Proxmox backup client for windows ALPHA

Hello,
Thank you for the excellent work on the proxmoxbackupclient_go tool!
I think that it lacks for two important options:
1- A way to perform backup from two different paths in a single command (and so, creating a single backup dataset)
2- A way to exclude certain files or directories from backup (using regex)

Is there a plan to include those features?
 
Since the official PBS team has had a Windows client on their roadmap for many years, I was wondering if you had any contact with them. A proven working client like yours should speed up the development of the official client if there is interest from Proxmox's side.
 
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Hi,

you could also mount Windows shares in PBS using a script, save it and then unmount it again.

Has anyone ever tried this?

--- code ---

#!/bin/bash

# Define variables
SHARE="//windows-server/share-name"
MOUNT_POINT="/mnt/smb/share-name"
BACKUP_DIR="/mnt/smb/share-name" # The directory to be backed up
BACKUP_SERVER="proxmox-backup-server" # IP or hostname of the Proxmox Backup Server
BACKUP_USER="backupuser" # Username for the Proxmox Backup Server
BACKUP_PASSWORD="backuppassword" # Password for the Proxmox Backup Server
BACKUP_JOB="backup-job-name" # Name of the backup job

# Create the mount point if it does not exist
mkdir -p "$MOUNT_POINT"

# Mount the Windows share
mount -t cifs "$SHARE" "$MOUNT_POINT" -o username="windowsuser",password="windowspassword",vers=3.0

# Check if the mount was successful
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Error mounting the Windows share."
exit 1
fi

# Backing up the folder using the Proxmox Backup Client
proxmox-backup-client backup "$BACKUP_DIR" --repository "$BACKUP_SERVER" --username "$BACKUP_USER" --password "$BACKUP_PASSWORD" --backup-job "$BACKUP_JOB"

# Check if the backup was successful
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Error backing up the folder."
umount "$MOUNT_POINT"
exit 1
fi

# Unmount the Windows share
umount "$MOUNT_POINT"

# Check if the unmount was successful
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Error unmounting the Windows share."
exit 1
fi
 
Last edited:
That gave me an interesting idea. Could you create a volume shadow copy on the windows machine.. then mount a drive from the PBS to the windows machine and PULL the shadow copy into the PBS? (similar to the above script)
 
tizbac said:
Hi, i'm happy to announce that i've developed a client to do backups written in Go which works on windows
It also uses shadow volume snapshots to allow backing up opened files, like Veeam and similiar stuff do

The software is alpha quality at best as of now , and only CLI, i take no responsability for data loss even of source folders or other stuff, feedback is welcome
and also improvements, like ditching terminal output and adding a nice tray icon
And also for example a job configuration json file

https://github.com/tizbac/proxmoxbackupclient_go
Click to expand...

Thanks for working on this tizbac.

Given its alpha state, and your (quite sensible) disclaimer that anything could go horribly wrong, including the loss of source data, I'll refrain from running this on any "real" machines...
Are you aware of any likely issues running this on Win10/11 VMs, whether hosted on PVE or anything else?
Do you know if anyone has actively started working on things like a GUI, and if so what the best channels for collaborating with them would be?
I'll be happy to contribute where I can, but while making sure we're not duplicating work etc.


To the wider Proxmox team, I think you should work closely with tizbac on this, perhaps even considering paid development.

Given the "situation" with VMware, and how widely used VEEAM was with it, having a proper and easy to use client for doing backups of windows, mac, and linux Physical machines could make PBS a serious contender to replace VEEAM for a lot of people.
Personally, I also would not be averse to this being a licensed feature, eg free/unlicenced as it is now for PVE nodes (with unlimited VMs/LXCs) and say 2-3 physical machines, but for more than this either include say 5 physical licenses with the community subscription, 10 with basic, 20 with standard, and unlimited with premium. Or perhaps a flat fee per extra physical machine.
This could provide a valuble additional revenue stream for the wider Proxmox ecosystem.

I would also suggest looking at Synology's Active Backup for Business, and its O365/Google variants, for further inspiration.
Get this right, and I'd have a long line of clients queuing up for this, and I'm sure I would not be on my own here!
 
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