PBS handles VM and LXC backups well, but it doesn't have a native answer for ZFS datasets that live outside VMs and containers.
If you run a NAS with ZFS datasets—photos, videos, media libraries, ISOs—exported over NFS or SMB and mounted into your VMs, that data lives on the hypervisor or a storage server, not inside the guest. PBS doesn't touch it.
I wrote zpbs-backup to fill this gap. Configuration lives entirely in ZFS properties. `zpbs-backup` manages those properties.
The tool discovers marked datasets and backs them up to PBS.
zpbs-backup
Features:
If you run a NAS with ZFS datasets—photos, videos, media libraries, ISOs—exported over NFS or SMB and mounted into your VMs, that data lives on the hypervisor or a storage server, not inside the guest. PBS doesn't touch it.
I wrote zpbs-backup to fill this gap. Configuration lives entirely in ZFS properties. `zpbs-backup` manages those properties.
Code:
zpbs-backup set zpbs:backup=true tank/media
Code:
zpbs-backup set zpbs:schedule=weekly tank/media/movies
Bash:
zpbs-backup set zpbs:retention=30d,12w,12m,3y tank/photos
Bash:
zpbs-backup set zpbs:priority=10 tank/documents
Bash:
zpbs-backup set zpbs:backup=false tank/media/downloadszpbs-backup
Features:
- Works with any ZFS dataset (VM NAS, Samba, External NAS)
- Auto-discovery via ZFS properties—no config files
- Inheritance through the dataset hierarchy (enable on parent, children follow)
- Per-dataset schedules (daily/weekly/monthly)
- Per-dataset retention policies Priority ordering for critical data
- Dry-run and audit modes Systemd timer for unattended operation
- email and syslog notification options