Sorry if this has been asked before - this is my first post and I didn't find anything related using the search.
I am interested in recovering data from VMware's VMFS filesystem like it is used by ESX-server.
Scenario
A ESX-server has crashed. Next I boot the ESX-system into a BartPE-LiveCD which also can run VMware Workstation. I can then start a ESX virtual machine and can give that VM access to the local disks formatted with VMFS.
So I can try to access the disks as raw-unpartitioned from Windows or as VMFS through the ESX-VM
Question
Does anybody know about tools I could use to recover data from VMFS ?
This tool can be windows- or Linux-based.
Thanks Ulli
made some progress - now I have a procedure …
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If wanted, an easier way to retrieve the files would be to image the image.
Sounds like a long way around it but I find it helpful during digital investigations.
If you take the .vmdk file, you can pass it through FTK Imager and convert the data into a set of DD or E01 files.
Once this is complete you can either investigate the evidence in your generic forensic software or mount the drive and run data recovery software over it.
Hope this was of help
Stephen
you can also boot the virtual machine using helix or some sort of live CD and then image the disk from inside the VM itself.
Thanks for your suggestions - though you forget that if the vmdks are stored on VMFS getting a vmdk to analyse is already pretty tricky.
Thanks for your suggestions - though you forget that if the vmdks are stored on VMFS getting a vmdk to analyse is already pretty tricky.
in that case, booting into the VM using a helix live cd and acquiring the image without the needs of dealing with the vmware disk file
are you sure ? - I never heard that Helix can read VMFS ???
Anyway - problem solved. Had a real life test today and was able to extract data (isos, vmdks, vmem-files …) from a DELL-server with a raid of scsi-disks formatted with VMFS.
Now a New VMFS Recovery software is launched. Get it from
So, ESX Server users can easily recover data from crashed or corrupted VMFS volumes and easily recover data from VMFS VMDK drives.
Hmmm ? , what can I say?
Perfect and of course focused the given advantages…
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jaclaz
Well you may try the Rstudio or UFS to explore n Navigate the image
without recovery.
try the demo ver. 1st. and see