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Proxmox Backup Server (PBS)

What is Proxmox Backup Server?

Proxmox Backup Server is an enterprise backup solution, for backing up and restoring VMs, containers, and physical hosts.

Deployment

PBS is deployed as a virtual machine on the Proxmox VE cluster on Node 1 (Primary). The PBS deployment is via an ISO image.

  1. Download the ISO to the Node 1 (Primary) storage.

  2. Navigate to proxmox01 > Create VM.

  3. Provide the following details for General and click Next:

    Setting Value
    Name backup01
    Node proxmox01
    Start at boot ✅

  4. Under OS, select the storage where the ISO was downloaded to and choose the Proxmox Backup Server ISO image. Click Next.

  5. Under System, select the VirtIO SCSI Single controller and click Next.

  6. Provide the following details for Disks and click Next:

    Setting Value
    Bus/Device SCSI
    Storage lv-ssd-crucial
    Size 32GiB
    Format Raw disk image (raw)
    Discard ✅
    SSD Emulation ✅
    Setting Value
    Bus/Device SCSI
    Storage lv-ssd-crucial
    Size 150GiB
    Format Raw disk image (raw)
    Discard ✅
    SSD Emulation ✅

  7. Provide the following details for CPU and click Next:

    Setting Value
    Cores 4
    Type host

  8. Provide the following details for Memory and click Next:

    Setting Value
    Memory (MiB) 5120
    Ballooning Device ✅
    Minimum Memory 1024

  9. Leave Network as default, click Next and confirm deployment.

  10. Start the backup01 VM and open the console to begin the installation.

  11. Follow the on-screen instructions to install PBS, when prompted enter the following details:

    Setting Value
    FQDN backup01.net.dbren.uk
    Email Enter email
    Password Enter password
    Default Gateway 192.168.0.1
    IP Address 192.168.0.6/24

  12. Once installation has completed, login to the web interface listening on port 8007 using the FQDN and credentials entered during installation.

Post Installation

Below are the post installation steps for configuring the PBS.

Copy SSH public key to the PBS's authorized_keys file:

ssh-copy-id [email protected]

Datastore Creation

The PBS requires a datastore to store backups. In my setup, I have two datastores, one which is a Hetzner Storagebox mounted via CIFS on the PBS at /mnt/storagebox, and the other which is a local disk.

Documentation

Proxmox Backup Server - Backup Storage

Hetzner Storagebox Datastore

  1. Use the playbook-proxmox-backup-cifs.yml to mount the CIFS share on the PBS.

  2. SSH to the PBS and create the datastore:

    proxmox-backup-manager datastore create backup01 /mnt/storagebox --gc-schedule "sun 04:00"

Local Datastore

  1. SSH to the PBS and initialise the disk with a GPT:

    proxmox-backup-manager disk initialize sdb

  2. Create the datastore:

    proxmox-backup-manager disk fs create backup02 --disk sdb --filesystem ext4 --add-datastore true

  3. Configure the datastore:

    proxmox-backup-manager datastore update backup02 --gc-schedule "sun 04:00"

Verify Job Creation

The verify job is used to verify the integrity of the backups. SSH to the PBS and use the following command to create the verify job:

proxmox-backup-manager verify-job create verify-backup02 --store backup02 --schedule "03:00" --ignore-verified=true --outdated-after=30

Sync Job Creation

Local & Offsite Copy

This makes sure that I have a local copy of backups and an offsite copy on the Hetzner Storagebox.

Configure the backups to sync from the backup02 datastore to backup01 datastore:

proxmox-backup-manager sync-job create sync-pull-backup02-backup01 --owner 'root@pam' --store backup01 --remote-store backup02 --schedule "02:00" --remove-vanished=true

HTTPS - Web Interface with Let's Encrypt

Cloudflare API Token & Zone ID

See the following instructions for generating a Cloudflare API Token.

Furthermore, you will need to obtain your domain's zone ID. This can be found in the Cloudflare dashboard page for the domain, on the right side under API > Zone ID.

  1. Login to the PBS GUI and go to Configuration > Certificates > ACME Accounts > Accounts and click Add:

    Setting Value
    Account Name default
    Email <Email>
    ACME Directory Let's Encrypt V2
    Accept TOS True

  2. Click Register.

  3. Under Challenge Plugins, click Add and enter the following details:

    Setting Value
    Plugin ID cloudflare
    DNS API Cloudflare Managed API
    CF_Token <Cloudflare API Token>
    CF_Zone_ID <Cloudflare Zone ID>

  4. Click Add.

  5. Navigate to Certificates and under ACME click Add:

    Setting Value
    Challenge Type DNS
    Plugin cloudflare
    Domain backup01.net.dbren.uk

  6. Click Create.

  7. Under ACME > for Using Account click Edit and select the default account and click Apply.

  8. Click Order Certificates Now.

Once completed, the PBS web interface will reload and show the new certificate.

Scripts

Warning

Proceed with caution, before running any of the scripts below, make sure to review the code to ensure it is safe to run.

  1. Run the PBS post install script on PBS:

    Quote

    The script will give options to Disable the Enterprise Repo, Add/Correct PBS Sources, Enable the No-Subscription Repo, Add Test Repo, Disable Subscription Nag, Update Proxmox Backup Server and Reboot PBS.

    bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/tteck/Proxmox/raw/main/misc/post-pbs-install.sh)"

Backup Operations

Backup operations are performed using the proxmox-backup-client command on the Proxmox VE nodes. Below are some common operations.

View all snapshots for a datastore

proxmox-backup-client snapshot list --repository backup01.net.dbren.uk:backup01

View snapshots for a VM

proxmox-backup-client snapshot list vm/102 --repository backup01.net.dbren.uk:backup01

Delete a snapshot for a VM

proxmox-backup-client snapshot forget vm/102/2024-06-27T16:57:49Z --repository backup01.net.dbren.uk:backup01