Reading Time: < 1 minute

I had a lot of trouble with one particular “special” VMDK on a ESXi 6.5 system, which did not start after a reboot of the ESXi host.

The VM power-on procedure failed with this message: “File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen[…] failed”. However in the end it just gave me the overall error that it failed to start the machine.

As it turned out, the VMDK was corrupted.

VMware provides two different tools to fix file corruptions: vmkfstools (designed for VMDK file corruption) and VOMA (designed for VMFS generic corruption).

To fix VMDK corruption using vmkfstools tool:

  • Enable SSH on the ESXi host with the corrupted VMDK – and login
  • Check the main VMDK (not with the name -s####.vmdk, the main file!) with
vmkfstools -x check /absolute/path/vm.vmdk
  • It will probably report that the fail is defective. Repair with this commad:
vmkfstools -x repair /absolute/path/vm.vmdk
    • Now you can try to start the VM again 

    See also: 

    Share

    Related Posts

    • Issue during Linux VM power-off

      Using VMware virtualization products (and not only vSphere, but also Workstation and Fusion) on recent Linux CentOS (or RedHat) VM you may found an annoying issue during VM power-off procedure. The Linux kernel will initiate the halting phase, but the VM may remain powered-on with…

    • Altaro VM Backup free for 2 VMs

      Altaro is a fast-growing software company with easy to use and affordable (also for the price) backup solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses, specializing in backup for virtualized environments. Over 30,000 businesses trust Altaro to protect their virtual environments. Altaro VM Backup allows you to…

    • VM compatibility in a VMware cluster

      In a VMware infrastructure, when you build a new VM, the default compatibility level could depend on your vSphere version, from which client you are using (the legacy vSphere Client does not ask for VM virtual hardware version in the default wizard), but also from…