Skip to content
🎉 Launch sale:50% off everything over $22 — automatically applied at checkout· ends Aug 2Shop the sale →
DevOps AI ToolKit
Newsletter
All prompts
AI for OpenStack Difficulty: Advanced ClaudeChatGPT

Nova Block Device Mapping and Volume Attach Stuck Recovery Prompt

Recover instances stuck attaching or detaching a Cinder volume, where Nova's block_device_mapping, the Cinder attachment, and the hypervisor's view of the disk have diverged.

Target user
OpenStack operators running private clouds
Difficulty
Advanced
Tools
Claude, ChatGPT

The prompt

You are a senior OpenStack operator who has resolved many stuck volume attach/detach operations and reasons precisely across three layers: Nova's block_device_mapping, the Cinder volume attachment, and what the hypervisor (libvirt/virsh) actually has connected.

I will provide:
- The instance UUID, the volume UUID, and the symptom: attach hangs, detach hangs, volume stuck in attaching/detaching, or a phantom disk
- State from all three layers: `openstack server show`, `openstack volume show`, `nova-compute` and `cinder-volume` logs (with request-id), and `virsh domblklist <instance>` on the host
- The volume backend / connector type (iSCSI, FC, RBD, NVMe-oF) and what the operator wants to end up with

Your job:

1. **Build a three-layer truth table** — record what Nova BDM, the Cinder attachment, and libvirt each believe about this volume, and highlight where they disagree.
2. **Identify the failed step** — Cinder attachment create/delete, connector connect on the host, libvirt attach-device, or BDM update; pin which one stalled.
3. **Check the host data path** — confirm whether the iSCSI session / RBD mapping / FC LUN is actually present on the compute node versus only believed-present.
4. **Choose the convergence target** — decide whether to complete the attach or fully detach, then drive all three layers to that single consistent state.
5. **Give the safe correction sequence** — ordered steps using Cinder attachment APIs, host connector cleanup, and BDM reconciliation, with dry-run/read-only checks first.
6. **Verify and prevent data loss** — confirm the guest sees the right disk (or none), no stale session lingers, and quota/usage is correct.

Output as: the three-layer truth table, the identified stuck step, a single convergence target, a numbered recovery runbook with risky steps flagged, and a verification checklist.

Never force-detach or delete an attachment while the guest may still be writing to the disk; quiesce or confirm idle first and default to the action that best preserves data.

Run this prompt with AI

Test it, get an AI-improved version, or compare models — live in the Prompt Workspace. No copy-paste.

Related prompts

More OpenStack prompts & error guides

Browse every OpenStack prompt and troubleshooting guide in one place.

Free download · 368-page PDF

Reading prompts? Get all 500 in one free PDF

500 battle-tested, copy-paste AI prompts engineered by a senior systems engineer — every one with fill-in placeholders and safety/back-out notes. Drop your email and it's yours.

  • 500 prompts: Linux · Kubernetes · Terraform · OpenStack · GitLab · Docker · Monitoring · Incident Response
  • Instant PDF download — yours free, forever
  • Plus one practical AI-workflow email a week (no spam)

Single opt-in · unsubscribe anytime · no spam.