Better Backup Strategy for Homelab

[Nafr1]

Hello,

I am very new to Proxmox. I am a long time Windows Server (on bare metal) user for HomeLab for a very long time, since recently I moved to Proxmox and Linux based solution. Following is my current Hardware Configuration

CPU: Core i7-8700
RAM: 16GB
SSD: 512GB (for Proxmox and VMs)
Internal HDD: 8TB for NAS Data (SMB share, photos, documents, Proxmox VM/LXC backups over SMB etc.)
External HDD: 8TB HDD in a USB Enclosure to Backup the entire 8TB internal HDD.

I have few VMs and LXC containers currently running on a single Proxmox node. I have one OpenMediaVault VM, and I have passed Internal HDD and External (HDD in USB Enclosure) to OMV VM. On the configuration of OMV VM, I have excluded both of these drives from Proxmox Backups.

I have few Shares created on OMV using the Internal HDD. I have also created a SMB share for Proxmox where it creates backup on daily basis for all the VMs and LXC containers (excluding both the 8TB Drives).

On the OMV side, I have a Rysnc job running that every night Backup the Internal (Shared) HDD to the External (USB) HDD. From there, I also have a OneDrive service running on OMV VM, which takes some of the important data and sync it to one drive.

So far the entire backup process seems to be working fine.... but I was just wondering if this Backup Strategy is ok? I also came across Proxmox backup server, I was also thinking should that be a better option for my scenario? Or is there any other option/best practice you guys would suggest?

Looking forward to hear from you experts for any suggestion or feedback..

Many Thanks....

 

[LnxBil]

So far the entire backup process seems to be working fine....

This means you have restored your machines from there or you just mean you successfully written your backup?

I also came across Proxmox backup server, I was also thinking should that be a better option for my scenario?

It's just a little bit overkill for just one small machine, but sure, it'll work and have features you won't have. Best to run it on a seperate system so that you can restore on a newly created PVE box.


In general, a backup system that'll backup and restore everything is always better than a multi-tier setup with different methods (VM with nobackup on disks and do some basic backup yourself). You have to gone through with a full restore in order to be sure it'll work. Disk passthrough is always a problem of backups in virtualized system, because you cannot backup or restore them and have to do this yourself. Therefore, the best solution (with respect to completeness and easy-to-use) is to virtualize everything and backup everything. PBS can help you with deduplication of backups, the stock vzdump is not able to do differential backups. The backup should also be off-site (so not on the same machine). One solution would be to use an old laptop, usb backup disk connected to there and it only powers on once per day, backups everything and shutdowns afterwards. So you have a comlete off-site backup of your main machine and can loose it without beeing able to restore everything.

 

[Nafr1]

This means you have restored your machines from there or you just mean you successfully written your backup?

Yes that's correct.... I have restored the backups on another laptop running Proxmox (just for testing purposes, my live machine is a complete different Proxmox server with the specs I mentioned in my original post). Everything seems to be restoring fine. My only concern is the OpenMediaVault to which I am passing 2 x 8tb HDD for Data and Backup purposes..... they are not getting backed up by Proxmox.... instead OpenMediaVault has rsync job scheduled that mirrors the data between those 2 drives.... The OpenMediaVault VM itself is getting backed up by Proxmox.....


I think maybe the backup setup I currently have is the best in my case I guess...???