Backing up the PVE node - dd, LVM snapshot, or better option?

[bobbybb]

I need to install some software on my PVE node because I cannot use dual GPUs via PCIe passthrough on my VMs.
In case this messed something up how can I backup the root node (just a debian machine, right?) so I can restore it if I mess something up.

I was first thinking of doing dd on the whole drive to an external drive, but that's a lot of data and it would backup the VMs too which I already have backed up with PBS.

Can I take a LVM snapshot of the root node, install my software, and revert back to the snapshot if I mess something up?

What's the best path forward?

 

[ferrets]

I was first thinking of doing dd on the whole drive

How about doing dd with partition?

Or can you run the software in LXC container that you need?

 

[Kingneutron]

https://github.com/kneutron/ansitest/tree/master/proxmox

Look into the bkpcrit script, point it to external disk / NAS, run it nightly in cron. Comments in-script detail where the critical stuff is.

If you're using standard lvm+ext4 root, look into the bkpsys-2fsarchive and RESTORE* scripts. Practice doing a full bare-metal backup of rootfs and restoring PVE into a vm with host-only networking, so you don't get IP conflicts. Easiest way that I know of to access the fsarchiver restore file on the host from in-vm is with sshfs.

https://github.com/nchevsky/systemrescue-zfs/releases

.

If you're using zfs boot/root, you can install to a mirror / zfs RAID1. bkpcrit script still comes in handy here.

 

[gfngfn256]

I was first thinking of doing dd on the whole drive to an external drive, but that's a lot of data

You could use gzip to at least compress the outputted disk image, as I show here.

and it would backup the VMs too

The exact reason, I have PVE host on separate disk/partition from VMs etc.