vmfs-fuse -o ro /dev/loop0 /mnt/recovery If that fails, carve small files by known headers ( #! for VMX, KDMV for VMDK descriptor). Situation : An administrator ran vmkfstools -C vmfs5 /dev/disks/... on a datastore containing 12 production VMs.
fd = read_fd(fd_number) for each block_pointer in fd.fbt: dd if=vmfs_disk.dd of=recovered_flat.vmdk \ bs=<vmfs_block_size> skip=<block_pointer> count=1 seek=<output_offset> These are stored in metadata heaps. Use vmfs-fuse (from vmfs-tools) in read‑only mode if superblock is partially valid:
Example (pseudo‑script logic):
1. Introduction VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) is a high-performance clustered file system designed for storing virtual machine disks (VMDKs), configuration files, and snapshots. Despite its robustness, VMFS volumes can become corrupted due to abrupt power loss, improper VMFS upgrades, faulty storage hardware, accidental formatting, or metadata corruption.
dcfldd if=/dev/sdX of=vmfs_disk.dd hash=sha256 hashlog=hash.txt bs=1M conv=noerror,sync # Or using ddrescue for failing drives ddrescue -f /dev/sdX vmfs_disk.dd vmfs_mapfile Commercial tools are often the fastest path: vmfs recovery
: Never trust a single VMFS datastore – replication and backups remain the only guaranteed recovery path. This write-up is for authorized forensic analysis and disaster recovery only. Always comply with software licensing and data privacy laws.
| Tool | Best for | |------|----------| | | VMFS3/5/6, deleted VMDKs, RAID reconstruction | | R‑Studio | VMFS datastores with partition table loss | | SysTools VMFS Recovery | Simple file extraction from healthy metadata | | vmfs-tools (open source) | Manual CLI recovery, limited to clean FS | vmfs-fuse -o ro /dev/loop0 /mnt/recovery If that fails,
sgrep -b 'VMFS5' vmfs_disk.dd FDs start with a known pattern (e.g., FD 00 00 01 for VMFS5). Scan the entire disk:
