snookiwooki

I will answer my own question... installed - mdadm - R5 recognised and data backup commenced. A further question: Would anyone know where\which files contain the config for ESXi 6? Cheers -Steve

Many thanks billat29 Having had 'fun' writing various partitions to different hdd's to see if vmfs_tools would read the ESXi VMFS-datastore and not having much luck. Eventually found writing just the datastore partition to a different HDD, gdisk reported the the Backup GPT was corrupt though the Main was ok and fixed it; and would now mount and allowed retrieval of the data. Now looking to backup the RDM data before rebuilding: With the ubuntu hdd in the server with the RAID5, on trying to mount the filesystem I am getting - unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member' - though it seems to be recognised?? Anything I am missing or need to do first please? Thanks again -Steve #mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt/Raid5 Disk /dev/sdb: 5.5 TiB, 6000069312512 bytes, 11718885376 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: 39334A7E-5430-4903-B7A9-7F3B6A0A1E73 Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/sdb1 2048 4982527 4980480 2.4G Linux RAID /dev/sdb2 4982528 9176831 4194304 2G Linux RAID /dev/sdb3 9437184 11718680575 11709243392 5.5T Linux RAID

Afternoon all, Have a dilemma, the boot HDD of my ESXI 6 server has ceased booting - but can be read (sort of) and with it I have lost my datastore and XPE VM / RDM mapping. What is annoying is I was in the process of building a backup mirror. The HDD can be read with DiskInternals VMFS Recover but at £600 for a license for a single home server is way too much for me to consider spending Created a USB ESXI boot - though this will not see the datastore? Would anyone know my options for recovering the XPE data and or the ESXI datastore? The XPE HDD is mapped via an RDM to an LSI R5 bbu array which is intact - can the data be recovered/copied off easily - mounting in Ubuntu or are there other tools? even with RDM is the volume pure EXT4? If I build a new XPE VM + RDM would the existing partition be seen or would I have to re-initialise? very much appreciated -Steve (pulling my hair out!)

You would need to install a PCI-E SATA RAID controller with 16 ports (not seen any with 12 specifically) and which fits in the Microserver chassis. LSI and HP have them but not sure on which would fit and aren't what you would call cheap... unless you get find older one which is SATA II. - Not sure if the benefits of SATA III over II in a small Microserver would warrant the cost IMHO. Snooki