Proxmox VE8.3.2 Timeout error when starting the restore of a VM's files

galvatec

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Sep 1, 2021
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We use Proxmox Backup Server 3.2-2 to store VE backups. However, even though the PBS is accessible and displaying the existing backups for the VM, when requesting a file restore, I receive a timeout message.
 

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We use HDDs, but this problem started occurring recently. We've been using them this way for a few years.
 
Hi,
what is your proxmox-backup-manager version --verbose and pveversion -v?

Please post also the output of cat /var/log/proxmox-backup/file-restore/qemu.log and check the systemd journal on the PBS side for errors around the time you try to access the disk contents.
 
We use HDDs, but this problem started occurring recently. We've been using them this way for a few years.

Not directly fitting to your setup, let's call it "just for entertainment":

This is a personal anecdote, possibly with the same background as your problem but with local ZFS storage: when I had setup my first PBS I did that on rotating rust (only). This worked. At first. With the amount of backups stored the number of chunks increased. After several weeks(!) of adding more backups I had the effect that I could not list the backups in the Web Gui anymore. The first click just got a timeout. When I clicked a second time the most of the backups listing was already read into cache and now this second click worked.

The solution for my problem would be easy: kick out rotating rust. Yeah, that would've been expensive...

So my solution (better: workaround) was to introduce fast meta data storage. This approach is possible for ZFS (with a fast "Special Device" added before filling in much data) and also (for example) for brtfs on a Synology.

For me the "lesson learned" was no surprise as it is documented everywhere: PBS needs IOPS!

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Note that this metadata-optimization does not solve your problem as the actual data has still to be read from the spindles...