Question about restoring from backup (not Backup Server)

[Amodin]

I wanted to know about backup and restore of a VM (or container), as I am evaluating a plan to create a cluster for my two NUC devices both running Proxmox. So, I wanted to do this after the fact, which requires me not to have VMs to join a cluster.

If I make a backup of the VMs (option on the left under each VM) but delete the VM, doesn't it also delete the backup I made as it's tied to that VM? So, would I need to move them off of Proxmox if that's the case, or at least to another drive before deleting? Then I am guessing creating a new VM, and restoring it from that backup taken.

The docs really just center around backing up and restoring what is existing, but not really replacing from scratch, so I just wanted to be sure about anything before I would think of joining to a cluster and I'm not even really sure that's the option I want to go. I would only want to do this for more of management than anything else, as I have one Proxmox for my system type things, such as Home Assistant, Pi-hole, and network monitoring, and my second one as an application host, for my private servers and recipe management host (so I like food!)

Thanks for any info.

 

[Dunuin]

If I make a backup of the VMs (option on the left under each VM) but delete the VM, doesn't it also delete the backup I made as it's tied to that VM?

Deleting the VM won't remove the backup. You can still restore that Backup from your backup storages backup tab and it will create a new VM if it isn't existing.

Then I am guessing creating a new VM, and restoring it from that backup taken.

You don't need to create a new VM first.

I would also recommend to set up two PBS VMs/LXCs syncing each other. Wastes waaaay less space because of deduplication and backups of VMs are much faster in case your PVE nodes run 24/7 as it then supports incremental backups.

 

[Amodin]

Deleting the VM won't remove the backup. You can still restore that Backup from your backup storages backup tab and it will create a new VM if it isn't existing.



You don't need to create a new VM first.

I would also recommend to set up two PBS VMs/LXCs syncing each other. Wastes waaaay less space because of deduplication and backups of VMs are much faster in case your PVE nodes run 24/7 as it then supports incremental backups.

Okay thanks. I don't think I'll be able to get full functionality of the cluster manager due to lack of NIC interfaces (if I am reading this correctly) and might not be able to do any sync. It's really just trying to manage the two servers under one interface. I have plenty of network storage that I could copy to though if that is possible.

The mission critical server running I do keep backups offloaded to my NAS through their own backup methods currently so if I do happen to lose anything in Proxmox, I can recover, but yes I agree that sync option would be easier.