Recovering Deleted vVols

User Guides for VMware Solutions
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Deleted data and config vVols are both recoverable within 24 hours of deletion.

Throughout a VM’s life, it has a config vVol in every vVol datastore it uses. The config vVol hosts the VM’s home folder which contains its VMX file, logs, swap pointer file, and data vVol (VMDK) and snapshot pointer files. Restoring a config vVol from a snapshot and the corresponding data and snapshot vVols effectively restores a deleted VM.

vCenter UI View - vVol DS Browser - Typical VM Home Directory

Creating a Config vVol FlashArray Snapshot

As there needs to be a snapshot of the Config vVol in order to run through this recovery workflow Pure has provided several ways to snapshot the Config vVol.

FlashArray UI View - Taking an array based snapshot of the Config vVol

vCenter UI View - Pure vSphere Plugin - Create Config Snapshot from VM Overiew Page

vCenter UI View - Pure vSphere Plugin - Create VM Home (config vVol) Snapshot from Everpure Snapshot Management Page

There are other ways to do this, including the FlashArray CLI, having the confg vVol be part of a FlashArray protection group, using storage policies with snapshot rulesets, etc. The main thing is that by default there are no array snapshots taken for any of the vVols. Pure encourages the use of Storage Policies to leverage array based snapshots to help protect the vms from accidental deletion.

Here the Config vVol now shows three volume snapshots that were taken using the above three methods.

FlashArray UI View - Config vVol that has volume snapshots on the FlashArray

Manually Restoring a Deleted Data vVol

Without using the Everpure Plugin for the vSphere Client, manually restoring a deleted data vVol without a backup of the config vVol looks like this:

  1. In vCenter, create a new Virtual Disk that is the same size as the VMDK that you destroyed.
  2. On the FlashArray, recover the destroyed VMDK
  3. Overwrite the new VMDK - Data VVol - with the Data VVol that was just recovered.
  4. From the Guest OS, check that everything is recovered.

    This workflow is outlined in detail in another kb and can be found here.

    Manually Restoring a Deleted vVol VM

    To delete a VM, VMware deletes the files in its config vVol and directs the array to destroy the config vVol and any of its data vVols that are not shared with other VMs.

    vCenter UI View - Destroying a Powered Off VM

    An array administrator can recover destroyed vVols at any time within 24 hours of their destruction. But because the config vVol’s files are deleted before destruction, recovering a VM’s config vVol results in an empty folder. A recovered config vVol must be restored from its most recent snapshot.

    Note:

    Recovering a config vVol requires at least one pre-existing array-based snapshot. Without a config vVol snapshot, a VM can be recovered, but its configuration must be recovered manually.

    When a VMware administrator deletes a VM, VMware directs the array to destroy its config vVol, data vVols, and any snapshots. The array moves the objects to its destroyed objects folders for 24 hours.

    FlashArray UI View - Destroyed Volumes and Volume Group for the VM that was Deleted

    To recover a deleted VM, recover its volume group first, followed by its config and data vVols. To recover a single object on the array, click the icon next to it.

    To recover multiple objects of the same type with a single action, click the vertical ellipsis and select Recover… to launch the Recover Volumes wizard. Select the config vVol and the data vVols to be recovered by checking their boxes and click the Recover button.

    FlashArray UI View - Command to Recover Destroyed Volumes

    FlashArray UI View - Selecting Volumes to Recover

    While the VMs Volumes and Volume Group were restored, recall that during the VM deletion process that the Config vVol is first erased at the VMFS level from vSphere. When navigating to the VMs Directory it will be empty.

    vCenter UI View - Empty Directory of the Recovered Config

    In the GUI Snapshots pane, click the vertical ellipsis to the right of the snapshot from which to restore, and select Restore from the dropdown menu.

    FlashArray UI View - Restoring Config vVol from Volume Snapshot - 1

    When the Restore Volume from Snapshot wizard appears, click the Restore button.

    FlashArray UI View - Restoring Config vVol from Volume Snapshot - 2

    Restoring the config vVol from a snapshot recreates the pointer files it contains. In the Web Client file navigator, right-click the vmx file and select Register VM… from the dropdown menu to register the VM.

    vCenter UI View - Registering the Recovered VM

    After registration, all data vVols, snapshots, and the VM configuration are as they were when the snapshot of the config vVol was taken.

    Restoring a Deleted Data vVol with the FlashArray vSphere Plugin

    Restoring a Deleted vVol VM with the FlashArray vSphere Plugin

    The benefits of vVols are rooted in the increased storage granularity achieved by implementing each vVol-based virtual disk as a separate volume on the array. This property makes it possible to apply array-based features to individual vVols.