recover luks lvm moved backup machine ubuntu
by dgermann from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5BX42)
Friends--
Production environment.
The problem: On bootup, luks will not accept my correct passphrase.
What I did: I unplugged the machine from one location, plugged it into another. On boot, problem occurs.
My system: LVM inside a luks container on 20.04 ubuntu server. There are three data hdd @ 10 T each (8% full each), plus a boot hdd @ 250G. This is my backup machine for the business. It has been running OK, with reboots and upgrade from ubuntu 18.04, for 4 1/2 months. The data drives are opened automatically after boot by way of the crypttab file. The boot disk is also encrypted via luks.
I do have the header .img file and the keyfile.
I also have a spare 2T external drive I can plug into it.
What I tried: 1. decrypting from ssh via dropbear; 2. decrypting from the console; 3. using the 18.04 install usb in rescue mode. In the last case, since I cannot get it to open the boot disk, I cannot verify the fstab and crypttab files are still in line with whatever the boot disk is now called.
(I had this problem early on before I had much data on it, so I blew it all away and started over. My theory is that somehow the system has assigned new identifiers for the drives and so does not associate the passphrase with the drive. All 4 drives use the same passphrase.)
Where it stands now: I cannot open it up enough to check the files and restore the luks header file, which I suspect is what I need to do. Or somehow have it associate the passphrase with this drive. Perhaps I need to blow it all away again, but if so, how do I prevent this from happening the next power outage we have? And I wonder if there is some better live usb I can use, instead of the 18.04 server install usb.
Thanks!
Production environment.
The problem: On bootup, luks will not accept my correct passphrase.
What I did: I unplugged the machine from one location, plugged it into another. On boot, problem occurs.
My system: LVM inside a luks container on 20.04 ubuntu server. There are three data hdd @ 10 T each (8% full each), plus a boot hdd @ 250G. This is my backup machine for the business. It has been running OK, with reboots and upgrade from ubuntu 18.04, for 4 1/2 months. The data drives are opened automatically after boot by way of the crypttab file. The boot disk is also encrypted via luks.
I do have the header .img file and the keyfile.
I also have a spare 2T external drive I can plug into it.
What I tried: 1. decrypting from ssh via dropbear; 2. decrypting from the console; 3. using the 18.04 install usb in rescue mode. In the last case, since I cannot get it to open the boot disk, I cannot verify the fstab and crypttab files are still in line with whatever the boot disk is now called.
(I had this problem early on before I had much data on it, so I blew it all away and started over. My theory is that somehow the system has assigned new identifiers for the drives and so does not associate the passphrase with the drive. All 4 drives use the same passphrase.)
Where it stands now: I cannot open it up enough to check the files and restore the luks header file, which I suspect is what I need to do. Or somehow have it associate the passphrase with this drive. Perhaps I need to blow it all away again, but if so, how do I prevent this from happening the next power outage we have? And I wonder if there is some better live usb I can use, instead of the 18.04 server install usb.
Thanks!