CentOS 8.2 VM on Azure can't boot after VirtualMin installation

Submitted by systeminmotion on Tue, 09/29/2020 - 04:01

I have created a CentOS 8.2 Linux VM on Azure, installed Virtualmin and at first reboot can't access the VM at all. Reproduced it a few times. Here are details.

  1. Run sudo yum update
  2. Reboot - OK
  3. Install virtualmin : sudo wget http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/install.sh ; sudo /bin/sh install.sh – OK but see a warning saying "The filesytem / could not be remounted with quotas enabled. You will need to reboot your system to enable quotas."
  4. Reboot – Not OK

In the boot diagnosis provided by Azure I see this :

[ 1746.606496] reboot: machine restart
[H[J[1;1Herror: ../../grub-core/fs/fshelp.c:258:file `/grub2/i386-pc/increment.mod' not found.
error: ../../grub-core/fs/fshelp.c:258:file `/grub2/grubenv' not found.
[4;1H1    [4;1H0    [H[J[1;1H[H[J[1;1Herror: ../../grub-core/fs/fshelp.c:258:file `/grub2/i386-pc/increment.mod' not found.
error: ../../grub-core/fs/fshelp.c:258:file `/grub2/grubenv' not found.

The VM is up but can't be access by any method.

I have done some research and didn't find any useful info. Is this a known problem ? Could there be something missing on the VM prior to installing virtualmin ? I don't really need quotas, is there way to skip this feature (assuming it is causing the issue) ?

Also note that I did have the same warning during install on CentOS 7 but the system can boot properly but I really need to be using CentOS 8.

Any help would be appreciated !

Status: 
Active
Virtualmin version: 
6.2
Webmin version: 
6.2

Comments

Submitted by JamieCameron on Wed, 09/30/2020 - 01:04

What kind of filesystem are you using on this VM? Only XFS should require a reboot.

Submitted by systeminmotion on Fri, 10/09/2020 - 01:58

Hi Jamie, FileSystem is XFS. Though I am not sure that it makes a difference. Do you think another FS would not have this issue ?

Submitted by JamieCameron on Fri, 10/09/2020 - 18:21

Yes, I would recommend giving it a try with a different filesystem (like EXT4)

Submitted by systeminmotion on Sat, 10/10/2020 - 03:30

Unfortunately I tried and cannot change the filesystem type

Submitted by JamieCameron on Sun, 10/11/2020 - 15:16

Does Azure offer a different VM image using EXT4 as the filesystem type that you could use to create a new VM?

Submitted by systeminmotion on Sun, 10/11/2020 - 21:46

Hi Jamie, it doesn't seem like it. But I found a workaround : install webmin first then install virtualmin as a webmin module. That did the trick.

Submitted by hasse_basse on Tue, 10/13/2020 - 07:18 Pro Licensee

I,m using Debian on Azure and when upgrading the reboot must be done from within Azure VM, othervise it hangs and it is a mess to reach it and restart. It must be done by commands via console. Just don't ask me how to do it, I have forgotten it despite having messed it up many times.

So restart from Azure.

If you install the OS using Azure, it will be a slight different version installed. I think it has to do with that Azure offers a service that automatically installes all upgrades.

Submitted by JamieCameron on Mon, 10/19/2020 - 13:10

Surprising that it only works from the Azure console, since I'd expect the boot process to be the same regardless.

Submitted by hasse_basse on Thu, 04/29/2021 - 08:48 Pro Licensee

What ever is the cause, but there are problems with rebooting from within Linux. Now have had problems again. I manged to repair the installation by reading this page:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/boo...

then I went to "Azure VM repair"

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/rep...

Under 4, I used the script "linux-hello-world"

and I was set !