Reinstalling Proxmox. Is it safe?

[tando]

Hi,
I installed some updates of Proxmox through the update tab in Proxmox node settings and after that i reboot the system.
Now i can't boot Proxmox because the cursor is just blinking but not booting the Proxmox OS.

I want to insert my Proxmox USB disk and reinstall Proxmox.
But i'm afraid that i am going to lose all my data because my discs are mirrored. i don't want to corrupt the disc.
I check my hardware and even called a hardware reseller and they assure me that there is nothing wrong with the hardware. If that was the case i would have see some error message about memory, CPU or disc. None of them.

Is it safe to reinstall proxmox without losing data or your previous configuration?

 

[Dunuin]

You should try to backup stuff off your old root drives or the reinstall will overwrite the drives and you loose your old stuff.

 

[che]

Hi,
I installed some updates of Proxmox through the update tab in Proxmox node settings and after that i reboot the system.
Now i can't boot Proxmox because the cursor is just blinking but not booting the Proxmox OS.

I want to insert my Proxmox USB disk and reinstall Proxmox.
But i'm afraid that i am going to lose all my data because my discs are mirrored. i don't want to corrupt the disc.
I check my hardware and even called a hardware reseller and they assure me that there is nothing wrong with the hardware. If that was the case i would have see some error message about memory, CPU or disc. None of them.

Is it safe to reinstall proxmox without losing data or your previous configuration?

AFAIK a reinstallation will format your disks and therefore your data will be gone. But you could try to boot from CD/USB in recovery mode and check what's going on. Do you manage to get to grub for selecting which kernel to boot? Did you try to boot using an older kernel?

 

[tando]

it appears that after i did an update of Proxmox, the update somehow destroy or damage the kernel. The only way to get things back running was to reinstall Proxmox. I could install it on the first two disk which i run as a mirror. And yes it destroys all the data. Lucky for me i had made a backup a day before so it that piece of the problem was covered. However, for 3 vm's i didn't made a backup so i end up reinstalling the VM.
I wonder if there is a way to backup Proxmox self instead of the vm's?
i also want to know if there is way to reinstall the kernel in case such a problem occur again without reinstalling Proxmox. At least there should me an option in the Proxmox bootmenu to recover an Proxmox installation. In that way only the missing or damage files would be installed.

 

[Dunuin]

I wonder if there is a way to backup Proxmox self instead of the vm's?

Try booting Clonezilla to create a block-level backup of your system drives.

 

[Faris Raouf]

Try booting Clonezilla to create a block-level backup of your system drives.

That's a great idea.

Also, instead of reinstalling Proxmox directly, which wipes your existing data (I wish there was a simple-to-use "reinstall" or "repair" option that did not do so), you can instead install Debian. This will not touch your data partition and you'll then have a bootable system. After that, you can install Proxmox on top of Debian. Your existing VMs are then not deleted.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Buster

You may also try fixing boot failures by booting the Proxmox ISO in debug mode, or booting from a Debian-type Rescue CD). From there you should, in theory, be able to get grub working again.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Recover_From_Grub_Failure

 

[tando]

Try booting Clonezilla to create a block-level backup of your system drives.

Thanks! I will take a look on it

 

[tando]

That's a great idea.

Also, instead of reinstalling Proxmox directly, which wipes your existing data (I wish there was a simple-to-use "reinstall" or "repair" option that did not do so), you can instead install Debian. This will not touch your data partition and you'll then have a bootable system. After that, you can install Proxmox on top of Debian. Your existing VMs are then not deleted.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Buster

You may also try fixing boot failures by booting the Proxmox ISO in debug mode, or booting from a Debian-type Rescue CD). From there you should, in theory, be able to get grub working again.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Recover_From_Grub_Failure

I'm not familiar with Debian but i will give it a try, because its important, to know how to recover from boot failures. Thanks for your help