Abstract

VMFS data corruption is rare but possible. The information in this document is not exhaustive on all the possible scenarios related to vmfs corruption. However, this covers some of the more common known issues with regard to VMFS data corruption. Please contact your VMware and Storage support immediately if any corruption is suspected.

1)
Do not present a server with non-ESX Operating System SAN luns with production vmfs datastores unless explicitly necessary for VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB). Occasionally a volume can be corrupted but it is not until after all ESX hosts are rebooted that the datastore is discovered to be corrupt. Which can make analysis difficult.

2)
Never install or upgrade an ESXi host if your shared storage is also SAS direct attached and has multiple LUN id 0 luns with the shared SAS controllers still attached, best practice is to remove access to the shared storage to ensure the VM data is not affected inadvertently. It is also a best practice to remove access to Fiber Channel based shared storage during an Install to be safe.

3)
Occasionally faulty hardware on the SAN or hard drives can cause vmfs data corruption, although this is rare it is possible.

4) Some corruption may not be related to the VMFS at all there can also be vmx file corruption or metadata corruption that can affect VMware ESXi hosts and VM's but not the entire datastore.

See the documents below and contact your VMware and Storage support immediately if corruption is suspected.