Backup PVE node itself

[nwongrat]

I am using pbs to backup all the VMs under Proxmox. However, I could not find the way to backup node itself. I did do google search. I found out that I can use proxmox-backup-client to do the job. However, After I read the the documentation. It confuse me a lot. For example, what path should I need to backup? I feel weird to back up the whole node.

Maybe pbs has feature or command that could be able to backup the node itself?

I am new to proxmox and now I have installed proxmox many times (because I broke them) and setting up the same configuration which kinda waste of time.

I am sure that there must be a way to do it. Please help.

 

[Dunuin]

Maybe pbs has feature or command that could be able to backup the node itself?

No. Not yet.

For example, what path should I need to backup? I feel weird to back up the whole node.

Good idea would be to backup the "/etc", "/root" and "/home" folders and maybe some stuff from "/var/lib/vz" like ISOs or whatever you stored on your "local" storage should be there.

 

[nwongrat]

Good idea would be to backup the "/etc", "/root" and "/home" folders and maybe some stuff from "/var/lib/vz" like ISOs or whatever you stored on your "local" storage should be there.

Then when doing restoration. Will I just copy the backup file into the corresponding folder?
For example, I have to enable IOMMU and SR-IOV in the node. If backup those folder then restore those folder back to new node. Do I have to do IOMMU and SR-IOV again?

For refference. I did IOMMU and SR-IOV through https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/enabling-sr-iov-for-intel-nic-x550-t2-on-proxmox-6.56677/

Thanks a lot for your reply.

 

[Dunuin]

Then when doing restoration. Will I just copy the backup file into the corresponding folder?
For example, I have to enable IOMMU and SR-IOV in the node. If backup those folder then restore those folder back to new node. Do I have to do IOMMU and SR-IOV again?

Jup. PVE is a full Linux OS, not just an appliance. All you change outside of the webUI, you will have to do again when installing it again.
And no, you can't just copy all folders over to the new installation. You will need to pick specific files or even just some lines of files.

If you just want the PVE config files you could also backup and restore the config DB: /var/lib/pve-cluster/config.db
But this won't include stuff like the network config, DNS, hostname and so on.

 

[nwongrat]

And no, you can't just copy all folders over to the new installation. You will need to pick specific files or even just some lines of files.

Well, I am not the expert so I guest I have to wait for new feature in pbs. In the meantime, I will have to do backup every VMs in pbs and do fresh installation for each node.

Thanks a lot for your help. Appreciated.

 

[Dunuin]

Just backup "/etc", "/root" and "/home". Better to have backups of all config files and select the needed ones when your server fails than to have nothing and start from scratch.

And it is also a good idea to write down everything you do so you could have a look at your notes later. More work but at least you don't have to google and test stuff for hours to get things like PCI passthrough working again, because you can't remember what you exactly did, to make it work, some years ago.