Recover node/cluster notes?

[dckhl]

I havent booted my proxmox host in awhile, its on a Asus PB60G Mini.

It won't boot due to acpi bios errors. The bios is up to date, its on kernel 5.11, there are three versions of it available but they all boot to the bug screen and then blank, no signal detected.

I've just about given up trying to get this to boot. Nothing important is on there EXCEPT for these comprehensive notes I wrote about 2-3 years ago (yes I know, life happens)

I understand that node notes are located in: /etc/pve/nodes/<node_name>/config, is there anyway I can recover these at all? Maybe booting into a recovery mode with another prox image?

I have backups of the individual VMs but not of the node itself for some reason.

 

[sw-omit]

If you can boot from any Linux Live ISO/USB (probably the safest option), the FILE you want to save is /var/lib/pve-cluster/config.db, or if you can connect the disk (if it is a single disk) to a different (linux) system that should work too.

While the system is not running, there won't be anything /etc/pve, since it's a mounted FUSE database, for which the source is found in that location.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_Cluster_File_System_(pmxcfs)

 

[dckhl]

If you can boot from any Linux Live ISO/USB (probably the safest option), the FILE you want to save is /var/lib/pve-cluster/config.db, or if you can connect the disk (if it is a single disk) to a different (linux) system that should work too.

While the system is not running, there won't be anything /etc/pve, since it's a mounted FUSE database, for which the source is found in that location.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_Cluster_File_System_(pmxcfs)

I believe I've successfully recovered the file config.db, I wrote it to a live ubuntu iso and its showing about 53kB (although when opening via text editor filled with 0s). Also had to chmod changes since I mounted it via root.

how would i then restore that .db to a fresh install?

 

[sw-omit]

the config.db is an sqlite database.
Take a look at these two posts to open them and try to extract your data

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/need-help-to-repair-my-pve-cluster-config-db.115440/
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/pveproxy-dev-fuse-not-mounted-to-etc-pve.34968/#post-368501

Alternatively, you can try to just install and replace the file (might have to kill the fuse-process beforehand though) but your mileage may vary.

 

[dckhl]

the config.db is an sqlite database.
Take a look at these two posts to open them and try to extract your data

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/need-help-to-repair-my-pve-cluster-config-db.115440/
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/pveproxy-dev-fuse-not-mounted-to-etc-pve.34968/#post-368501

Alternatively, you can try to just install and replace the file (might have to kill the fuse-process beforehand though) but your mileage may vary.

Following this thread, it recommends the documentation for filesystem recovery. At the recovery section it mentions (and don’t forget your VM/CT data) what exactly would this file/directory be? I think this is the last step I need.

 

[sw-omit]

You said you had backups of the VM's though and only needed their notes (which is part of the config that depending on the backup-method might be or not be backed up? So that's why I ignored that part, and I wouldn't know for sure where they would be, as that depends on your setup.
The "data" they are talking about is referencing the disks / storage the VM's itself are on.

For more info, maybe look at these:
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/vm-disk-location-cant-find-the-vm-disk.101118/
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/where-does-proxmox-store-virtual-machines.104820/

 

[dckhl]

You said you had backups of the VM's though and only needed their notes (which is part of the config that depending on the backup-method might be or not be backed up? So that's why I ignored that part, and I wouldn't know for sure where they would be, as that depends on your setup.
The "data" they are talking about is referencing the disks / storage the VM's itself are on.

For more info, maybe look at these:
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/vm-disk-location-cant-find-the-vm-disk.101118/
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/where-does-proxmox-store-virtual-machines.104820/

The notes are on/for the hypervisor itself, not the VMs. I have backup .zst files of the VMs yes, but from the doc it seems I need the .qcow2 file instead of the .vma file. Maybe I need to extract those .vma files and place them in /etc/pve? /etc/pve/qemu-server and /var/lib/vz/images/ is empty on my lost host.

Also the pve-cluster service isn't starting after replacing the config.db file, I'll keep investigating.