Comments on: Recreating Missing VMDK Descriptor Files!

By: Steven Powell

Steven Powell — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:25:47 +0000

Hi Paul,

Really struggling with this please could you help

Steven

By: Manuel Arrington

Manuel Arrington — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:36:20 +0000

Paul you saved our skins tonight. My network manager and I used this article to recover from “DISASTER.”

If you are ever in Largo, MD we will buy you a cold one or two.

By: George

George — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:42:28 +0000

Thanks for the reply. It worked, although I will have to wait for afterhours to make sure the VM powers on fine.

By: Paul Shannon

Paul Shannon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:34:55 +0000

You only really need to worry about the CID/Parent CID if you have existing snapshots associated with the problematic VM. If you do have snapshots then you need to set the CID in the new descriptor file to the Parent CID value found in the first snapshot.

Hope this helps

Paul

By: George

George — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:24:59 +0000

“Firstly, identify the size of the *-flatvmdk file using putty or something similar. Once you know how big it is, 250GB for instance, either find another flat-vmdk file the same size ”

If we copy an existing descriptor file from another VM having the same disk size attached to the same LUN, don’t we have to change the “CID” and/or the “parentCID” values in the descriptor file ?

By: Paul Shannon

Paul Shannon — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:03:02 +0000

Hi Mike

Thanks for posting.

I have to be honest I have only seen this occur under three different sets of circumstances:

* – Unreliable iSCSI connection to back-end storage
* – Power/Connectivity outages to back-end storage
* – Excessive I/O causing long time outs

If you know that you are not suffereing these problems, then I would suggest that you may want to log a call with VMware, because it could be a metadata issue on the affected LUNs.

If you do pursue this further let me know how you get on.

Thanks

Paul

By: Mike Laskowski

Mike Laskowski — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:01:14 +0000

Hey what would cause the VMDK pointer file to disappear? I had couple VM’s that all the sudden lost the VMDK’s? It started about 2-3 weeks ago when we updated all the ESX servers with the lasts updates and also Virtual Center to Update 4. The first time it happen the VM tried to v-motion and it failed, then it got powered off on its own for whatever reasons. After that when I browse the datastore all I see the –flat.vmdk, I know how to resolve the issues by re-creating the pointer file, but I’m trying to figure out all the different reasons that can cause this. I got another VM that had a similar issue, I was on it 2 days ago, I shut down the VM and today it’s missing the C:\ VMDK pointer file. Nothing really changes no storage outages etc.. ? Any tips would be great on why or what can cause this.

By: Paul Shannon

Paul Shannon — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:58:42 +0000

If I understand you correctly, you could create the new VMDK on any volume that has enough space, because all we are interested in, is the small pointer file. Once the VMDK has been created on the other datastore simply copy the pointer file over to the desired location using something:

cp /vmfs/volumes/FreeSpaceLUN/myhelperVM/myhelperVM.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/NotMuchFreeSpaceLUN/brokenVM/brokenVM.vmdk

Hope this all makes sense

By: Serge

Serge — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:22:50 +0000

What if the drive with the original *-flat.vmdk doesnt have enough space?
SD

By: Arcom

Arcom — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:25:43 +0000

Excellent tip, thanks!