[SOLVED] HOW TO BACKUP PROXMOX CONFIGURATION FILES.

[adresner]

One thing I don't understand is, why there is no webUI integration to back up some folders. As you already can use the proxmox-backup-client in CLI to do host backups and backup any file, folder or block device to your PBS server. I for example already use that to backup my PVE config files as well as the whole system disk on block level. It's just not simple to set that all up so most people won't use it.

I didn't know about the CLI

 

[patch]

Yeah, but the problem here is that PVE is not an appliance like TrueNAS or pfsense where it is easy to export and import a config file that contains all the configs. You are not supposed to do anything with pfsense that is not part of the webUI/CLI so you always exactly know what needs to be backed up and every installation is identical, except for some standardized config files.
But PVE is a whole OS where you are allowed to do stuff

• pfsense runs on FreeBSD just as Proxmox runs on Debain.
• In both there is nothing stopping you adding upstream packages and user specific modifications.
• pfsense has a GUI utility to backup the norml pfsense configuration, the extra user specific additions then must be separately handled by those users.
• Proxmox lacks the GUI functionality to backup the generic Proxmox configuration, which is a significant deficiency in my opinion.

Edit
Thinking about it further, when backup is done in pfsense there is the option to backup just the core configuration or also include larger data files.

Having the same facility in Proxmox would be ideal i.e. backup Proxmox core configuration +/- VM's. The value of such facility is in disaster recovery. If a Proxmox update (or other failure) results in an unusable system, the user can restore (all or most of) a prior valid configuration without manually re-entering all data.

I do understand large installations with HA and Proxomox linked on many computers, may use a single computer back / restore less often, however the lack of this functionality does restrict the user base comfortable with testing new Proxmox versions, reducing the crowd sourced testing Promox benefits from.

 

[Dunuin]

• pfsense runs on FreeBSD just as Proxmox runs on Debain.
• In both there is nothing stopping you adding upstream packages and user specific modifications.
• pfsense has a GUI utility to backup the norml pfsense configuration, the extra user specific additions then must be separately handled by those users.
• Proxmox lacks the GUI functionality to backup the generic Proxmox configuration, which is a significant deficiency in my opinion.

Yeah, and when using an appliance like TrueNAS Core you can do what you want as it also is based on FreeBSD but every upgrade will wipe your installed packages or changed config files breaking stuff you set up earlier outside of the webUI.

 

[andersostling56]

I found a nice backup script on github if you’re interested

Link: https://github.com/DerDanilo/proxmox-stuff

Thank you, fits my setup perfectly!