[SOLVED] Incremental backup & VM restore?

[Razva]

Hello,

I've setup a small Proxmox cluster + PBS. Everything is OK, all VMs are successfully backed up.

Here are some questions:

1) Are the backups incremental "by default"? Because I couldn't find any selector regarding full backups OR incremental backups

2) How can I restore a backup to a Proxmox node from the PBS, in case of a full node failure?

Thank you!

 

[tom]

You will find all answers in our documentation:

https://pbs.proxmox.com/docs/

 

[Razva]

You will find all answers in our documentation:

https://pbs.proxmox.com/docs/

The documentation provides these answers:

1. Regarding incremental, this is specified only in the FAQ:

With Proxmox Backup Server, backups are sent incremental and data is deduplicated on the server. This minimizes both the storage consumed and the network impact.

I couldn't find more information about this, or about making full backups vs incremental.

2. Regarding the restore process, the documentation specifies information about this only in the Backup Client -> Restore Data section. Unfortunately I'm not able to understand how this works. Supposing that I have a new/fresh/empty Proxmox node, how can I fully restore a backup from the PBS to the Proxmox node?

Thank you

 

[blackpaw]

2. Regarding the restore process, the documentation specifies information about this only in the Backup Client -> Restore Data section. Unfortunately I'm not able to understand how this works. Supposing that I have a new/fresh/empty Proxmox node, how can I fully restore a backup from the PBS to the Proxmox node?

Thank you

Add the pbs to the servers storage as normal, go to the backups list for that storage, select a backup and restore.

 

[Razva]

Add the pbs to the servers storage as normal, go to the backups list for that storage, select a backup and restore.

Thanks!

Any hints about incremental vs full?

 

[blackpaw]

I think only the first backup is full, and all else are incremental after that.

 

[Razva]

I think only the first backup is full, and all else are incremental after that.

Ok. If one wants to make full backups via PBS, is that possible?

 

[blackpaw]

Going by the web ui, I don't think it really works that way - you backup a VM its an incremental based on the last backup.

 

[Cookiefamily]

Ok. If one wants to make full backups via PBS, is that possible?

PBS works different than most other Backup Solutions.
I think the best way to put it is to say that backups are always full, but they get created in an incremental manner.

The incremental part: Proxmox VE knows what parts of the drive actually changed and will only need to transfer those to the backup server. That's what incremental backups would also do.

And back at the backup server is where the full part starts: We are deduplicating backups, data that already exists doesn't need to be saved to disk again. PBS creates a index file for your latest backup and references all chunks of data that were present on that drive at that moment. In that regard it behaves like a full backup, it does not need a "base" to merge incremental or differential backups with, it just knows what data was present at that point and can restore that. Just like a Full Backup.

 

[Man67]

Add the pbs to the servers storage as normal, go to the backups list for that storage, select a backup and restore.

I connected the store to store2. I made a backup of VM 220 in snapshot mode. On the backup server, I received a save as in picture 1. When I go to the backup section for VM 220, the backup storage is empty. If I go to the storage store2 , I see the saves as in picture 2, but I cannot restore them. What am I doing wrong ?

 

[Razva]

I connected the store to store2. I made a backup of VM 220 in snapshot mode. On the backup server, I received a save as in picture 1. When I go to the backup section for VM 220, the backup storage is empty. If I go to the storage store2 , I see the saves as in picture 2, but I cannot restore them. What am I doing wrong ?

Try to make a new post, as this one deals with totally different issues/questions.