[SOLVED] Can I restore a backup if I reinstall the system?

[Hiroi]

Hi, this might probably come out as a dumb question, but I really want to be 100% sure that it works before I try to reinstall my whole system.
So I have 2 PCs running Proxmox (I will name them PC1 and PC2 for simplicity). So I want to reinstall PC1 and I want to restore 2 VMs after I do it. On PC2 I have installed a Proxmox Backup Server in a container, this is where I want to make the backups for the VMs.

So my question is, can I just connect the Backup Server to the PC1 after I reinstall it and restore those 2 VMs that I need?
Thank you!

 

[Dunuin]

So my question is, can I just connect the Backup Server to the PC1 after I reinstall it and restore those 2 VMs that I need?
Thank you!

Yes. But in case those backups are encryption make sure to save your keys. Also keep in mind that the VM backups will only contain the VMs virtual disks, VM firewall rules and VM settings. It won't contain other stuff like the definition of security groups, IPsets, aliases and so on as these are part of the PVE node configs.
So don't forget to also create a copy of your nodes "/etc" folder.
And if you want to be sure that your backups are working, I would run a verify task on the PBS after the backups and do a restore for testing, before wiping your PVE host.
And keep in mind that you can only restore to a single target storage. So might be problematic in case a VM got multiple disks on multiple storages.
And make sure the backup actually contains everything, as passthroughed disk for example might not be part of the backups.

 

[Hiroi]

Thank you! I verified the backups right after I made them. I don't really have a complex config with my VMs, so it should be fine.