Can proxmox-backup-client do whole machine images?

[tcabernoch]

I want to decomm one of our vCenters, but my boss won't let me take out the last two hosts.
So I want to just decomm Veeam there instead, take our costs down.
Can I have PBS replace Veeam, and run backups on VMs in vCenter?

I've read the wiki.
https://pbs.proxmox.com/docs/backup-client.html#

It looks like it just does file-based backups.
I looked at the restore info. I don't see directions on restoring to 'bare metal' (bare electrons?).
It's default configured to skip stuff like EFI disks.
Sure doesn't look like its setup to help you boot up a restored box.

So ... this proxmox-backup-client thing isn't really fit for bare metal restores, is it?
Sorry for the newb question, but this thing is ... questionable. I've kept well away from it to date.


(Edit ... darnit. Wrong forum. If an admin sees this, drop this post in PBS forum, plz.)

* Da boss saw me going through these contortions and approved the decomm of the VMware cluster. I don't need to run PBS backups on VMware guests anymore, but I'm still interested in whether PBS is a suitable tool.

 

[LnxBil]

So ... this proxmox-backup-client thing isn't really fit for bare metal restores, is it?

As far as I understood, not so easy. You still have to setup bios/grub or EFI manually (so partitioning). You also need a live boot medium to try it out.
There were people how said that you could create a block device backup, yet I haven't found a working command to check that.

It's funny that you asked this today, I started to evaluate this for a customer just today and I can keep you posted.

 

[Kingneutron]

https://github.com/kneutron/ansitest/tree/master/proxmox

Look into bkpsys-2fsarchive - works with ext4 and XFS; zfs boot/root is a different matter.

I've done dozens of restores with it, P2V and P2P

But if you're backing up a vmware vm, isn't there a way to export it to OVF? Or last resort, download the .vmdk files and .rar them or similar?

 

[tcabernoch]

Thank you both.

Ok, the VMware question first. Absolutely, it does basic backups out of the box. Not well, but they do work.
And we have a (defunct) system for ESXi backups that I could probably resurrect.
I guess I wanted to use PBS for sake of simplicity and fewer systems at play.
Also, at some point, I want PBS to be the only backup system.

Bill . Dang. You've got all the bad news. Ok, no block storage backup command that works. And you have to DYI the restore process. Lovely.

King . Haha. Found your github w bkpsys-2fsarchive. Ok. It looks like that thing could work if I needed it. I have more confidence in your completely understandable hack than this black box proxmox-backup-client.

 

[LnxBil]

https://github.com/kneutron/ansitest/tree/master/proxmox

Look into bkpsys-2fsarchive - works with ext4 and XFS; zfs boot/root is a different matter.

I've done dozens of restores with it, P2V and P2P

But if you're backing up a vmware vm, isn't there a way to export it to OVF? Or last resort, download the .vmdk files and .rar them or similar?

That does not work with PBS directly, yet does some of the steps that need to be done. It's a good starting point but curretnly limited to PVE itself.

You also need to backup and restore the partition table and the filesystem uuids in order to get a workable solution. I tested yesterday the non-uefi part of the backup and it worked, yet there are some steps involved to get this of the ground for more complicated setups than a simple one-disk setup.

PBS wasn't built for this, yet could be used for this. I am confident that a common restore practice can be established - at least for Linux-based systems.