Having trouble backing up PBS VM

[eleanor]

I have PBS running as a VM on Proxmox and it has been working fine, backing up all the VMs (including itself) until recently, where now it can't back itself up (log below). The other VMs still back up perfectly.

I started thinking, how can the PBS back itself up if it needs to freeze during the backup? But there are plenty of successful backups it has already made of itself. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? Thanks!

INFO: starting new backup job: vzdump 102 --remove 0 --node pve2 --notification-mode auto --notes-template '{{guestname}}' --mode snapshot --storage pbs-omv
INFO: Starting Backup of VM 102 (qemu)
INFO: Backup started at 2024-01-06 11:20:25
INFO: status = running
INFO: VM Name: Proxmox-Backup-Server
INFO: include disk 'virtio0' 'local-btrfs:102/vm-102-disk-0.raw' 20G
INFO: backup mode: snapshot
INFO: ionice priority: 7
INFO: creating Proxmox Backup Server archive 'vm/102/2024-01-06T18:20:25Z'
INFO: issuing guest-agent 'fs-freeze' command
INFO: issuing guest-agent 'fs-thaw' command
ERROR: VM 102 qmp command 'backup' failed - backup connect failed: command error: http request timed out
INFO: aborting backup job
INFO: resuming VM again
ERROR: Backup of VM 102 failed - VM 102 qmp command 'backup' failed - backup connect failed: command error: http request timed out
INFO: Failed at 2024-01-06 11:22:25
INFO: Backup job finished with errors
INFO: notified via target `mail-to-root`
TASK ERROR: job errors

 

[Dunuin]

Whats the point a PBS backing itself up? If the PVE node ever fails you can'T restore your PBS without that virtualized PBS running and without restoring that PBS you also can't restore any other VM/LXC.
I exclude that PBS VM from the backup job to the PBS. Then another backup job that is only backing up that PBS VM via VZdump to a NFS share.
So in case I ever lose my PVE host I could install it from scratch, then restore the PBS VM from the NFS share via VZDump and later restore all the other guests from the then working PBS.

 

[eleanor]

Whats the point a PBS backing itself up? If the PVE node ever fails you can'T restore your PBS without that virtualized PBS running and without restoring that PBS you also can't restore any other VM/LXC.
I exclude that PBS VM from the backup job to the PBS. Then another backup job that is only backing up that PBS VM via VZdump to a NFS share.
So in case I ever lose my PVE host I could install it from scratch, then restore the PBS VM from the NFS share via VZDump and leter restore all the other guests from the then working PBS.

The PBS backs itself up to an NFS share somewhere else. I like your idea, though. Would you mind sharing how you back up your PBS VM via VZdump?

 

[Dunuin]

The PBS backs itself up to an NFS share somewhere else.

First thats not recommended as it will cripple the IOPS performance that PBS needs. So if possible local SSD storage would be the best option.
Second, what are you doing with the backups on the NFS share? Without a running PBS all that data on the NFS share is useless. With PBS it't not like with VZdump where self-contained archives get created that could be directly restored by PVE.

Would you mind sharing how you back up your PBS VM via VZdump?

Add a NFS/SMB share as a storage in PVE and enable VZDump backups as a content type for it. Then select that NFS/SMB storage as a target for a backup job.

 

[eleanor]

But if I lost the PBS or the node it's on, couldn't I just rebuild a new PBS and attach the NFS share to be able to recover the backups?

 

[Dunuin]

But if I lost the PBS or the node it's on, couldn't I just rebuild a new PBS and attach the NFS share to be able to recover the backups?

Yes, but it will slow down your recovery. Also again...whats the point to backup your PBS to the PBS if you need to install a new PBS from scratch anyways to get access to your backup of your PBS? The point of backing up the PBS VM should be that you don't need to install and set up a completely new PBS VM.