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Question: Is it possible to scan for and then re-import XenServer virtual machines from an old storage repository disk after connecting it to a new install?

Background: A client had a XenServer 7.3 install with three local disks each configured as separate storage repositories. All the VMs were on LocalStorage2 and LocalStorage3 while XenServer itself was installed on LocalStorage, the boot disk of the three.

They started getting issues with the XenCenter being unable to show the consoles of the VMs, and while investigating this we discovered that the XenServer disk appeared to have gone read-only. A reboot and fsck temporarily corrected this but it promptly went again - so assuming a faulty disk we replaced the Xen disk, and reinstalled the same version of XenServer.

We then re-attached disks 2 and 3 using the instructions provided by Citrix here - https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121896 - this worked and the storage repositories show up, and the used vs free disk space shows that the VM data is still there.

However the XenServer shows no VMs present, and despite extensive Googling I can't find any commands to scan an SR for existing VMs. Is this possible? I had hoped to be able to scan / re-import the existing data off the disks.

Meanwhile we're restoring from xva backups, but as each VM is several hundred gigs, this is a slow process.

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It is no such easy way and according to my experience, it is easier to reattach the disks to newly created VMs. However, check this article https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX136342 (Restoring the Mappings Manually, if Metadata Backup is Not Available)

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