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.
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