Add backup ability to main storage drive (newbie question)

[ronejamesdo]

Sorry for the newbie question. I am testing Proxmox and realize that having backups on the same drive (even the same box) is a bad idea, I am asking this to test and also to get my head around the configuration.

I have a virtual machine, I have the backup button, but the only option I have for storing the backup is "local". I would like to store that backup on "BigDrive" where the virtual machine is already. It is not in the pull down and there seems to be no way inside Proxmox to add that ability. (ie Datacenter, Storage, Edit on "BigDrive" has "Disk image" and "Container" but seem not to have any way that I might add "VZDump backup file" which I am (only) guessing would allow me to write my backup there.

Any help us appreciated (again, sorry if this is not the right forum for newbie questions or mine does not conform to standards, I didn't see a sticky, and yes backing up to the same drive as the virtual machine would be a dumb strategy, I'm only testing).

Thanks.

RJD

 

[cheiss]

Hi,

how is your "BigDrive" formatted?

Can you also post the output of pveversion -v, cat /etc/pve/storage.cfg and lsblk?
That should help getting a rough overview of your storage situation and how it is set up.

 

[Kingneutron]

You're doing well to have that realization.

Do you have at least a separate USB3 disk that you can backup to temporarily? Med-to-long term you'll want to use either an internal disk or NAS but yes, this is a limitation (feature?) of the GUI where you can't store backups in certain places.

For testing purposes, you can create a Directory on certain storage and point backups to store there. This also works with Samba and sshfs, as well as ZFS datasets. Otherwise you can setup a traditional entry in /etc/fstab and activate that as Directory storage for multi-use.

 

[ronejamesdo]

Hi,

how is your "BigDrive" formatted?

Can you also post the output of pveversion -v, cat /etc/pve/storage.cfg and lsblk?
That should help getting a rough overview of your storage situation and how it is set up.

proxmox-ve: 8.1.0 (running kernel: 6.5.11-8-pve)
pve-manager: 8.1.4 (running version: 8.1.4/ec5affc9e41f1d79)
proxmox-kernel-helper: 8.1.0
proxmox-kernel-6.5: 6.5.11-8
proxmox-kernel-6.5.11-8-pve-signed: 6.5.11-8
ceph-fuse: 17.2.7-pve2
corosync: 3.1.7-pve3
criu: 3.17.1-2
glusterfs-client: 10.3-5
ifupdown2: 3.2.0-1+pmx8
ksm-control-daemon: 1.4-1
libjs-extjs: 7.0.0-4
libknet1: 1.28-pve1
libproxmox-acme-perl: 1.5.0
libproxmox-backup-qemu0: 1.4.1
libproxmox-rs-perl: 0.3.3
libpve-access-control: 8.0.7
libpve-apiclient-perl: 3.3.1
libpve-common-perl: 8.1.0
libpve-guest-common-perl: 5.0.6
libpve-http-server-perl: 5.0.5
libpve-network-perl: 0.9.5
libpve-rs-perl: 0.8.8
libpve-storage-perl: 8.0.5
libspice-server1: 0.15.1-1
lvm2: 2.03.16-2
lxc-pve: 5.0.2-4
lxcfs: 5.0.3-pve4
novnc-pve: 1.4.0-3
proxmox-backup-client: 3.1.4-1
proxmox-backup-file-restore: 3.1.4-1
proxmox-kernel-helper: 8.1.0
proxmox-mail-forward: 0.2.3
proxmox-mini-journalreader: 1.4.0
proxmox-offline-mirror-helper: 0.6.4
proxmox-widget-toolkit: 4.1.3
pve-cluster: 8.0.5
pve-container: 5.0.8
pve-docs: 8.1.3
pve-edk2-firmware: 4.2023.08-3
pve-firewall: 5.0.3
pve-firmware: 3.9-1
pve-ha-manager: 4.0.3
pve-i18n: 3.2.0
pve-qemu-kvm: 8.1.5-2
pve-xtermjs: 5.3.0-3
qemu-server: 8.0.10
smartmontools: 7.3-pve1
spiceterm: 3.3.0
swtpm: 0.8.0+pve1
vncterm: 1.8.0
zfsutils-linux: 2.2.2-pve1


dir: local
path /var/lib/vz
content iso,backup,vztmpl

zfspool: local-zfs
pool rpool/data
content images,rootdir
sparse 1

zfspool: BigDrive
pool BigDrive
content images,rootdir
mountpoint /BigDrive
nodes proxtest


NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 1007K 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 1G 0 part
└─sda3 8:3 0 464.8G 0 part
sdb 8:16 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 465.8G 0 part
└─sdb9 8:25 0 8M 0 part
sdc 8:32 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sdc1 8:33 0 3.6T 0 part
└─sdc9 8:41 0 8M 0 part
sdd 8:48 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sdd1 8:49 0 3.6T 0 part
└─sdd9 8:57 0 8M 0 part
sde 8:64 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sde1 8:65 0 3.6T 0 part
└─sde9 8:73 0 8M 0 part
sdf 8:80 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sdf1 8:81 0 3.6T 0 part
└─sdf9 8:89 0 8M 0 part
sdg 8:96 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sdg1 8:97 0 3.6T 0 part
└─sdg9 8:105 0 8M 0 part
sdh 8:112 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sdh1 8:113 0 3.6T 0 part
└─sdh9 8:121 0 8M 0 part
sdi 8:128 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sdi1 8:129 0 3.6T 0 part
└─sdi9 8:137 0 8M 0 part
sdj 8:144 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sdj1 8:145 0 3.6T 0 part
└─sdj9 8:153 0 8M 0 part
zd16 230:16 0 128G 0 disk
├─zd16p1 230:17 0 1G 0 part
└─zd16p2 230:18 0 127G 0 part

 

[Kingneutron]

Ah, so BigDrive is a zfs pool.

Fire up a root terminal on the host and create a zfs dataset:

zp=BigDrive
myds=proxmox-multiuse

zfs create -o \
  atime=off -o compression=lz4 -o recordsize=1024k \
  $zp/$myds || exit 99

Then Add that as a Directory in Storage with everything in the dropdown selected. You should be able to point backups to it after that.

 

[ronejamesdo]

Ah, so BigDrive is a zfs pool.

Fire up a root terminal on the host and create a zfs dataset:

zp=BigDrive
ds=proxmox-multiuse

zfs create -o \
  atime=off -o compression=lz4 -o recordsize=1024k \
  $zp/$myds || exit 99

Then Add that as a Directory in Storage with everything in the dropdown selected. You should be able to point backups to it after that.

cannot create 'BigDrive/': trailing slash in name
logout

 

[Kingneutron]

Sorry, I typoed. Earlier reply edited and fixed, refresh page and try again with myds

 

[ronejamesdo]

Thank you sir, works good. For anyone who finds this in the future (including me) that last step is:

Datacenter -> Storage -> Add -> Directory

The ID can be anything(ish) (it's how you will see it in the list of objects in the left, so in my case I called it "BigDrive-proxmox-multiuse") and the path is /Bigdrive/proxmox-multiuse

RJD