Backing Up Proxmox with Veeam

[MeCJay12]

Hello! I swear that I've done this before but for some reason on my new Proxmox 8.1.4 system I'm having trouble installing Veeam and backing up the OS. I first tried to install Veeam like I normally do on Linux systems (command below) but when I ran a backup I get the error

Veeam snapshot kernel module not found

I tried unstalling the veeam package and reinstalling with the veeam-nosnap package and now I'm getting

Insufficient free space for a snapshot in a volume group: pve

Is anyone out there backing up Proxmox with Veeam that can point me in the right direction? I use Veeam to backup everything else so I'm hoping to not make a special backup system just for Proxmox.

wget https://download2.veeam.com/veeam-release-deb_1.0.8_amd64.deb && sudo dpkg -i ./veeam-* && sudo apt-get -y update && sudo apt-get -y install veeam cifs-utils && sudo rm veeam-release* && sudo apt -y upgrade && sudo veeam

 

[RolandK]

you only want to backup OS but NOT VMs, correct ?

then for veeam agent should apply what applies for debian 12 bookworm

for backing up VMs, veeam is not ready for primetime yet. but it's probably on the way....

https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/22/veeam_proxmox_oracle_support/

 

[MeCJay12]

Yes, to backup the host itself. I have used Veeam on Debian before but I haven't run into these issues before so I was wondering if there was someone who has used Veeam with Proxmox and resolved these issues.

 

[RolandK]

veeeam agent 6 supports debian 12 as i see at https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforlinux/userguide/system_requirements.html?ver=60

proxmox is a little bit special, as it isn't using debian kernel but kernel from ubuntu. maybe this is the problem.

"a free operating system does not only have advantages" (from an old , well known ad, 20 years ago)

https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/ima...2_w420_r1.423728813559322_fpx35_fpy49.84.webp

 

[calin.b]

I'm sure the OP sorted the issue out, but leaving this here just in case anyone stumbles onto this post, like me:
[GUIDE] Proxmox incremental backups with Veeam

TLDR:
download the deb file for their website (a free, non-corporate email account is enough) and install it:
Veeam downloads
dpkg -i veeam-release-deb_1.0.9_amd64.deb && apt update -y && apt install veeam -y

As a side note, for backing up just the proxmox host you don't need to bother downloading/installing their platform. You can use the agent as a standalone. Just run veeam once installed, it has a UI.

 

[MeCJay12]

Thank you for that guide. It helped with my standalone machines. I was running veeam-nosnap on them to get around the headers not being installed without realizing. Regardless, the issue I had with the pve volume group being out of space is still happening. It seems to be related to Proxmox running in HA or centralized management since this issue is only happen on my 2 HA nodes and none of my 3 standalone nodes.

 

[calin.b]

To be honest, I was just looking for a way to backup the proxmox host itself, then I remembered I'm quite happy with veeam on windows so I've stumbled on this post.

Now I have a combination of veeam (full backup) , syncback(backup folders on a different drive of same host) , syncthing (replicating filders across hosts) for backing up, on top of proxmox schedule backups for vms, and truenas snapshots for the storage of said vm backups... Oh, the joys of a home lab

 

[havkacik]

Veeam snapshot kernel module not found

It seems that for veeam-release-deb_1.0.9_amd64.deb as VEEAM is currently not compatible with the newest kernel: 6.8.4-3-pve (x86_64). I also got this error:

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 6.8.4-3-pve (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/veeamsnap/6.1.2.1781/build/make.log for more information.dpkg: error processing package veeamsnap (--configure):
installed veeamsnap package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 10dpkg:
dependency problems prevent configuration of veeam:
veeam depends on veeamsnap (= 6.1.2.1781) | blksnap (= 6.1.2.1781); however:
Package veeamsnap is not configured yet.
Package blksnap is not installed.dpkg:
error processing package veeam (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfiguredErrors were encountered while processing: veeamsnap veeamE: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


According to PDF manual, it is possible to install veeam version that is non dependent on kernel in so called:

Nosnap Veeam Agent for Linux — this set of packages does not depend on the Veeam kernel module for creating system snapshots. Nosnap Veeam Agent for Linux leverages native file system snapshot capabilities on select Linux distributions.

apt-get install veeam-nosnap

Also, there is a very nice video manual for using Veem to do bare metal backup (server not down)

However, bare metal backup should be officially supported by Veeam since about 2024/Q3 according to Veeam

 

[MeCJay12]

So I did find in the original post that using the veeam-nosnap package worked. Since then, the guide that @calin.b posted pointed me towards installing the pve-headers package which also fixed the kernal module not found issue. Really, the last hurdle is just that no space on the pve volume group issue which only happens with Proxmox clusters.

 

[calin.b]

It seems that for veeam-release-deb_1.0.9_amd64.deb as VEEAM is currently not compatible with the newest kernel: 6.8.4-3-pve (x86_64). I also got this error:

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 6.8.4-3-pve (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/veeamsnap/6.1.2.1781/build/make.log for more information.dpkg: error processing package veeamsnap (--configure):
installed veeamsnap package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 10dpkg:
dependency problems prevent configuration of veeam:
veeam depends on veeamsnap (= 6.1.2.1781) | blksnap (= 6.1.2.1781); however:
Package veeamsnap is not configured yet.
Package blksnap is not installed.dpkg:
error processing package veeam (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfiguredErrors were encountered while processing: veeamsnap veeamE: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


According to PDF manual, it is possible to install veeam version that is non dependent on kernel in so called:

Nosnap Veeam Agent for Linux — this set of packages does not depend on the Veeam kernel module for creating system snapshots. Nosnap Veeam Agent for Linux leverages native file system snapshot capabilities on select Linux distributions.

apt-get install veeam-nosnap

Also, there is a very nice video manual for using Veem to do bare metal backup (server not down)

However, bare metal backup should be officially supported by Veeam since about 2024/Q3 according to Veeam

I ran into this issue as well after upgrading proxmox, fixed it by running

apt install blksnap veeam

So I did find in the original post that using the veeam-nosnap package worked. Since then, the guide that @calin.b posted pointed me towards installing the pve-headers package which also fixed the kernal module not found issue. Really, the last hurdle is just that no space on the pve volume group issue which only happens with Proxmox clusters.

I back it up on a NAS, with no issues whatsoever ... if ignore the part where the nas is managed by truenas which is a VM on the same promox I'm backing up

 

[jsterr]

A reply to one of my linkedinpost (about 6.8 kernel issues on pve) that also metioned veeam, might help you.
Not sure why he is purching veeam blksnapd, should maybe be reinstalled afterwards?

There are also few new issues, mostly related with big jump in kernel version
- when using veeam agents installed on nodes, dkms fails with building and preparing these (silently) which can lead to broken initramfs rebuild - leaving you with unbootable kernel.
Resolve: apt purge veeam blksnapd
- some 'older' hardware seems to have problems with Power Management SSD/NVME drives (magical slowdowns and hangs after some I/O operations)
Resolve: add kernel parameters
pcie_port_pm=off libata.force=noncq

 

[why-be-banned]

It seems unable to backup and restore lvm-thin partitions.

 

[Kingneutron]

Yes, lvm-thin is block storage. Not really considered part of the OS.

So veeam free agent for linux will backup the OS rootfs and LVM structure, but you still need to backup your VMs and CTRs - and pve has builtin backup for that.

If you backup to proxmox backup server, you also get dedup -- among other features.

 

[Gogolathome]

I did some tests with veeam to see if it is applicable on my situation.
After restoring from a veeam backup with usb recovery local-lvm was missing, so I recreated local-lvm manually with those two commands:

lvcreate -L 100G -n data pve
lvconvert --type thin-pool pve/data

Going back to usb stick recovery I was able to delete vm disks that were created after first attempt and then I could copy those vm disks to the lvm-thin.
After a reboot I could use my VM's.

 

[why-be-banned]

Yes, lvm-thin is block storage. Not really considered part of the OS.

So veeam free agent for linux will backup the OS rootfs and LVM structure, but you still need to backup your VMs and CTRs - and pve has builtin backup for that.

If you backup to proxmox backup server, you also get dedup -- among other features.

Proxmox backup server is too expensive for me.
I have about 1TB of VM data to back up. Considering multiple backup copies (snapshots), Proxmox backup server may need a 2TB hard disk.
The official recommendation is to use SSD for Proxmox backup server, but 2TB SSD is too expensive.
I once tried to use a mechanical hard disk to run Proxmox backup server, but when it runs operations like prune, GC, and verify, it is extremely slow and takes a very long time. In addition, Proxmox backup server cannot back up proxmox ve system itself. Therefore, I had to give up on the Proxmox Backup Server and switch to Veeam.

 

[_gabriel]

Considering multiple backup copies (snapshots), Proxmox backup server may need a 2TB hard disk.

Remember that PBS store only once indentical data, so number of snapshots doesn't increase the size, only new data is consumed on backup disk.

The official recommendation is to use SSD for Proxmox backup server

if you have a many VMs and many snapshots,
but if few VMs and 1 month daily history (called snapshots in PBS) like this : PBS run fine with its datastore used 800 GB of a 1 TB 2.5inch HDD over USB , Verify jobs (scheduled each sunday) require ~1h20 and Re-verify each 30 days require ~4h. (no problems during last year)