LinuxQuestions.org - Server admin passed away... Help!

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Spent the whole week trying to get the VMs out of the server and onto the XHDD. 7 days ago, I mentioned that I formatted the drive to exFAT through Windows, and thought I was finally at it since I was able to "see" copied files on the XHDD using the "ls -l" command. When I plugged the XHDD in the new cloned server, I got an error message indicating that files (VMs) were corrupted. I then formatted the XHDD to ext3 using GParted. Started copying again the VMs from the current server to the XHDD's root, just to realize that transfers could not be completed because of lack of permissions. I then created a externalhdd/dump folder and FINALLY was able to get the latest snapshot of the VM out of there. FINALLY!

This morning, I started copying the VM from the XHDD to the cloned server using AB49K's procedure.

Quote:

So there is a few things we might need to do.

First make a directory
"sudo mkdir /var/lib/vzbackup"
Then mount the external disk the same way as before.
then do
"sudo rsync -avzc /externalhdd/vzdump-qemu-100-2016_11_11-09_30_41.vma.lzo /var/lib/vzbackup --progress"

Once that's done, you'll have to add the new storage locations to the server.

in the Proxmox panel, go to datacentre -> storage
There should be a storage called "local" there. Double click on that and make sure "Disk Image, ISO Image, Container Template and Container" are highlighted.

Then, go to Add -> directory

For the ID, just put 'backups' or something
directory is "/var/lib/vzbackup"
and for content, set it as "VZDump backup file"

Now under your server list, you should see a new storage location with the ID of the new backup location. Click on that, it should list all the backups copied to /var/lib/vzbackup. And then just highlight the backup and choose "restore"

I am stuck now again as I cannot change the IP address:

Quote:

Also, Before putting the proxmox server online (plugging in the ethernet) log in on the terminal and edit the file "/etc/network/interfaces" the interface you want *should* be called vmbr0, just change the address to a new static IP. save the file reboot the new machine and plug in your ethernet cable. then browse to the new IP

You won't be able to access the panel just by plugging the laptop into the computer without manually adding an address in that range on your laptop.

Snapshots are attached. What would be my next step?

Code:

1 LINUX CRASH COURSE

  2 

  3 

  4 BOOT PROCESS-

  5 

  6 BIOS stands for basic input output system and is OS independant. It's a special type of firmware used in the booting process, and is the first piece of software

  7 that is ran when a computer is powered on... Its purpose is to test the underlying hardware componets into loading the bootloader. GRUB stands for grand unified

  8 boot loader and has replaced LILO. The purpose of the boot loader is to start the OS, it typically does this by using initrd (initial ram disk). The initrd is a

  9 temporary file system that's loaded into memory when the system boots. This filesystem can contain helpers which perform hardware detection, and load the

 10 nessessary modules to get the actual Linux filesystem mounted. Once initrd mounts the root filesystem its job is done and the OS continues loading from the root

 11 filesystem. The Linux kernel, initrd, and other files needed to boot the OS are stored in /boot. The Linux kernel is typically named vmlinux or vmlinuz. If the

 12 kernel is compressed it is named in the vmlinuz format. When a Linux system boots up there can be alot of messages fly by the screen, these messages are

 13 generated by the Linux kernel. All types of logs are stored in /var/log. Linux uses runlevels to determine what processes and what services to start, each

 14 distrobution can configure this differently but in general run-level0 is used to power off a system, run-level1 or S is single user mode, run-level2-5 is for

 15 normal system operations and run-level6 is used to reboot a system. To change runlevels you use the telinit command. Systemd uses targets instead of run levels,

 16 and to change targets you use the systemctl command. Systemd also uses the rcd.1,rcd.2,rcd.3 etc just like init, but the way it's implemented is different from

 17 init's...

 18 

 19 

 20 

 21 

 22 SYSTEM LOGGING-

 23 

 24 Linux uses the syslog standard for message logging, and facilities/severities to catagorize messages... Facilities are used to indicate what type of program or

 25 what part of the system the message orginated from.

 26 

 27 

 28 

 29 ●Facilities- syslog=everything, dmesg=kernel messages; resets on every boot

 30 

 31 ●Messages- general events 

 32 

 33 ●Severities- emergency,alert,critical,error,warning,notice,info

 34 

 35 

 36 

 37 Syslog servers- these accept syslog messages and processes them based on a set of configurable rules... A syslog server will use configurable logging rules to

 38 determine what to do with a message. These rules use a combination of facilities and severities. In most cases messages are stored in /var/log but you can do

 39 advanced things such as send them over the network to another location. If you want to generate your own messages use the logger utility. To automatically prune

 40 log files to keep your disk from filling up with old messages use the logrotate utility.

 41 

 42 ●syslogd This is the traditional syslog server daemon

 43 

 44 ●rsyslog This is the alternative syslog server daemon

 45 

 46 ●syslog-ng This is another alternative syslog server daemon

 47 

 48 

 49 

 50 DISK MANAGEMENT - PARTITIONS

 51 

 52 MBR(Master Boot Record)and GPT(GUID Partition Table)GUID stands for global unique identifier.. These are the two types of partition tables, MBR is an older one

 53 that can only address up to 2 terabytes of storage space. MBR is being replaced by GPT which supports up to 128 partitions and up to 9.4 zettabytes storage

 54 space. A mount point is a directory that is used to access the data on a partition. At the very least there will be one partition mounted on the / mount point.

 55 Any additional partitions will be mounted on mount points below / in the directory tree. fdisk is standard Linux partitioning tool but other options are

 56 grub,gdisk and parted...Before a partition can be mounted it will need a filesystem. The commands below will do this...

 57 

 58 

 59 

 60 Example for how to make a filesystem type,

 61 

 62 ●mkfs -t typeofilesystem device

 63 

 64 ●mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdb3

 65 

 66 

 67 

 68 Example for how to mount type,

 69 

 70 ●mount device mountpoint

 71 

 72 ●mount /dev/sdb3 /opt

 73 

 74 

 75 

 76 If you want to unmount a filesystem use the umount command

 77 

 78 ●umount /opt OR umount /dev/sdb3

 79 

 80 ●to show how much disk space you have left type the df command.

 81 

 82 

 83 

 84 In order to control what filesystems get mounted and where and in what order use the /etc/fstab (fstab is short for filesystem table) You can set device

 85 paths,labels or UUID's to control mount points.(UUID stands for universaly unique identifier)

 86 

 87 

 88 

 89 To view the UUID's and labels of storage devices attached to your system, type the following commands...

 90 

 91 ●lsblk -f

 92 

 93 ●blkid (this command only displays the UUID's)

 94 

 95 

 96 

 97 Each filesystem type will have a utility to create disk labels. For extended filesystems (ext) which is one the most common used Linux filesystems you can use

 98 the following command...

 99 

100 ●e2label

101 

102 

103 

104 MANAGING USERS AND GROUPS

105 

106 Account information is stored in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow . Encrypted passwords are usually stored in /etc/shadow which is only avaliable to the su account.

107 Group information is stored in /etc/group . To view group memberships type groups. The whoami command displays your account name. Use visudo to edit the

108 sudoers file.

109 

110 

111 

112 Accounts have the following attributes:

113 

114 ●username

115 

116 ●UID

117 

118 ●GID 

119 

120 ●commet 

121 

122 ●home directory

123 

124 ●shell

125 

126 

127 

128 TCP/IP NETWORKING

129 

130 TCP/IP is the optimal standard for trasmitting data over a network. For a device to communicate on a network properly it needs 3 pieces of information. It needs

131 an IP address, subnet mask and a broadcast address (note broadcast is in contrast to a unicast address, and multicast is for sending data to only interested

132 destinations). The class of an IP address determines what portion is used as the network address, and what portion is used for the host address. Looking at the

133 first octed of an IP address you can determine what class it is...A class also determines the possible number of networks, and the addressable hosts spaces per

134 network...

135 * A broadcast address is a logical address at which all devices connected to a multiple access communications network are enabled to receive datagrams. A message

136 sent to a broadcast address is typically received by all network attached hosts rather than a specific host

137 

138 

139 Class A: 1.0.0.0 - 126.255.255.255 Hosts allowed = 16,777,216

140 

141 EXAMPLE: 17.24.88.9

142 

143 Class B: 128.0.0.0 - 191.255.255.255 Hosts allowed = 65,536

144 

145 EXAMPLE: 183.194.46.31

146 

147 Class C: 192.0.0.0 - 223.255.255.255 Hosts allowed = 255

148 

149 EXAMPLE: 199.83.131.186

150 

151 

152 

153 The Subnet Mask splits an ip address into two parts, the first part is the network address, (network id) the second part is the host address.The network portion

154 of an IP address corroponds to the 255's in the subnet mask. For a standard Class A network the subnet mask is 255.0.0.0 since the first octet is used to

155 identify networks, and the remaining three octets are used to address hosts...

156 

157 

158 

159 

160 Subnet Masks-

161 

162 Class A: 255.0.0.0

163 

164 Class B: 255.255.0.0

165 

166 Class C: 255.255.255.0

167 

168 

169 

170 CIDR- stands for Classless Interdomain Routing and it allows networks to be sub divided reguardless of their traditional class by explictly assigning subnet

171 masks. These sub divided networks are called Subnets.

172 

173 

174 

175 Private Address Spaces are the ranges of ip address that are dedicated for use in private networks. These private address are also called non-routable IP's

176 since their not routed through the public internet.

177 

178 

179 

180 The Private Address Space (RFC 1918 networks) ranges are as follows-

181 

182 Class A: 10.0.0.0/8 - 10.255.255.255 Hosts allowed = 16,777,216 (netmask 255.0.0.0 : Host ID size 24 bits)

183 

184 Class B: 172.16.0.0/12 - 172.31.255.255 Hosts allowed = 1,048,576 (netmask 255.240.0.0 : Host ID size 20 bits cus the mask is 240 is the 2nd octet)

185 

186 Class C: 192.168.0.0/16 - 192.168.255.255 Hosts allowed = 65,536 (netmask 255.255.0.0 : Host ID size 16 bits)

187 

188 

189 

190 LINUX NETWORKING

191 

192 A hostname is a device with an ip address thats connected to a network. To display the hostname of a system type hostname or uname -n . To view the FQDN (fully

193 qualified domain name) type hostname -f

194 

195 

196 

197 The primary purpose of DNS is to translate human readable name into ip addresses and vice versa. If you want to look up or resolve a DNS name or ip address you

198 can use the host,dig and nslookup tools. The /etc/hosts file contains a list of host names and ip addresses. After you created an entry in /etc/hosts you can

199 start communicating with that ip address by using the name you specified in /etc/hosts file. This can be useful if you want to access computers that do not have

200 DNS hostnames, also its common to use /etc/hosts entries to overide the DNS entry of a system. For example if you have a cluster of web servers you can have a

201 private network that only the web cluster members can access. You can create an entry for the members of the cluster in etc/hosts and use their private

202 addresses thus forcing network communications through the private network...Typically the /etc/hosts file is checked first before a DNS server is queired, but

203 you can change this by editing the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. nss stands for name server switch and it controls the order in which look ups are performed.

204 

205 

206 

207 Network ports - Just like ip addresses identify hosts on a network, ports identify the services on a host. When a service starts on a system it binds itself on

208 a port and listens for traffic destined for its port. Ports range from 1 - 65,535 (1 - 1,023 are root) (1,024 - 65,535 are non-root)

209 

210 

211 

212 Configuring network interfaces- (i.e. DHCP and Static ip addresses)

213 

214 ●RHEL - /etc/sysconfig/network/-scripts/ifcfg-DEVICE

215 

216 ●Unbuntu - /network/interfaces

217 

218 

219 

220 You can manually assign ip addresses to network interfaces using the ip or ifconfig commands, however many linux distros include ifup and ifdown scripts to

221 easily bring up or down a network interface.

222 

223 

224 

225 A GUI stands for graphical user interface, and TUI stands for textual user interface.. Some distros come with GUI or TUI tools that you can use to configure the

226 network settings on a linux server instead of editing the configuration files by hand. Some examples of these tools are as follows:

227 

228 RHEL - nmtui

229 

230 Older RHEL - system-config-network

231 

232 SUSE - YaST

233 

234 

235 

236 DIRECTING INPUT/OUTPUT

237 

238 Piping takes the output of a program, and connects it to an input of another program.. (just so you know how to think of programs such as cat, is that it takes

239 the input and produces output..)

240 

241 

242 

243

Code:

GETTING INFO ABOUT THE SYSTEM:

216 

217 ●lsb_release -a to show distro version, codename, release

218 

219 ●uname -a to display kernel version, architecture, install date

220 

221 ●Type lsblk to view block devices, to view UUIDs and lables of block devices type lsblk -f, or  blkid (this only displays UUIDs)

222 

223 ●Type file nameofile to see what type of file it is 

224 

225 ●Type mount to see existing mounts

226 

227 ●systemctl list-unit-files --type=service|grep enabled 

228 

229 ●lscpu to show cpu information

230 

231 ●lspci to list drivers (dmesg for more detailed report)

232 

233 ●lsusb to see what type of usb (dmesg for more detailed report)

234 

235 ●lsmod to list modules

236 

237 ●modinfo nameofmod to display information about module

238 

239 ●modprobe to add/delete modules (has blacklist option with -r, just type -r again to re-enable)

240 

241 ●xinput to list input devices (only lists device ID when device is not reconized)

242 

243 ●nproc to display number of processors

244 

245 ●tty to display the terminal name

246 

247 ●Type arch to display hardware info

248 

249 ●free shows free, total and swap memory (-m shows ram usage)

250 

251 ●Type watch command to execute a command repeatedly with full screen output. Useful combinations: watch w, watch netstat --inet -pln, watch last, and watch lsof

252 

253 ●Type w to see who is logged on and what their doing

254 * The numbers that follow after load average: indicate the number of jobs, programs, or scripts to execute

255 * The value with JCPU (job CPU time) refers to total processing time for jobs on the current tty connection

256 * The value with PCPU (process CPU time) refers to the processing time for the current process

256 * The value with PCPU (process CPU time) refers to the processing time for the current process

257 * The value with IDLE refers to how long it's been since a keystroke has been typed

258 * The FROM section refers to the remote host name

259 

260 ●To see the hostname (which is a device connected to the network) type hostname. To view the fully qualified hostname type hostname -f

261 

262 ●To see if your system is running init or systemd type cat /proc/1/comm (or inxi -Fxi)

263 

264 ●Type inxi -Fxi or inxi -Frmxx to get a bunch of nifty details about the hardware componets

265

Hi Jay,

When you are running as root, you don't need to use sudo :)

Just a quick thing, don't bring up the same VM on the old server and the new server while they are on the same network, you'll run into a similar problem at the VM level.

Thanks for the info, linux4evr5581, and thanks for all your help, AB49K.

They are not on the same network. Our office server is running normally and I can access the PM interface through port 8006 on its proper IP. But the machine I am trying to clone is on my home network... Actually, I did not even plugged the Ethernet cable as you told me not to. I am stuck at the step of changing the current IP (which is the IP our office server uses) to a static IP. As I shown on the screenshot, my permission is denied even if logged using the root user credentials. What should I do?

Thought I would edit the file using a Ubuntu live CD. No luck. See screenshot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay1969 (Post 5696617)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay1969 (Post 5696847)

Thought I would edit the file using a Ubuntu live CD. No luck. See screenshot.

Boot into proxmox with the ethernet cable unplugged, then type "nano /etc/network interfaces"
Make the changes to the ip and press "ctrl+x" It'll ask you to save, hit yes, then reboot.

I'm pretty sure you cant change it cause in the screenshot it says "read only", and to be able to modify any type of file it should have "write" permissions assigned to it... Type ls -l to view a file's permissions (r=read, w=write, x=execute), and to change the permission type chmod u+w nameofile which will give the file's user write permission so you can modify the file. There's also permissions for groups and others, but to just to give you the user of the file (aka owner) write permissions u+w will suffice. Otherwise to give groups or other people write permission it be g+w, or o+w respectively... To take away write permission it be u-w OR to give full permissions it be u+rwx, etc... However, first in the terminal you must navigate to the directory where the file is contained in order to issue any type of command on it.

[QUOTE=linux4evr5581;5696903]I'm pretty sure you cant change it cause in the screenshot it says "read only"/QUOTE]

He was trying to modify the network in the live CD - not proxmox. if you boot into proxmox, log in as root you can change it.

I like coming here to unwind after a long day. This is so exciting. I'm dying to see if he get this to work.

Proxmox was one of my favourite toys a few years ago. I loved spinning up VMs to try out things. Never realised it could be such a problem to backup. Damn, I'm getting old.

I'd forgotten how confusing this must seem to people who don't leave, breathe and eat computers. It must all sound like the craziest shit. I mean, 'mount' works but 'unmount' doesn't. Isn't that just batshit crazy? I mean, wouldn't that be the first thing a normal person would fix? Why have we put up with that all these years?

Why isn't the backup command called 'backup'? Why is it called 'rsync'? What non-marketing genius came up with that command? Sigh.

And yet, this is how computers work. We must all be brain-dead. The aliens are gonna land, take one look at our operating systems, and say, "Shit dat! We're outta here!" and take off again. They ain't gonna want to interface to our systems.

Just so you know, Proxmox is a German product. It is REALLY good stuff. Rock solid stuff. Now, you do need to setup RAID sometime or you got ZFS, which I can't remember using.

But the good news is, once you got this tiny little problem sorted out, you can automate all this in the future. But dang, this must be a culture shock for you. Ah man, to get dropped in the deep end coz your friend died. Yeah, that shit happens.

That's way I got everything backed up to every damn machine in the network. They're all backing up each other. No doubt, when I die, somebody's gonna have to deal with it all. I probably should start writing an "In the event of my death" document now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhamel (Post 5697134)

Lovely post! I enjoyed the heck out of this read.
NIT: rsync is a file replication tool. Technically it is not a backup program, though you can use anything that will copy a file to back up data. Bacula is backup tool, as is ADSM, amanda backup, backup box, etc. BURP is a very special network backup tool. There are also partition and volume clone and backup tools. Rsync is more like scp or cp seriously enhanced.

It can be confusing, but it is this way because of the nature of our world. In FOSS the mantra "there is more than one way to do it" rules, and among the best each is better than the rest in one or more ways. You get to pick the one that best fits your need, once you take time to figure out what that MEANS!

I am currently looking for gainful employment and have disconnected from many distracting threads, but not this one. I am hanging on here just waiting for the OP to report success. (Are we addicted?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by wpeckham (Post 5697688)

It can be confusing, but it is this way because of the nature of our world. In FOSS the mantra "there is more than one way to do it" rules, and among the best each is better than the rest in one or more ways. You get to pick the one that best fits your need, once you take time to figure out what that MEANS!

I am currently looking for gainful employment and have disconnected from many distracting threads, but not this one. I am hanging on here just waiting for the OP to report success. (Are we addicted?)

Proxmox is a wonderful product, but it can be confusing sometimes - I am a sysadmin that focuses on virtualisation and sometimes proxmox still trips me up with some strange things it does, might just be me coming from VMWare.

I haven't gotten up to date on the latest proxmox developments, but when I was learning to use it, documentation was a bit sparse and difficult to understand. I still remember having to blow a box away because a kernel update broke everything. :)

Glad to hear this is considered an 'interesting' thread. :)

I was able to edit the IP address without any problems after realising there was a missing "/" in the code: "nano /etc/network/interfaces"

Since this is my home network, I read on the net that I should use something like 192.168.0.XX to set up the machine's identity on the network. I used 192.168.0.99, accepted the changes in nano and rebooted proxmox.

Problem is the PM interface is still asking that I logged into the GUI using our current IP address (the one I just modified in /etc/network/interfaces)...

I pinged the IP address I assigned to the VM and I get the message that "destination host is unreachable"

I double-checked and can confirm that the IP address was successfully updated. Any ideas what could be causing that?

I was thinking about it and am wondering if it would not be simpler just to start with a blank HD and reinstall proxmox from scratch. Bad/good idea?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay1969 (Post 5698296)

So you took a host from another network and took it home?
If you you will need to update the ip in /etc/network/interfaces to a valid IP on your home network.

Reinstalling proxmox from scratch is certainly an option, all you would need to do is recopy the backup and follow the steps to restore the VM.

Hi everyone,

I am reviving this thread.

I spent the last few months trying different things and troubleshooting what was not working. Had various problems with copying the files (weird error messages, lack of storage space, unable to mount the device when installing PM on a 4Tb HDD, etc.).

Now, I made it so far as to extract the files from our current server and copy them on two xHDD.

Yesterday, I was finally able to transfer the .vma.lzo onto a 1Tb WD HDD after reinstalling PM from scratch. Then kept on going, following the steps AB49K pointed out:

Quote:

I am now at the very end of the restoration process. I created the new directory where I copied the VM but the folder remains empty. Tried rebooting PM with no luck.

I am attaching the screenshots. Could anyone please look at them and tell me why it is not working?

Thanks so much!

Jay