Love/hate with linux

[momurda]

Yesterday was working late fixing some authentication issue with crm(it is fixed now) and while waiting for a user in GMT+5 to do a test, I decided to reboot my Ubuntu 1604 server which I used for iscsi storage of Unitrends backups and my graylog server.
Damn thing rebooted, but somehow lost its targetcli config, and none of the backup configs in /var/target would work, the service kept failing on restart with some ludicrous error. So beat my head against that for a few more hours, then today I just decided to reinstall Ubuntu. Hating it.

During the install I was wondering what would happen to my vg and lv groups for the iscsi storage. But not being able to do backups was my big concern, so didn't really care if i had to start over. The xenserver vg and lv showed up during the installer, in fact I could have installed to them apparently.

I reinstalled to the usb stick, rebooted, and bam there was my md array and all vdi just there waiting to be used again. Installed targetcli remade an iscsi config, saved it, then tried connecting my XS back to it. Like magic the virtual disks reappeared in the SR and I was back in business.
Love it.

Not sure exactly how the lvm and mdadm data were preserved during the reinstall. But I am glad they can be, and did. I should probably read more about that.