Did you delete your proxmox /etc/pve/nodes directory? Script to recreate pmxcfs database from a file backup (like etckeeper/restic..)

restore-etc-pve-node.sh

#!/bin/bash
# 2025-11-09 - Initial version
# Restore pmxcfs Proxmox config.db
# (C) Frdrik Steen <fredrik@tty.se>
set -euo pipefail

# Configuration
DB="${DB:-config.db}"
# Place your node files in the BACKUP_DIR to restore
BACKUP_DIR="${1:?Usage: $0 <backup_dir> [node_name]}"
NODE="${2:-$(basename "$BACKUP_DIR")}"
WRITER=0
VERSION=1

[[ -d "$BACKUP_DIR" ]] || { echo "Error: Directory $BACKUP_DIR not found"; exit 1; }

echo "Restoring from: $BACKUP_DIR"
echo "Node name: $NODE"
echo "Database: $DB"
echo

# Get next available inode
get_next_inode() {
    sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT COALESCE(MAX(inode), 0) + 1 FROM tree;"
}

# Create directory entry in database
create_dir() {
    local parent_inode="$1"
    local basename="$2"
    local inode
    local now
    now=$(date +%s)
    inode=$(get_next_inode)
    
    >&2 echo "Creating directory: $basename (inode=$inode, parent=$parent_inode)"
    
    sqlite3 "$DB" <<EOF
INSERT INTO tree (inode, parent, version, writer, mtime, type, name, data)
VALUES ($inode, $parent_inode, $VERSION, $WRITER, $now, 4, '$basename', NULL);
EOF
    echo "$inode"
}

# Insert file into database
insert_file() {
    local inode
    local now
    local parent_inode="$1"
    local basename="$2"
    local file_path="$3"
    
    if [[ ! -f "$file_path" ]]; then
        echo "Warning: $file_path not found, skipping"
        return
    fi
    
    inode=$(get_next_inode)
    now=$(date +%s)
    
    echo "Inserting file: $basename (inode=$inode, parent=$parent_inode)"
    
    sqlite3 "$DB" <<EOF
INSERT INTO tree (inode, parent, version, writer, mtime, type, name, data)
VALUES ($inode, $parent_inode, $VERSION, $WRITER, $now, 8, '$basename', readfile('$file_path'));
EOF
}

# Recursively process directory
process_directory() {
    local basename
    local subdir_inode
    local parent_inode="$1"
    local dir_path="$2"
    
    # Process files in current directory
    while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
        basename=$(basename "$file")
        insert_file "$parent_inode" "$basename" "$file"
    done < <(find "$dir_path" -maxdepth 1 -type f -print0 | sort -z)
    
    # Process subdirectories
    while IFS= read -r -d '' subdir; do
        basename=$(basename "$subdir")
        subdir_inode=$(create_dir "$parent_inode" "$basename")
        process_directory "$subdir_inode" "$subdir"
    done < <(find "$dir_path" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -print0 | sort -z)
}

echo "Creating nodes/$NODE directory structure..."

# Create nodes/ directory if it doesn't exist
NODES_INODE=$(sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT inode FROM tree WHERE parent=0 AND name='nodes' LIMIT 1;")
if [[ -z "$NODES_INODE" ]]; then
    NODES_INODE=$(create_dir 0 "nodes")
fi

# Create node directory under nodes/
NODE_INODE=$(create_dir "$NODES_INODE" "$NODE")

echo ""
echo "Processing files and directories..."

# Process all content from backup directory
process_directory "$NODE_INODE" "$BACKUP_DIR"

echo ""
echo "Restore complete!"
echo ""
echo "Database verification:"
sqlite3 "$DB" "SELECT inode, parent, type, 
    CASE type WHEN 4 THEN 'DIR' WHEN 8 THEN 'FILE' ELSE type END as type_name,
    name 
FROM tree 
WHERE inode >= $NODES_INODE 
ORDER BY inode;"