Hello everybody:)
We have a ESXI5.5 server running 1 VM - SBS2011 with Exchange 2010 ( it is a mail server) with a 500GB thin provisioned disk.
It had 7 snapshots, where the last was about 150GB large. Due to a communication error, the snapshots was not deleted when server changes was done and tested ok, and the snapshot was allowed to grow in size.
When deleting snapshots on a running VM, we had a power outage that lasted long enough so our UPS shut down. After that things went haywire, and we started getting problems.
The VM would not boot, and the snapshot manager showed no snapshots. After looking throug forums i tried the tip to create a snapshot, delete it and reboot. It worked, and everything looked ok. We could access all mail and OWA and Outlook Clients connected. But after 2 days, the server stopped responding, CPU performance shows no activity and we had to reboot.
Rebooted and the server went into system recovery state. The backup was crippled due to an error on the NAS that had not been detected the last 1 month, no error messages and server backup reported successful backups (run twice a day).
Well, reinstalled server, mounted the 500GB vmdisk to retreive the exchange .edb-file so we could import mailboxes, but then we got a surprise. The first snapshot was taken March this year and to our surprise, the .edb-file which had been written on the same day the server crashed, just showed email and accounts created before the snapshot.
Now we have 7 snapshot files we get an error when trying to copy or mount.
Is there a way to retreive data from the snapshots or merge them with the 500GB disk?
Best regards
Morty