Technical guide on using SolusVM 2 Rescue Mode. Learn to boot into a live recovery environment to mount filesystems, reset root passwords, and fix boot errors.
Booting into Rescue Mode for Filesystem Mounting and Recovery
Rescue Mode is a critical recovery feature that boots your VPS into a temporary, RAM-based Linux environment rather than your installed Operating System. This allows you to interact with your NVMe storage while the disks are unmounted, which is essential for repairing corrupted filesystems, resetting lost root passwords, or extracting data after a boot failure.
1. Entering Rescue Mode
When you enable Rescue Mode, SolusVM 2 temporarily changes the boot order of your VM to prioritize a "Rescue ISO" containing a suite of diagnostic tools.
- Log in to vm.hovixa.com and select your VM.
- Locate and click the Rescue button in the action menu.
- Select a rescue image (typically Finnix or a standard Debian/Ubuntu Rescue).
- Set a temporary Rescue Password. This will be the password for the live environment, not your permanent OS.
- Click Enable Rescue Mode. Your VM will reboot automatically into the recovery shell.
2. Mounting Your Primary Filesystem
Once you are in the Rescue environment (via the VNC Console), your original files are not immediately visible. You must mount the partition manually.
Identify the Partition:
lsblk
Look for your primary disk (usually /dev/vda1 or /dev/sda1).
Create a Mount Point and Mount:
mkdir /mnt/recovery
mount /dev/vda1 /mnt/recovery
Your files are now accessible at /mnt/recovery.
3. Performing Common Recovery Tasks
| Scenario | Action in Rescue Mode |
|---|---|
| Lost Root Password | Mount the drive, chroot /mnt/recovery, and run passwd. |
| Filesystem Errors | Run fsck -y /dev/vda1 while the partition is unmounted. |
| Broken SSH Config | Edit /mnt/recovery/etc/ssh/sshd_config to fix syntax errors. |
| Data Salvage | Use scp or rsync to move files from /mnt/recovery to an external server. |
4. Exiting Rescue Mode
To return to your normal operating environment, you must explicitly disable the rescue state in the portal.
- Go back to the Rescue tab in SolusVM 2.
- Click Disable Rescue Mode.
- The VM will reboot and attempt to load your primary OS from the NVMe drive.
5. Technical Implementation Details
- RAM-Disk Environment: Changes made to the Rescue OS itself (like installing a new tool) are lost upon reboot. Only changes made to the
/mnt/recoverypath are persistent. - Network in Rescue: Most rescue images will attempt to pull your assigned IP via DHCP. If network is unavailable, you may need to configure it manually using
ip addr addto exfiltrate data. - Kernel Isolation: The Rescue environment uses its own kernel. This is helpful if your primary OS fails to boot due to a kernel panic or a broken initramfs.
Sysadmin Advice: Always run a filesystem check (fsck) if your VM was forced-stopped and refuses to boot. Rescue mode is the only safe place to do this as the disk must not be mounted during the repair.
