Inventory existing VM on new proxmox server

[vinifa]

Hey guys, is everything okay with everyone? I need some help. I've searched the internet and the forum, but I can't quite find a solution to the "problem I'm having." It's actually a presumption of a problem. I'm testing Proxmox and exploring the possibilities... one scenario is if a VM isn't configured with HA and doesn't have replication, and is hosted on a shared disk (SAN, NAS, NFS, or iSCSI), if the physical machine malfunctions. I should be able to access the disk from another server and inventory those VMs again—at least that's easily done with VMware—but I'm having trouble. The idea in this case is to create a new server with Proxmox, access the shared disk, and upload the VMs that stopped working with the loss of the other server. How do I do this? Proxmox doesn't create a .vmdk file that I could click on to register that VM. I apologize for any inconvenience, and I'm counting on your help. Thank you!

 

[bbgeek17]

Hello @vinifa, welcome to the forum.

First things first: VMware stores VM configuration files in the same location as the VM disks. In most cases, both are stored on a filesystem. If the disk from the failed server is still available, you can import the configuration file.

Proxmox VE (PVE) is different. It may or may not store VM disks on a filesystem, and it may or may not store the VM configuration on the same filesystem as the disks.

If you’re using shared storage for VM disks, the configuration files will almost certainly not reside on that storage.

You have several recovery options:

• A proper backup/restore procedure
• Manual periodic backup of configuration files
• Manual recreation of the configuration files

Once you have the configuration in place, you can reattach existing disks using tools such as:

• qm disk scan (if the VM ID matches), or
• qm disk import

The right approach depends on your particular setup. PVE is far less restrictive than VMware in how it can be configured, but that flexibility also means there are more possible recovery paths.

The best way to learn is to experiment.

Good luck!

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