cp -r /mnt/vmfs/datastore1/my_vm /recovery/path/ sudo umount /mnt/vmfs 6. Advanced Use Cases Recover from a Disk Image (DD or E01) # Create a raw disk image (if disk is failing, use ddrescue) sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/recovery/esxi_disk.img bs=4M status=progress Mount the image via loopback with offset sudo losetup -f --show -o $((2048*512)) /recovery/esxi_disk.img (Find offset using: fdisk -lu /recovery/esxi_disk.img) sudo vmfs-fuse /dev/loop0 /mnt/vmfs List VMFS Extents (for spanned volumes) vmfsfsck -l /dev/sdb2 Experimental Write Support (Use with Extreme Caution) # Compile from source with --enable-write ./configure --enable-write make sudo make install Mount read-write (risky) sudo vmfs-fuse /dev/sdb2 /mnt/vmfs -o rw
| Command | Purpose | |---------|---------| | vmfs-fuse | Mount a VMFS partition via FUSE (user-space) for read-only access | | vmfsfsck | Check and validate VMFS filesystem metadata (read-only) | | vmfsrestore | Experimental tool to copy files from VMFS to another location | Step 1: Identify the VMFS Partition Use lsblk or fdisk to find the correct partition (type 0xFB for VMFS).
sudo mkdir /mnt/vmfs sudo vmfs-fuse /dev/sdb2 /mnt/vmfs -o ro After mounting, you’ll see a standard VMFS directory structure: vmfs-tools
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb Example output:
1. Introduction VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) is a clustered block-based file system developed by VMware for storing virtual machine disks, snapshots, and configuration files. By default, Windows and standard Linux distributions cannot mount or read VMFS volumes. Introduction VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) is a
/mnt/vmfs/ ├── .fdc.sf/ ├── .sdd.sf/ └── <datastore_name>/ ├── .vSphere-HA/ ├── <vm_folder>/ │ ├── .vmdk, .vmx, .vmsd, etc. └── ... Use standard cp , rsync , or dd to recover data:
/dev/sdb1 Linux swap /dev/sdb2 VMFS (0xFB) sudo vmfsfsck /dev/sdb2 Step 3: Mount Using vmfs-fuse Create a mount point and mount read-only: └──
: Read-only, offline, and on a copy – the three rules of safe VMFS recovery.