vmx file missing

[cool...]

I have a vm windows 2003 box ,somehow vmx file got deleted from ESX server ,server is running with vmdk file .Server is also in listed in virtual centre .I didnt reboot the box from that time when I came to know vmx file is missing .Now I have to reboot the box .How to do ?Will the server come up after rebooting without vmx file ? How to recreate the vmx file ?

[Uwe Zessin]

A VM power-on operation requires an existing VMX file, but there might be a way to recreate it from one of the vmware.log files:

VMKB1023880 - Rebuilding the virtual machine's .vmx file from vmware.log
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1023880

[cool...]

Thanks Uwe ,but this vmx file was lost 6 months back ,still is there any possiblity
to recover it ? And by running that script in ESX server will disturb other vms which are running in that ? Since this is critical environment ,will create problem if it affects other VMs...

[WFHC-WI]

hi Kumar,

It isn't quite the same, but perhaps you can build a new guest with similar hardware settings and simply reuse the vmdk(s) from this problem server.

1)Build a new guest
2)Power down original server
3)Browse datastore and delete new guest vmdk
4)Copy original server vmdk to new guest folder and rename to match deleted vmdk

5)cross fingers and power on new guest :)

good luck, if you appreciate the answers we appreciate the points!