Restoring OLD vm doesn't bring back data :-( Should I just cry now?

[EBSD]

Hi, we are helping out a school who after a power outage couldn't boot their old 5.5 esxi server.  It was on a USB drive, so we just put 5.5 on another USB drive, booted in and using vsphere client, just created a new machine (with a different name) and made the old hard drive the drive of this machine.

It boots just fine however they are missing things like data directories, it isn't recognized at the Domain Controller any longer, all the network settings are gone... I am thinking I did something dumb and didn't set this up right?

Does anyone have any ideas why this would be?  I thought it maybe reverted to an old version of the VM but it has newer tools on it that we installed a few months ago ?

Thank you for any and all help!

[a_p_]

Well, one can just guess.

If you think that the storage LUN might contain the second datastore, configure iSCSI on the host, and present the storage LUN to the host. If it is a VMFS datastore, it should show up. You may however need to edit the VM's configuration, because the datastore will most likely get a different UUID as the one in the VM's configuration file.

If it not a VMFS datastore, nothing should happen to the data on the LUN unless you do something manually.

André

[EBSD]

Ok, I think I am going to try for that.

Should I start from the beginning with my VM backup and load it a different way (not mount the hard drive in a new machine)?  Would that be the correct way to start the process, then add in the LUN?

I have the opportunity to do this the "right way" (you indicated that I should have registered instead of imported the drive) and would like to make sure I am doing that.

Currently the server has no real settings so we won't lose anything.

Thank you!

[a_p_]

I'd start with configuring iSCSI, and adding the iSCSI LUN to find out whether it contains the missing data.
Once that is the case, we may then proceed with the next steps.

André

[EBSD]

Hi, the file server1_1.vmdk does exist on the Qnap!

I haven't been able to look at it yet, because when I add it, for some reason it makes the VM try to boot PXE.  I am working through that now.  But should we now change some of what I have done so we can set it up the correct way?

I can't thank you enough for all you help!

[a_p_]

Ok, so you've attached Server_1.vmdk as a secondary virtual disk to your VM now!?

Please attach the VM's current .vmx file, as well as the latest vmware.log file to your next reply to see what can be done.

André

[EBSD]

Ok,

  So I was able to add the second virtual drive and the server seems to be running correctly and we can pull the data off and do what we need to do.  I am guessing I don't need to muck with the configuration if it is where we need to be for now?

If not, I really would like to send you something via cashapp or venmo if you would care to send me your information.  Your help (ongoing help for multiple days) is what got me to this point and I am so very thankful!

[a_p_]

Glad to read that it worked, and you can access the data again.

Thank you for your kind offer, that's really not necessary. I'm happy that I was able to help.
However, if you want - that's totally up to you - consider to donate something to a charity of your choice.

André