[SOLVED] Is it possible to reinstall Proxmox and preserve VM datastore (LVM)

[dopplet]

I have a Proxmox installation on a hefty server (64 vCPU's and 96GB of ram) that runs two 32 vCPU NUMA seprated VM's that have critical timing to work properly. I recently ran an upgrade to the latest packages and the application after the upgrade is now complaining about "hardware instability" which means the timers are not working within the necessary thresholds.

I know it was an 8.1 install iso, but didn't pay attention to what package versions were installed before the upgrade. I've tried going back a kernel and qemu versions but it hasn't stablized the platform. I feel my best bet now is to do a reinstall and see if that brings it back to stability.

So is it possible to re-run the installer and preserve the LVM vm's? The VM's are built by the application, and I do have backups but if I have to rebuild I loose additional characteristics that might skew testing results.

Thanks
Andrew

 

[leesteken]

So is it possible to re-run the installer and preserve the LVM vm's?

Only then the LVM is not on the same drive and you'll lose the VM configurations (which are part of the Proxmox installation). If the LVM is not overwritten by the new install (which can easily happen by mistake!), you need to re-add the storage and recreate the VM configurations (and possible reconfigure other stuff you did before). Usually it's not worth the hassle when people have up to date backups.

EDIT: It's also possible that the "hardware instability" and the updates just coincided and reinstalling won't fix it.

 

[dopplet]

Only then the LVM is not on the same drive and you'll lose the VM configurations (which are part of the Proxmox installation). If the LVM is not overwritten by the new install (which can easily happen by mistake!), you need to re-add the storage and recreate the VM configurations (and possible reconfigure other stuff you did before). Usually it's not worth the hassle when people have up to date backups.

EDIT: It's also possible that the "hardware instability" and the updates just coincided and reinstalling won't fix it.

Thanks, I thought as much but was hoping. I've re-installed and have restored the VM's.

You may be right, the instability isn't as consitant as before, likes the 2nd CPU vm now only.... running a memtest on the server now.

Thanks for your help.