Here’s a clear, professional text you can use for documentation, a blog post, or a knowledge base article on the topic:
Did the LUN ID change, causing VMware to see it as a snapshot? recover vmfs datastore with all data
Use VADP-aware tools (like Veeam or Synology Active Backup) rather than relying on storage snapshots. Here’s a clear, professional text you can use
Recovering a VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) datastore with all data involves several steps and requires careful attention to detail. VMFS is a file system used by VMware ESXi to store virtual machines. If a VMFS datastore becomes inaccessible or is accidentally deleted, you can attempt to recover it using the following methods. Note that success rates can vary depending on the extent of the damage or corruption. VMFS is a file system used by VMware
DiskInternals VMFS Recovery, Stellar Data Recovery for VMFS, or UFS Explorer.
Connect the physical drives to a Windows machine, scan the raw LUN, and copy the virtual machine folders to a fresh destination. Phase 4: Restoring from .vmdk Flat Files
If the storage is visible but the datastore isn't mounting, ESXi likely thinks it’s a snapshot due to a changed LUN ID. Run esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list .