[March 2026] Proxmox Backup Client - Unofficial ARM64 Install for Ubuntu Server 25.10?

SInisterPisces

SInisterPisces

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Hello,

I've got a couple of Pis running Ubuntu Server 25.10 (Ubuntu kernel 6.17).
Since these would otherwise be virtual machines but for Reasons® (mostly, they're running workloads that I want to stay running in the event my Proxmox cluster has some sort of catastrophic failure), I'd like to use Proxmox Backup Client to back these up to my existing Proxmox Backup Server, which has plenty of room and, perhaps most importantly, is already configured and working. :P

I know that there are a few different ways to get an ARM build of Proxmox Backup Client up and running, but I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out which approach would be best for use on the ARM build of Ubuntu Server 25.10.

I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!
 
I wouldn't use some unsupported built fo backing up important data.
Instead I would use a backup tool which works with ssh to create backups on a dedicated dataset beside your backup datastore.

For example restic works with sftp (and any cloud provider who supports s3) but also has it's own http-based server: https://github.com/restic/rest-server
You could install it beside the PBS on your PBS or create a lxc/vm with it in your regular Proxmox environment and afterwards back that up with PBS.
Another option would be rsnapshot which works with ssh and rsync and has the benefit of not storing data in a binary format (at the cost of additional needed sotrage) so you yould setup a rather basic lxc (alpine would propably be enough) with a ssh service to store your rsnapshots on. This rsnapshot lxcs would then be backed up with PBS (and will also profit from PBS deduplication that way): https://rsnapshot.org/
rsnapshot utilices hard links to save space, so even without PBS deduplication it would be quite cost-effective just not that much as PBS with compression+deduplication.
restic uses similiar mechanisms like PBS for deduplication and compression so I wouldn't nest their backups. But installing rest-server beside PBS should work. The developers provide a docker image (something you don't want to use on PBS) but also binary downloads which also can be easily updated with a self-update option. You will just need to create a dedicated user/group for running it together with a systemd service unit. The developers provide one in the examples subfolder of their repo.

So restic is great if you want to have a similiar feature set like PBS but want to be able to restore your backups without a running PBS instance (restic would also be able over a ssh connection or even if you attach the data disc to the machine you want to restore to). rsnapshot on the other hand is great for having the backups in a easily browsable format while still being able to use PBS for the (more space-efficient) longtime storage.
Imho proxmox-backup-server is best for vms and lxcs, for bare metal backups another backup tool is the better choice and of course there are more tools than rsnapshot or restic ;) YMMV.
 
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Given that ARM64 and ARMhf devices are not exactly uncommon, I've just spent an hour trying to get pbs client installed on an armhf 32 bit device, I should have registered the first time that sudo apt update returns

Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-armhf/Packages' as repository 'http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pbs-client bookworm InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'armhf'
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-arm64/Packages' as repository 'http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pbs-client bookworm InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'arm64'

Is there anyway to build an arm client from source? from another sinister Pisces..
:)
 
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rcw88 said:
Given that ARM64 and ARMhf devices are not exactly uncommon, I've just spent an hour trying to get pbs client installed on an armhf 32 bit device, I should have registered the first time that sudo apt update returns

Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-armhf/Packages' as repository 'http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pbs-client bookworm InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'armhf'
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-arm64/Packages' as repository 'http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pbs-client bookworm InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'arm64'

Is there anyway to build an arm client from source? from another sinister Pisces..
:)
Click to expand...
Proxmox (the entity) doesn't maintain an official ARM build, but, I believe, doesn't actively try to block ARM users from forking it.

Take a look at this, for instance:
https://github.com/wofferl/proxmox-backup-arm64

I'd definitely be interested to know if you get it working. :)
 
What's the ask specifically?, is it to have a PVE client or a regular Linux client?. I'm working to repacke the Linux client for other distros (openSUSE/Rocky), for x86_64 and ARM64, I could extend the work to build for Debian ARM64 until there are official builds.

Scope is just repackaging, no functional modifications vs upstream code. Also, no plans for PVE integrations since upstream should provide that.
 
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cyruspy said:
What's the aske specifically?, is it to have a PVE client or a regular Linux client?. I'm working on repackaing the Linux client for other distros (openSUSE/Rocky), for x86_64 and ARM64, I could extend the work to build for Debian ARM64 until there are official builds.

Scope is just repackaging, no functional modifications vs upstream code. Also, no plans for PVE integrations since upstream should provide that.
Click to expand...

Availability of the PBS client for for backing up general ARM64 servers even beyond PVE, (like what we can do with the the x86_64 builds on non-PVE hosts).

If you are willing to volunteer your time to do that, that would be most excellent of you, and I would love to be kept in the loop about any progress on it. More than happy to help test too if you need another pair of hands (fair few non-PVE ARM64 things at my end running different distros that I would love to feed into PBS to take advantage of deduplication et al); Debian would be especially useful too.

Try as I might, there's no getting away from non-cluster dwelling odds and ends. :- ) It would be very nice indeed to be able to roll embedded appliances and Pi projects into PBS for backups (seems like Active Backup for Business on Synology hasn't really been maintained for contemporary Linux kernel versions for several years, no ARM builds either, but I'm quite enamoured with PBS! Reliable and sensible! Really very pleased with it!).
 
cyruspy said:
work is actually ongoing, validation will be only done for x86_64 in my personal lab, plus smoke test for aarch64.

I expect first batch finished for tomorrow:

https://download.opensuse.org/download/repositories/home:/ciriarte:/pbs-client/
https://github.com/ciroiriarte/pbs-client

If you can provide feedback it would be awesome.

What distros are in your wishlist?
Click to expand...
By the way, it seems I'm late to the game.

Another user has done the same:

D

Thread 'Inofficial proxmox-backup-client RPM builds for RHEL-based distros'

Since there is currently no official RPM build, I created automated builds of the proxmox-backup-client for RHEL based distros on Fedora's COPR.

You can find the builds and further instructions here: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/derenderkeks/proxmox-backup-client/
The source for the builds is here: https://gitlab.com/DerEnderKeks/proxmox-backup-client-rpm

My builds are available for amd64 and aarch64, and are mostly based on the version from the AUR. I'm currently using them on Rocky Linux 9 without any problems.
If you have any issues with the builds or need a...
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