Another Fangtooth VM Instance issue. Not bootable and deleted dataset

[MrChubbsy]

I have upgraded to Fangtooth 25.04.0. Which I not realise in hindsight might not have been the greatest idea… but that’s been covered in other posts.

So my issue: In Electric Eel (24.10) I had an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS running GitLab. running as a VM.

Post upgrade to Fangtooth, my VM’s didn’t appear in Instances… not unexpected.

I created a new instance of the VM and specified the required CPU/RAM and my GitLab dataset (gitlab-wxyz) to be mounted as a boot disk for the Instance. An oversight on my part, it would appear you can’t specify a dataset to be bootable!

Once started, I obviously had no access via network. (Still not resolved). Then I started reading that you need to update the Grub environment on the dataset. So I thought, I’ll remove the Disk from the Instance, start the VM with a default boot disk, try and re-mount dataset somehow (gitlab-wxyz) and update grub configuration to make it bootable.

My real problems started there. It would appear that when you try to change a DISK connected to an Instance, your options are either Edit or Delete. As I wanted to remove the disk from the instance, I selected Delete. It then proceeded to delete the actual dataset from the file system.

For example My path to my DataSet was: POOL/virtualmachines/gitlab-wxyz
However the gitlab-wxyz dataset has now gone from POOL/virtualmachines.

I have a snapshot I can revert to… but it does not reappear in the correct location… so I now have two issues.
1 . A missing dataset (gitlab of all things to potentially loose).
2. A VM which, when I did have the dataset attached, wouldn’t boot correctly with the following message:

Your user does not have sudo privileges so /usr/bin/incus command will run on you behalf.

So, whilst I appreciate the sentiment that incus is experimental, I should have taken more notice of the release notes etc… I read from ‘experimental’ that you can make it work… this is why I am posting.

Ignoring how I got here, is there anyway to get the recover my dataset… I have found what might be the reverted snapshot in the following location:

POOL/.ix-virt/custom/default_gitlab-wxyz

Once I have that back, how can I mount the dataset as a bootable disk in an Instance?

All/any help very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Simon

[DjP-iX]

@MrChubbsy

My real problems started there. It would appear that when you try to change a DISK connected to an Instance, your options are either Edit or Delete. As I wanted to remove the disk from the instance, I selected Delete. It then proceeded to delete the actual dataset from the file system.

For example My path to my DataSet was: POOL/virtualmachines/gitlab-wxyz
However the gitlab-wxyz dataset has now gone from POOL/virtualmachines.

The good news is I don’t think your data is lost and I’m pretty sure I know what happened here. That “delete” button is confusing because it looks more destructive than it is (there is already a change to it coming in 25.04.1) but it doesn’t actually delete anything, just removes it from the instance.

The first thing to do is to make sure the Incus volume that you were using is still present, which you basically already did. It’s this:

@MrChubbsy

POOL/.ix-virt/custom/default_gitlab-wxyz

But you can also check this in the UI by going to Instances > Configuration > Manage Volumes and you should still see a volume there called gitlab-wxyz.

So what did happen and why does it appear like your data was deleted? When you imported the zvol, I suspect you used Move to move the dataset from the previous path to an Incus-managed volume.

The other option would clone the zvol to POOL/.ix-virt/custom/, leaving the backup copy in the original location. That is the somewhat worse news, because it will make it harder for you to revert to 24.10 if you choose to, since the zvol is not where that VM expects it to be anymore.

As for the rest of your question, it’s hard to answer because I don’t know how you attached the volume in the first place, but you can set the boot order for a Instance “disks” so it should be doable.

You’ll need to recreate the VM, use Upload ISO, import a zvol or use another volume, and select the existing gitlab-wxyz volume.

[MrChubbsy]

Hi, and thank you for the response.
I decided to revert to the 24.10 boot image in order to install the virtio drivers on a Windows VM I want to import into 25.04. The Window VM booted (in 24.10) and I have been able to install the drivers.

I also managed to boot the gitlab vm by attaching the VM disk to the (now moved) dataset in location POOL/.ix-virt/custom/

Whilst there, I’ve installed the qmeu-guest-agent (yum) package. So I’m hoping that might also help.

I hope I can delete the gitlab vm instance without deleting the dataset, if so I’ll recreate the Instance and let you know how I get on.

The next step (once the Instance is running on 25.04), will be to get the networking right, preferably using an address of my choosing or from my DHCP server (if that’s possible).