[SOLVED] Accidentally deleted Volume Group. Need Help readding it

RTA

New Member
Oct 20, 2023
6
0
1
Hello all, Dumb here! ;)

Long story short, I have added a new SSD as a LVM, but I wanted to create a LVM-Thin instead.

So, I migrated all my VM disks to another storage LVM, wiped the disk and created a LVM-Thin.

After that, I migrated all my VMs back into the new SSD.

Then, comes the GENIUS part... :mad: (I did not make screen captures)...

I have noticed that the LVM that I have created before wiping the disk was still showing (Greyed out and with a question mark). So, as smart as I could be at midnight, after working all day long, I went and deleted it from the Node > Disks > LVM... and.. Yes, the whole disk.

But as I already could smell the Sh** I was doing. I deselect the options to delete the disk content:

Screenshot from 2023-10-20 13-55-47.pngExample from the remaining LVM

So, I hope I still have my files there.

Sooooo. That also removed the LVM-Thin.

Is there any way to recreate the VG and reconnect the disk?

Here are the results of the command pvscan, and the attempt to list the LVs:

Screenshot from 2023-10-20 15-24-52.png

I am obviously a noobie and a careless one. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
I am searching for a solution and vgcreate seems to recreate the Volume Group, but I am afraid to use it and lose the disk contents.
 
Surprisingly, I seem to have found a backup? I don't understand properly, I was reading vgcreate documentation and then vgcfgrestore documentation.... does it mean I just need to restore this file?
Screenshot from 2023-10-20 15-14-26.png
 
While I cant advise on what you should do here, as I never needed such procedure and would just google same as you, I can tell you what I would do in your shoes:
- make sure you dont accidentally write to any disk that you want to recover, shutdown the host if necessary
- install a VM anywhere outside of your infrastructure, ie laptop, aws, anywhere. Feed it a few virtual disks. Create a matching LVM structure and write some verifiable data. You can use fio.
- repeat the steps you did to delete the structure
- follow whatever guide you find to restore access and re-verify that data is there
- with those steps under your belt now you can do the same on your important data

I feel like this would be much more valuable for your confidence than another internet stranger's validation.

Good luck


Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
  • Like
Reactions: RTA
While I cant advise on what you should do here, as I never needed such procedure and would just google same as you, I can tell you what I would do in your shoes:
- make sure you dont accidentally write to any disk that you want to recover, shutdown the host if necessary
- install a VM anywhere outside of your infrastructure, ie laptop, aws, anywhere. Feed it a few virtual disks. Create a matching LVM structure and write some verifiable data. You can use fio.
- repeat the steps you did to delete the structure
- follow whatever guide you find to restore access and re-verify that data is there
- with those steps under your belt now you can do the same on your important data

I feel like this would be much more valuable for your confidence than another internet stranger's validation.

Good luck


Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
Thanks, @bbgeek17, that is a very sensate advise that I had not thought about, I think my weekend is fully booked now. :cool:
 
ITS ALIVE!!!

@bbgeek17 I have to begin by saying, It is not a production environment, it is a personal lab machine, so I made a coin toss... it was my data on one side and my weekend on the other.

The article that helped me to understand it better was this one:
https://www.golinuxcloud.com/vgcfgrestore-recover-lvm-without-backup/

These provided me the solid grounds:
https://linux.die.net/man/8/vgcreate
https://linux.die.net/man/8/vgcfgrestore

1697834351114.png

1697834606414.png

Restored to its former glory.

But still, @bbgeek17 's advice is the most sane I have heard in communities for a while.

Thanks.
 
Last edited: