Backup of PVE itself possible?

[carsten_h]

Hello!

Is it possible to make a backup of PVE itself, not the Containers and VM?
I did not found any build in solution to make a backup of the Proxmox server itself. Is there any other solution to get a backup of the server?

 

[esi_y]

This comes up on the forum every week, you have to search a little bit

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/official-way-to-backup-proxmox-ve-itself.126469/

If you only ask about /etc/pve, then have a look at:

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/backup-cluster-config-pmxcfs-etc-pve.154569/
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/r...ffline-extract-configurations-etc-pve.155374/

 

[carsten_h]

If you only ask about /etc/pve

No, I want the whole server, so I can restore this backup onto a naked PC.
But I see, that here is no official way to get a backup and I have to handle it on my own. Sad.

 

[esi_y]

No, I want the whole server, so I can restore this backup onto a naked PC.
But I see, that here is no official way to get a backup and I have to handle it on my own. Sad.

Consider filing a request:
https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/

But this is one of the cases where I personally do not see much point in backing up a machine that only holds configurations and ISO install (and some few exceptions like /etc/network interfaces). There's anyways no great way to back up the system while running (even by 3rd party solutions) and you are throttling your hypervisor to backup completely valueless data.

 

[esi_y]

See also e.g.:

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-backup-strategies-better-than-acronis.155772/#post-710996

 

[carsten_h]

that only holds configurations and ISO install

I have eg. also installed nut to let the server shut itself off, when the UPS is running from battery, I installed alsa for audio to get the speaker and an attached USB speaker of the server to work in my Lyrion server container.
So there are many thing that have to be restored and I don't know where all these things are.

 

[esi_y]

I have eg. also installed nut to let the server shut itself off, when the UPS is running from battery, I installed alsa for audio to get the speaker and an attached USB speaker of the server to work in my Lyrion server container.
So there are many thing that have to be restored and I don't know where all these things are.

This is not how I would go about it though. Whatever minimal necessary additional you set up, you can also either script or manage by e.g. Ansible. It does not change the fact that you are backing up 99% packages that by the time you would be recovering are outdated, so the next thing you would be doing is updating them.

If you forget how to set these things up, that's not great for e.g. next install for additional node much later on.

 

[LnxBil]

But I see, that here is no official way to get a backup and I have to handle it on my own. Sad.

There cannot be a one-shoe-fits-all-approach, because you can change whatever you want in the underlying Debian and the backup tool should be able to include everything. That's not going to happen.

You can however use e.g. Rear for backup and bare-metal-restore, which works (to the ordinary limits of live backup) well with PVE if you're not using ZFS. It you're using ZFS, just replicate your pool.

 

[esi_y]

You can however use e.g. Rear for backup and bare-metal-restore, which works (to the ordinary limits of live backup) well with PVE if you're not using ZFS. It you're using ZFS, just replicate your pool.

Did you test this e.g. multiple times during heavy corosync traffic? I suspect you might back up the config.db middle of SQLite checkpointing. I would definitely want to .dump it before actual backup run.

 

[LnxBil]

Did you test this e.g. multiple times during heavy corosync traffic?

No, I would not backup cluster node (no point, as you already pointed out), this was for a single node.

I suspect you might back up the config.db middle of SQLite checkpointing. I would definitely want to .dump it before actual backup run.

I suspect this too, therefore the ordinary limits of live backup.

 

[esi_y]

There cannot be a one-shoe-fits-all-approach, because you can change whatever you want in the underlying Debian and the backup tool should be able to include everything. That's not going to happen.

On a second thought, this could be done with libostree.

EDIT: Third thought - I am not going to be the one filing BZ for this.