Looking into Proxmox Backup, is it right for me?

[Veidit]

Good day

I started using Proxmox less then a year ago and I am now looking to do backups of primary my VMs, secondary Proxmox and if possible my friends Proxmox/VMs.

Is it OK to run Proxmox Backup as a VM in my Proxmox enviorment? Or is it recommended to run it outside on bare metal?

Can I with my license let my friends backup their VMs and/or Proxmox installations that are remote? Yes I guess I need working routing to them or VPNs.

Do my VMs need to run an agent?

Thanks and have a great day!

 

[Dunuin]

Good day

I started using Proxmox less then a year ago and I am not looking to do backups of primary my VMs, secondary Proxmox and if possible my friends Proxmox/VMs.

That "not" is supposed to be a "now"?
It can backup your guests and your friends PVE guests. Backupping the PVE host itself is a bit complicated. You could use the proxmox-backup-client to backup the hosts config files while PVE is running. To backup the whole system disk on block level you would need to create a bootable debian pen drive, boot it and then use the proxmox-backup-client to backup the block devices. And that proxmox-backup-client is CLI only.

Is it OK to run Proxmox Backup as a VM in my Proxmox enviorment? Or is it recommended to run it outside on bare metal?

Dedicated hardware is recommended, but for a homelab a VM might be sufficient. But keep in mind that you can't backup your PVE host that way, because when your PVE stops working you also lose your PBS VM on that host.

Can I with my license let my friends backup their VMs and/or Proxmox installations that are remote? Yes I guess I need working routing to them or VPNs.

Yes, port-porwarding of port 8007 or VPN is required.

Do my VMs need to run an agent?

No, but it is highly recommended to install and enable the QEMU guest agent for each guest. Otherwise backup jobs won't flush the guests write cache before doing the backup and data integrity can't be ensured.


Also keep in mind that PBS needs very good IOPS performance. A HDD-only storage would be a very bad idea.