I've got an esxi 4.1 server which was merrily running a few vm's until its array controller hiccuped. Now, esxi boots up fine, but when i connect with the vsphere client it has the message 'The VMWare ESX Server does not have persistent storage'. This is an older hp DL380 G4 with local attached scsi storage, standalone server.
When i try to add storage and select the existing disk, it errors with 'the selected disk already has a VMFS Datastore. Select another disk'. There is no other disk. But the datastore isnt mounted and i cant see the vhd's.
I've tried booting up the system with a linux live CD and fuse-vmfs tools. Debugvmfs results in
VMFS Volinfo: invalid magic number 0x00000000
VMFS: Unable to read volume information
Trying to find partitions
Unable to open device file/file "/dev/cciss/c0d0p3
Am i completely hosed here, or is there a way i can recover the vhd's for any of hosts? Not the end of the world, but there are some things i'd like to get back.
Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.