Connection Error with USB-Device

GrafZahl

New Member
Jan 3, 2025
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1
I am running a PVE on a HP Microserver Gen 10+.
To run daily backups I am running a PBS inside a VM on the PVE. As backup-storage I use an external USB-harddisk which is passed into the PBS with USB-passthrough.
As I also need USB on the host I can not PCI-passthrough the USB-controller.
I also need all SATA-Ports ob the PVE.
On the external USB-drive is an ext4 partition ontop a luks-layer. It is USB3-chassy with a Seagate Ironwolf HDD.

It is running, but when doing backups I get "connection errors" in the PBS like the following:


```
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: starting new backup reader datastore 'externes_backup_1_crypt': "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1"
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: protocol upgrade done
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: GET /download
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: download "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/ns/minipve/ct/116/2026-03-03T03:24:04Z/root.mpxar.didx"
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: register chunks in 'root.mpxar.didx' as downloadable.
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/b1ce/b1ced323115b3659cde78dd3762ce29624baffde3af0093614b1a18a2a0ff490"
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:18:20+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/dda9/dda977da581476d3f75f9a5db2259acbc33a159a453da9946b34ec9d64457e79"
2026-03-08T18:18:36+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:18:36+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/2a7f/2a7f1d17e4ca4a86234f595ed3c3c473540425c79492eb663ab292df5aa3d90c"
2026-03-08T18:18:57+01:00: TASK ERROR: connection error: not connected
```

```
2026-03-08T18:00:50+01:00: starting new backup reader datastore 'externes_backup_1_crypt': "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1"
2026-03-08T18:00:50+01:00: protocol upgrade done
2026-03-08T18:00:50+01:00: GET /download
2026-03-08T18:00:50+01:00: download "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/ns/minipve/ct/101/2026-03-03T03:00:30Z/root.mpxar.didx"
2026-03-08T18:00:50+01:00: register chunks in 'root.mpxar.didx' as downloadable.
2026-03-08T18:00:51+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:00:51+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/ad31/ad31965081c72caccea9ef3ce2ddabd43da015664feedd53b5b3fa01e06ce237"
2026-03-08T18:00:51+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:00:51+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/4d30/4d30b4f319c858a9b14679710bf20f381d1e21b731f296eef77584b4eade869b"
2026-03-08T18:00:51+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:00:51+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/efbf/efbfbe981c65b6285385ef883c7ee53e8ec4493d08f38f9ffd1dd3336930b8e9"
2026-03-08T18:00:51+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:00:51+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/ac9f/ac9f8bf6dda442134fff832677d7b227aa8a5f09eeaeddc61babc74bd762a2c1"
2026-03-08T18:00:52+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:00:52+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/bd5f/bd5ff7395abe8254f58540503ed01daced331592a44d4b4cb6136d34ecbacf2f"
2026-03-08T18:00:52+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:00:52+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/b026/b0266495deebf169204d0c4afe19d268a782b738cf89e4221d3503eed735ef73"
2026-03-08T18:00:53+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:00:53+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/63c8/63c8bcaa415b983adab22a7935753d242a03eaedb6497ca97e4bf799fb480b3e"
2026-03-08T18:01:00+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:00+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/8c7c/8c7c1a9da00d784a63a6b53f7f47104a9ea0927db4ff3a29e9aaeb83902ed3c6"
2026-03-08T18:01:00+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:00+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/4b89/4b894e7c11f384bd3d147b6c447b959e8d0369f12fcda672b2d9c87ad251652f"
2026-03-08T18:01:04+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:04+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/6de5/6de5a7bf51d0ea6e4f72dcffa93b357df2039790a16fe3f1518ec3a1e4c1b30d"
2026-03-08T18:01:06+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:06+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/16e5/16e5494f9a6be206ba0e8d45685ff3f057b8898baf10d61e6efea5b8647e7816"
2026-03-08T18:01:07+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:07+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/86c9/86c9a48bdffee7bb3b0832099063f3f3a72b53d99b12ec36456eb675ab5a75d3"
2026-03-08T18:01:07+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:07+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/0a14/0a14f88864f7f1a1f53417e9631c6ee1e9ef52dda23d037fd5cc36418214c718"
2026-03-08T18:01:08+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:08+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/bcac/bcaced26f90cb26dc34b714001910272db286075037c78e18c7b3e42ad93be2f"
2026-03-08T18:01:09+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:09+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/caf6/caf6b9b9c93de4eef8859d4492a910f6ee3ee633745c7e31da1a5ee84bd65fe0"
2026-03-08T18:01:10+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:10+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/df17/df178f71510e9db9c55361ee2063a7f6b8a21591a728476f1ea12e9e7e9ceafe"
2026-03-08T18:01:11+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:11+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/aeda/aedab9860d54941383e962c34f8df9c254c875036101d761b797dac3a27de0be"
2026-03-08T18:01:46+01:00: GET /chunk
2026-03-08T18:01:46+01:00: download chunk "/mnt/datastore/externes_backup_1_crypt/ds1/.chunks/71ef/71ef89c5a319f389f056335ee33182754381193cac910ff350bc0bfca4002e19"
2026-03-08T18:02:47+01:00: TASK ERROR: connection error: not connected
```

I already switched to another USB-chassy and another power supply

At next I mounted the external drive on the PVE and did a virtiofs-directory-passthrough. But with the same errors.

I have no good ideas what else could cause the problems. Can anyone help?

I know this is not recommended. I know the backup has no redundancy. It's not the only backup I have.
 
The USB ports in these older system are notoriously unreliable, and using that for PBS which is a heavy on the I/O appliance is really asking for trouble.
In addition to that using a spinning disk as your backup data store is also a problem due to the heavy I/O loading. I think that Proxmox recommend SSD (but it's been a while since I checked that).

The only way I've found to reliably use USB drives on my Intel 6th Gen mini PC's was to utilise an OMV VM and then create network shares, but in your case that will also be a problem for connecting a PBS data store to one of those shares.
 
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