[solved]Re-add datastore to pbs

[Elleni]

I have configured and used a local datastore for sync to a removable disk. Then removed the datastore and unattached the disk. I had removed the datastore, as else if just unplugging the usb disk, I had an error in dashboard usage because of the missing datastore.

Now a week later I want to re-attach the usb disk with the external datastore to redo a sync from the pbs-backup pool to the usb removable pool. When I try to add the datastore sandisk again, I get the error: unable to create chunk store 'sandisk' subdir "/backup5-srv/.chunks" -EEXIST: File exists.

zpool status shows the pool online.

zfs list -o name,mountpoint,mounted shows that the pool is mounted

zfs list -o name,mountpoint,mounted
NAME              MOUNTPOINT    MOUNTED
backup5-srv       /backup5-srv      yes
pbs-backup        /pbs-backup       yes
rpool             /rpool            yes
rpool/ROOT        /rpool/ROOT       yes
rpool/ROOT/pve-1  /                 yes
rpool/data        /rpool/data       yes

Trying to unmount the pool doesn't work either:

zfs unmount backup5-srv
umount: /backup5-srv: target is busy.
cannot unmount '/backup5-srv': umount failed

I then also deleted the remote named local and the sync job for this usb disk, that I had created for local sync to this usb disk described here.

What is the correct procedure to re-add the pool to my pbs server? And what is the correct procedure before removing the usb disk?

Is it on the roadmap to create a possibility that is easier, intuitive and maybe doable on the webinterface, to add an external, temporary, removable datastore for offsite backups?

 

[dcsapak]

What is the correct procedure to re-add the pool to my pbs server? And what is the correct procedure before removing the usb disk?

for now sadly the only possibility is to manually edit /etc/proxmox-backup/datastore.cfg to add it again. this way we do not try to create the chunkstore

if you want you can open a feature request on https://bugzilla.proxmox.com for that
maybe a 'disable' options would be enough, so one could temporarily disable/enable a datastore
alternatively an 'import/export' command like zfs has

also it would probably make sense to not trying to force create the .chunks dir when it already exists at the specified location

 

[Elleni]

Hi and thanks for your reply.

I tried and edited said datastore.cfg

datastore: pbs-backup
        comment
        notify gc=error,sync=error,verify=error
        notify-user root@pam
        path /pbs-backup

datastore: sandisk
        comment
        notify gc=error,sync=error,verify=error
        notify-user root@pam
        path /backup5-srv

But there is an error apparently. What do I need to modify?

Dashboard datastore usage showing:

Bad Request (400)
parsing '/etc/proxmox-backup/datastore.cfg' failed: line 8 - syntax error (expected section properties)

 

[dcsapak]

can you post the complete file with 'cat -A'
i.e.

cat -A /etc/proxmox-backup/datastore.cfg

 

[Elleni]

I tried to copy the part of the existing pbs-backup datastore and modify it.

Following the requested output:

root@pbs:~# cat -A /etc/proxmox-backup/datastore.cfg
datastore: pbs-backup$
^Icomment $
^Inotify gc=error,sync=error,verify=error$
^Inotify-user root@pam$
^Ipath /pbs-backup$
$
datastore: sandisk$
        comment$
        notify gc=error,sync=error,verify=error$
        notify-user root@pam$
        path /backup5-srv$

I don't see those ^I and $ is that the problem or are those marks expected comming from the -A switch of cat? Also I tried to modify from shell in webinterface and from direct ssh access - always using nano, but still the same.

 

[dcsapak]

no the problem is actually the missing space after 'comment', but this is not ... good. i'll see if i can fix that and send a patch. for now, please add a space after 'comment' or delete the line altogether

 

[Elleni]

Understood. I added a feature request. Thanks for your help!

 

[Elleni]

In the meantime - what are be the correct steps to correctly remove the removable usb disk? Is it sufficient to proxmox-backup-manager datastore remove datapool and have a second datastore.cfg for the next time I'll attach the removable datastore? Or should I do zpool export removable-pool, maybe even unmount the dataset first?

 

[Elleni]

The last question was answered here