Best pratice to backup the host?

[cholzer]

Hello!

I have proxmox running in RAIDZ1 (*edit* I meant RAID1) on 2x 120GB SSDs - just proxmox is on there, nothing else (not even iso's).

So lets consider the worst case, both SSDs die - how do I prepare for that?

• create an image of one or both(?) of the mirrored SSD's (with i.e. TrueImage)? how does ZFS respond to restoring such a drive image? anything I need to know?
• backup just the configuration of the proxmox host? (but which files? - why is there no "export config" option in the gui? I have found quite a bit of contradicting info online when it comes to what is and what is not required to backup)

Thank you in advance!

 

[Dunuin]

Hello!

I have proxmox running in RAIDZ1 on 2x 120GB SSDs - just proxmox is on there, nothing else (not even iso's).

I guess you mean a mirror (aka raid1). Raidz1 is like raid5.

So lets consider the worst case, both SSDs die - how do I prepare for that?

• create an image of one or both(?) of the mirrored SSD's (with i.e. TrueImage)? how does ZFS respond to restoring such a drive image? anything I need to know?

I boot into a Debian USB stick and use the proxmox-backup-client to create a image of both system disks and store them on my Proxmox Backup Server. PBS uses deduplication, so backing up both system drives doesn't consume more space than a single image because nothing needs to be stores twice and the mirrors should be nearly identical.
If you want a UI or dont got a PBS you could boot into a clonezilla usb stick and save the image to a NAS or a local/usb disk.

• backup just the configuration of the proxmox host? (but which files? - why is there no "export config" option in the gui? I have found quite a bit of contradicting info online when it comes to what is and what is not required to backup)

You want to backup the complete "/etc" folder. PVE itself will store all config files in "/etc/pve".

I do both. A image backup of the complete system drives (not often because I need to reboot so the system SSDs aren't in use when backing them up for better data integrity) and a automated weekly backup of my "/etc" folder which can easily be done while PVE is running. For that I use the proxmox-backup-client too that is run by a cron job.

 

[cholzer]

I guess you mean a mirror (aka raid1). Raidz1 is like raid5.

Oops, yes my mistake.
The proxmox is installed on a raid1 with 2x 120GB SSDs.
The VM's etc. are on a raidz1 with 4x 1000GB drives.

My question is only about the host which runs on the raid1

I boot into a Debian USB stick and use the proxmox-backup-client to create a image of both system disks and store them on my Proxmox Backup Server.

Hmm.... I need to look into that. Currently there is a seperate NAS to which I do VM backups. I need to see how/if I can add a PBS.

If you want a UI or dont got a PBS you could boot into a clonezilla usb stick and save the image to a NAS or a local/usb disk.

You want to backup the complete "/etc" folder. PVE itself will store all config files in "/etc/pve".

Thank you I will look into these as well!

I do both. A image backup of the complete system drives (not often because I need to reboot so the system SSDs aren't in use when backing them up for better data integrity) and a automated weekly backup of my "/etc" folder which can easily be done while PVE is running. For that I use the proxmox-backup-client too that is run by a cron job.

Thanks!