Backup Server, licensing

[SteveITS]

Hi, new to Proxmox.

From what I see online, Backup Server provides Incremental & Deduplication, and the built-in/free backup does not?

Does the Remote synchronization feature require a second paid license for the second server?

In our current (not Proxmox) setup we've been using a combination of image backups with incrementals, and rdiff, with rsync for off-site. Are the backup files accessible at a file system level, to rsync off-site?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Chris]

Hi,

From what I see online, Backup Server provides Incremental & Deduplication, and the built-in/free backup does not?

backups in PVE without using a PBS storage as target will create compressed vma (for VMs) or tar (for LXCs) archives, without deduplication. That is correct, but note that also PBS is free software licensed under AGPLv3.

Does the Remote synchronization feature require a second paid license for the second server?

No, there is no licenses for Proxmox Backup Server but rather subscriptions, for details see the latest version of the subscription agreement [0].

In our current (not Proxmox) setup we've been using a combination of image backups with incrementals, and rdiff, with rsync for off-site. Are the backup files accessible at a file system level, to rsync off-site?

Syncing the datastore to remote locations with external tools is error prone, especially during active operation of the PBS. You will likely end up corrupting you backup snapshots. Therefore, using the build in sync feature is strongly recommended.

[0] https://www.proxmox.com/en/download.../proxmox-backup-server-subscription-agreement

 

[SteveITS]

Hi Chris, thanks for the reply. I'm aware it's a subscription, just trying to understand/forecast our total costs of moving to Proxmox. Thank you for the PDF link, that helps.

In our current setup we're specifically rsyncing after backups are complete so it's not an issue. Obviously PBS would be preferred hence my query. From your comment though it sounds like it is possible, thanks.

 

[guruevi]

You can install both PVE and PBS free, you just get a nag screen and you don’t get access to the subscription repo. The enterprise repo basically has slower, more stable updates. My suggestion would be to get at least the cheapest version for production that you rely on just so you get access to the repo, and then if you need support you can always purchase it.

 

[Johannes S]

In our current setup we're specifically rsyncing after backups are complete so it's not an issue. Obviously PBS would be preferred hence my query. From your comment though it sounds like it is possible, thanks.

You really need to test this throughly. I remember several threads where people corrupted their PBS backups by using something like rsync or rclone instead of the native sync. zfs send/receive might work better but personally I wouldn' risk it.

 

[SteveITS]

OK thanks for the heads up.

I did find a video yesterday explaining how PBS worked. I didn't realize that it dedupes across VMs so is different than a traditional backup/image.