Start PVE (from old disk) on a new server

[here2learn]

Hi,

I was running PVE with 3-4 VMs on a machine that died. I got a replacement machine (same make model, but new board/CPU etc). I plugged back the old RAM, NVMe SSDs (4 of them) and the system booted into PVE.
1. I am not able to get PVE on the network, so web interface is not working
2. I am able to login on console, but not able to start any of the VMs. It seems it is not finding the volumes or disks. one of those VMs is TrueNAS that I can't restart.

Do I need to "migrate" PVE to this new hardware? How do I get it back on the network and hence the web interface?

Do I need to reconfigure the drives and volumes?

Do I need to reconfigure the VMs (particularly TrueNAS VM)?

thanks.

 

[bbgeek17]

You need to examine the output of "ip a" and adjust the context of "/etc/network/interfaces" to match the new interface names.

Whether you need to reconfigure disks depends on whether you used pass-through. If you did, then your PCI number has changed most likely.

Examine your "/etc/pve/storage.cfg" and consider how it may need to be adjusted given changes in hardware addressing. If you cant figure it out, provide more data. For example:
pveversion
qm config [id] (or "cat /etc/pve/qemu/vmid.conf"
ip a
lspci
cat /etc/pve/storage.cfg

etc

Good luck

---

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[here2learn]

Thanks for quick response.

I was able to solve the network issue (silly me, i was using reserved ip on my router, and with the server change, mac id had changed, so it was not getting the static ip).

I am still not able to start the VMs.
I verified all the pcie mapping (3 nvme are passthrough and are on same pcie address, 1 nvme is used for PVE boot and VMs etc, and this might be the problem one)

While proxmox is booting up, I see zfs-import-scan service fail.

root@pve-ms01:~# systemctl status zfs-import-scan.service
× zfs-import-scan.service - Import ZFS pools by device scanning
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/zfs-import-scan.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2024-09-03 11:59:02 PDT; 33min ago
       Docs: man:zpool(8)
    Process: 734 ExecStart=/sbin/zpool import -aN -d /dev/disk/by-id -o cachefile=none $ZPOOL_IMPORT_OPTS (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Main PID: 734 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 22ms

Sep 03 11:59:02 pve-ms01 systemd[1]: Starting zfs-import-scan.service - Import ZFS pools by device scanning...
Sep 03 11:59:02 pve-ms01 zpool[734]:[B][COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)] cannot import 'boot-pool': pool was previously in use from another system.[/COLOR][/B]
Sep 03 11:59:02 pve-ms01 zpool[734]: Last accessed by <unknown> (hostid=0) at Wed Dec 31 16:00:00 1969
Sep 03 11:59:02 pve-ms01 zpool[734]: The pool can be imported, use 'zpool import -f' to import the pool.
Sep 03 11:59:02 pve-ms01 systemd[1]: zfs-import-scan.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 03 11:59:02 pve-ms01 systemd[1]: zfs-import-scan.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 03 11:59:02 pve-ms01 systemd[1]: Failed to start zfs-import-scan.service - Import ZFS pools by device scanning.
root@pve-ms01:~#

Is the above failure what's preventing me from starting the VMs?

This is the output when i start the VM

root@pve-ms01:~# qm start 105
no such logical volume pve/data

 

[bbgeek17]

I would google the ZFS specific errors and read on what the solutions are. It doesnt sound like this is a PVE specific situation.
For example, https://www.reddit.com/r/zfs/comments/a6x5xv/mounting_zfs_pool_on_another_computer/

Good luck

---

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[here2learn]

Somehow I think this might be to do with PCIe passthrough not working properly on the new server. I am trying to check if IOMMU enabling is set properly for the PCIe passthrough of NVMe SSD to work.

 

[here2learn]

after confirming iommu settings is proper, i started passing through the 3 NVMe SSDs one-by-one. 2 of them are working fine. 3rd one is giving this error where it is looking for /pve/data and not finding it. I do not remember how I configured the volume on 3rd NVMe differently.