delete old VM backup 100 but new backup not execute

[frankz]

Hello everyone I deleted an old VM from PBS with id 100. The new VM always with id 100, from error in the backup.
I solved the problem because inside the datastore there was the same id 100 but with the notes inside the folder. So I delete the 100 folder and now it works.

root@pbs:/mnt/datastore/EVO/vm/100# ls -l
total 1
-rw-r--r-- 1 backup backup 14 Sep 25  2022 notes
root@pbs:/mnt/datastore/EVO/vm/100#

NFO: starting new backup job: vzdump 100 --mode snapshot --remove 0 --storage evo1tb --notification-mode notification-system --notes-template '{{guestname}}' --node pve
INFO: Starting Backup of VM 100 (qemu)
INFO: Backup started at 2026-05-28 07:33:46
INFO: status = running
INFO: VM Name: piholeVM
INFO: include disk 'scsi0' 'crucialhp:100/vm-100-disk-0.qcow2' 32G
INFO: backup mode: snapshot
INFO: ionice priority: 7
INFO: creating Proxmox Backup Server archive 'vm/100/2026-05-28T05:33:46Z'
INFO: issuing guest-agent 'fs-freeze' command
INFO: starting backup via QMP command
INFO: issuing guest-agent 'fs-thaw' command
ERROR: VM 100 qmp command 'backup' failed - backup connect failed: command error: unable to read "/mnt/datastore/EVO/vm/100/owner" - No such file or directory (os error 2)
INFO: aborting backup job
INFO: resuming VM again
ERROR: Backup of VM 100 failed - VM 100 qmp command 'backup' failed - backup connect failed: command error: unable to read "/mnt/datastore/EVO/vm/100/owner" - No such file or directory (os error 2)
INFO: Failed at 2026-05-28 07:33:46
INFO: Backup job finished with errors
INFO: notified via target `mail-to-root`
TASK ERROR: job errors

 

[Chris]

Hi,
please post the output of proxmox-backup-manager version --verbose. There were older versions of PBS which did not cleanup the backup group folder when removing the last snapshot of the group. This was however fixed in recent version, so as a first step please assure you are running the latest available versions.

 

[frankz]

Hi,
please post the output of proxmox-backup-manager version --verbose. There were older versions of PBS which did not cleanup the backup group folder when removing the last snapshot of the group. This was however fixed in recent version, so as a first step please assure you are running the latest available versions.

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Last login: Thu May 28 07:40:18 2026 from 192.168.3.7
root@pbs:~# proxmox-backup-manager version --verbose
proxmox-backup 4.2.0 running kernel: 7.0.2-6-pve
proxmox-backup-server 4.2.0-1 running version: 4.2.0
proxmox-kernel-helper 9.0.4
proxmox-kernel-7.0 7.0.2-6
proxmox-kernel-7.0.2-6-pve-signed 7.0.2-6
proxmox-kernel-7.0.2-5-pve-signed 7.0.2-5
proxmox-kernel-7.0.2-4-pve-signed 7.0.2-4
proxmox-kernel-6.17 6.17.13-11
proxmox-kernel-6.17.13-11-pve-signed 6.17.13-11
proxmox-kernel-6.17.13-10-pve-signed 6.17.13-10
pve-kernel-5.4 6.4-4
pve-kernel-5.13.19-2-pve 5.13.19-4
pve-kernel-5.4.124-1-pve 5.4.124-1
pve-kernel-5.4.65-1-pve 5.4.65-1
ifupdown2 3.3.0-1+pmx12
libjs-extjs 7.0.0-5
proxmox-backup-docs 4.2.0-1
proxmox-backup-client 4.2.0-1
proxmox-mail-forward 1.0.3
proxmox-mini-journalreader 1.6
proxmox-offline-mirror-helper 0.7.4
proxmox-widget-toolkit 5.2.2
pve-xtermjs 6.0.0-1
smartmontools 7.5-pve2
zfsutils-linux 2.4.2-pve1
root@pbs:~#


Anyway now that I remember I had published a post about the error a long time ago, which was then verified. The error is that when you deleted a VM and sevi were of the note, this folder remained the same.