Noob question - can I backup to USB with no GUI access?

[vrutherford]

I have inherited an older ProxMox server (version 4) on a machine that has a bad network card, so no GUI access. (It's an old Dell R710 that is being retired.) There's a file server VM that I'd really like to get the files off of, but since I can't access it, I thought maybe I could stop the VM and export it to a USB hard drive plugged into the server itself. Then, pop that USB drive into a new ProxMox server that I just built and somehow do an in-place upgrade to get the VM online? I looked, but couldn't find a walk through on how to export a VM to USB using only the console. Is that even possible to do without access to the GUI?

There is another server in a different building that I might be able to harvest parts from, but I haven't been able to confirm that yet. That might be the easier way to go if I can get it to recognize the new network card?

Thanks for any guidance you can give me.

 

[leesteken]

You can run vzdump from the command line. Formatiing and mounting a USB storage works as any other Linux.

 

[louie1961]

You could do a lot of things from the command line, or you could boot the server off of a USB drive with a live distro. I like Parted Magic for this kind of stuff, but it is no longer free. It costs $15. But to me its worth it. You'll be able to mount virtually any drive/file system and copy data to USB with a graphical interface or on the command line.

 

[vrutherford]

You could do a lot of things from the command line, or you could boot the server off of a USB drive with a live distro. I like Parted Magic for this kind of stuff, but it is no longer free. It costs $15. But to me its worth it. You'll be able to mount virtually any drive/file system and copy data to USB with a graphical interface or on the command line.

That is an excellent idea that for some reason I didn't even consider. I think I will try that first.

 

[vrutherford]

You can run vzdump from the command line. Formatiing and mounting a USB storage works as any other Linux.

OK, thanks for pointing me in the right direction!