How do I restore a deleted Linode?

Good news:

When a Linode is deleted, it's saved for a short period of time as an image. So, you might be able to restore that deleted Linode.

If you're able to recognize that the Linode was deleted soon enough, you will be able to deploy a new Linode from the saved image. We have a section on their guide on Linode Images that details the steps needed to Deploy From a Saved Image:

• Navigate to the Images page, open the menu for the Image from which you would like to deploy, and select Deploy New Linode.
• Select 'Deploy New Linode' from the Image menu
• Select your Image from My Images under the Create from Image tab.
• Select your Image from the 'My Images' tab
• Select your desired Region, Linode Plan, Label, and set your root password, then click Create to create a Linode with your saved image.
• A new Linode has been created from a disk.
• Once you’ve completed these steps, your saved image will be deployed on your new Linode.

Note: These steps are for Cloud Manager. Here are the steps for Deploying From a Saved Image from the Classic Linode Manager.

Some caveats to this are:

• Images are only temporarily saved. Once they are gone, they are gone. Linode is unable to restore the image.
• You won't have the same IP address as you did before.

To add to this, if you wanted to you could also restore 2 or more images to a single Linode. This process is more involved than the above but definitely possible.

First, you need to open your Images page and review the size of each image. For example, let's say I have:

Image A: 3000 MB
Image B: 2000 MB

Both of these images can fit on a single Linode given their size. So, let's deploy a new Linode from Image A.

Once the deploy finishes, power off your Linode. Then, confirm it has enough disk space to fit Image B. If it does not then you'll need to resize your disk.

Assuming you have enough free space, follow these steps:

Linode Dashboard > Advanced tab > Add A Disk

In Add A Disk, click "Create from Image" then select your new image from the very bottom of the drop down list. Next, click the "…" button to the right of your configuration profile and add the newly deployed disk. You can add it under the first open slot, or any of them.

Finally, you need to mount the disk. Boot your Linode and then log in as the root user. Enter the lsblk command to confirm both disks are present:

root@dsmith:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb    8:16   0  512M  0 disk [SWAP]
sdc    8:32   0   23G  0 disk 
sda    8:0    0  1.5G  0 disk /

Then create a mountpoint and mount the disk:

root@dsmith:~$ mkdir /dev/mydisk
root@dsmith:~$ mount -t ext4 /dev/sdc /dev/mydisk
[  190.248208] EXT4-fs (sdc): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: )
root@dsmith:~$ 

You can now access the files contained within the second image.

root@dsmith:/dev/mydisk$ ls
bin   dev  home        lib    lost+found  mnt  proc  run   srv  tmp  var
boot  etc  initrd.img  lib64  media       opt  root  sbin  sys  usr  vmlinuz

You can read more about mounting disks, including editing your /etc/fstab to ensure the mount occurs during future reboots, here:

https://www.linode.com/community/questions/17815/newly-added-disk-not-mounting

Hi Guys, I accidentally deleted a Linode on my account.
Its less than an hour now and I cant seem to be able to find the image as mentioned in the article.

Can someone help me out?

In some cases it can take a bit for the Image to be created so there's some lag time between when the Linode is deleted and when the Image is available.

My suggestion would be opening a support ticket through Cloud Manager if the Image isn't available in a few minutes.

Oooh, cool thanks, that helps to know. It could be the delay as I did the deletion not so long ago. I have sent a support email and praying they can help.

Thanks @tlambert