Recover deleted files from datastore (iscsi from FreeNAS)

[garymg18]

Hello,

I've got a problem. I'd connected iscsi target from FreeNAS as datastore to vmware host (ESXi 5.0.0) and used 100GB (30% of all capaticy) for D drive (data) in windows server virtual machine. Accidently I've deleted this datastore and didn't notice info about removing files that are associated to virtual machines. After all I reconnect this datastore, but it's empty. The capaticy is 300GB and the whole datastore is empty (in datastore browser). I'm wondering now is is possible to recover this file, because when I logged to my FreeNAS host and run 'df -h' I got info that the extent which is associated with my target has still 100GB used (which are all of my lost files). Does it mean that these files are stil located in this extent? Maybe there is a way to get my files recovered?

Thanks for help!



gary

 

[jgreco]

The data is most likely still out there. However, you need information on how to retrieve files on a VMFS datastore. This is nontrivial.

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/444560

This issue isn't related to FreeNAS, any more than it would be related to Seagate if you happened to do it on a Seagate disk. It's a strictly VMware issue, as FreeNAS is only storing VMware's disk blocks. We have no way to restore the VMFS structures needed to resurrect your data. You need a VMware tool, or a third party VMware tool of some sort.

 

[garymg18]

Thank you for your answer. Ok, i will continue with vmware community. One more question. What does it mean, that 'df -h' still shows, that the extent is filled with 100GB and vmware host thinks it's empty? If i put new data on vmware I'll overwrite old data?

 

[jgreco]

The VMware host has knowledge of what is stored in the VMFS data store. It understands that some of the blocks that contain data are nevertheless available for allocation because they are currently not being used, however, the FreeNAS host does not have that information. as a result, the ZFS filesystem continues to store those blocks and maintain their contents. As a result, what you are seeing are blocks that VMFS left dirty (i.e. filled with data and not UNMAP'd), but are considered by VMFS to be free.