Restore Xen VPS manually

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: SolusVM 1 (administrators)

If a VPS has to be rebuilt, you can write a saved disk image back onto a new virtual disk (a logical volume on LVM-based KVM or Xen nodes).

Before you start

• Create the new VPS with the same disk size as the old one (or larger).
• Stop the new VPS, so nothing writes to its disk during the restore.
• Find its logical volume: lvs or lvdisplay lists them, for example /dev/vg0/kvm125_img.

Restore the image

For a bzip2-compressed image:

bunzip2 -c /root/backup-vm125.img.bz2 | dd of=/dev/vg0/kvm125_img bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

For an uncompressed image, use dd if=/root/backup-vm125.img of=/dev/vg0/kvm125_img bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync.

Then start the VPS and check it with the console.

Note: Double-check the target volume before you run dd: writing to the wrong volume destroys another VPS. If the new disk is larger, grow the partition and file system inside the VPS afterwards.

Note: This guide is for administrators of a SolusVM installation. Ucartz VPS customers manage their VPS in the Ucartz client area (Virtualizor), and can ask our support team to set reverse DNS or restart a VPS.