 12 TB, with partition 1 (VMFS) starting at sector 2048. Good—partition still there.