How do I add a 4TB HDD to PBS

[bearhntr]

I have a PVE server with about 6 VMs, and today I re-purposed my old Win2019 DC to be a PBS server. It has a 4TB HDD and a 60GB SSD for boot.

I have installed PBS to the 60GB, and want to setup the 4TB drive to allow me to use this a backup space for my PVE systems, and VERY MUCH hope that I can use it for backing up other systems in my home.

Is this (A) Possible and (B) how would I best set this up? Currently the 4TB HDD is completely empty - fully wiped.

 

[Dunuin]

In the PBS webUI, go to "Administration -> Storage / disks" and either create a "Directroy" storage using etx4/xfs or create a "ZFS" storage. ZFS doesn't make much sense with just one disk. So I would choose the "Directory" storage.

Backing up other Debian systems can be done using the proxmox-backup-client. For other OSs it won't be that easy. Especially because Proxmox doesn't offer a client for Unix(Win/MacOS/iOS/Android. But PBS is based on Debian, so you could install other Debian packages as you like. I'm sure there are other backup softwares that can run on Debian and backup Win/Mac hosts. Like Bacula, Borg or Urbackup.

 

[bearhntr]

In the PBS webUI, go to "Administration -> Storage / disks" and either create a "Directroy" storage using etx4/xfs or create a "ZFS" storage. ZFS doesn't make much sense with just one disk. So I would choose the "Directory" storage.

Backing up other Debian systems can be done using the proxmox-backup-client. For other OSs it won't be that easy. Especially because Proxmox doesn't offer a client for Unix(Win/MacOS/iOS/Android. But PBS is based on Debian, so you could install other Debian packages as you like. I'm sure there are other backup softwares that can run on Debian and backup Win/Mac hosts. Like Bacula, Borg or Urbackup.

Sounds like PBS is not for me then. I have PVE and can easily backup those VMs to a removable USB HDD (1TB is size) - but sounds as if backing up my other stuff to this PBS server is not going to be easy. :-( Shame that it seems it is designed to only backup Proxmox VMs (mainly).

 

[Dunuin]

Sounds like PBS is not for me then. I have PVE and can easily backup those VMs to a removable USB HDD (1TB is size) - but sounds as if backing up my other stuff to this PBS server is not going to be easy. :-( Shame that it seems it is designed to only backup Proxmox VMs (mainly).

Jup, but only with PBS you will be able to do incremental backups. Without it your backups will consume a multiple of the space and are much slower. Because with vzdump you always need to backup the full VM/LXC again and again, even if the VM/LXCs didn't changed much since the last backup. With PBS you only need to backup that data, that actually changed since your last backup. So the more revisions of a VM/LXC you want to keep, the bigger the saved space with PBS will be.

 

[bearhntr]

Jup, but only with PBS you will be able to do incremental backups. Without it your backups will consume a multiple of the space and are much slower. Because with vzdump you always need to backup the full VM/LXC again and again, even if the VM/LXCs didn't changed much since the last backup. With PBS you only need to backup that data, that actually changed since your last backup. So the more revisions of a VM/LXC you want to keep, the bigger the saved space with PBS will be.

Most all of the VMs on the PVE box have their own backup process (pfSense, HomeAssistant, etc.) - but I have been making a weekly backups using the PVE backup of the machine to the External 1TB USB HDD and keeping two of them..when I do number 3 - the old number 1 gets deleted.

I would not see a reason for 'incrementals' as this is just something in my home. I can look into something else. Appreciate the response.

 

[Dunuin]

I would not see a reason for 'incrementals' as this is just something in my home. I can look into something else. Appreciate the response.

An example: A Single 100GB VM that only changes 1GB per day and 7 daily backups as retention.
Vzdump needs to back up 7x 100GB so it takes some time. Vzdump stored 7x 100GB so 700GB in total.
PBS only needs to back up 1x 100GB once, then 6x 1GBs so it's way faster. PBS stored 1x 100GB + 6x 1GB, so 106GB in total.

Great thing is that you aren't forced to only keep a few backups. Doesn't really matter if you keep 1 or 30 backups of the same VM. Won't consume that much more space. So you can keep daily + weekly + monthly backups. In case your disk crashes you only lose 1 day of data because you can restore the last daily backup. In case you upgrade a VM and 2 weeks later you realize that a feature doesn't work anymore and you need to revert the upgrade, you can restore that weekly backup. In case you are hit by ransomware or your data silently corrupts and you only realize that months later when you try to open that file, which then fails, you can clone that VM from a monthly backup to restore a healthy version of that corrupted file.
So not bad to have some versioning, especially if it basically comes for free.

But your decision