PBS configuration for LXC inside raidz

[adrymax]

Hi
Thankfully I did install Proxmox VE then PBS inside LXC using tteck script.
Also I did configure the backup storage as a raidz. then I did create a ZFS dataset for backup storage.
After that I did create a mount point for the PBS LXC inside the backup dataset. to use it as the backup storage.

Am I doing it right?
And what suggestion do you have to improve this setup?
Thank you

 

[UdoB]

Am I doing it right?

Sure Thinking about a strategy to backup data is an important step. Your solution will work. Of course nearly every acceptable implementation has potential for a better construct.

Also I did configure the backup storage as a raidz.

With SSDs/NVMe? Fine.

With rotating rust? Not good. Single vdev? You'll get the IOPS of a single drive only. And PBS needs relatively high IOPS. If you need to use classic HDD I highly recommend to use an additional "Special Device" built with good quality SSDs.

Proxmox VE then PBS inside LXC using tteck script.

So..., when this hardware server dies, the PVE instance will die and the Backup system will die - at the same time. A backup system is generally better placed on independent hardware.

But hey..., I use a very similar system for my daily backups (@home) - plus multiple separate PBS's turned on only once a week for some hours. (Mainly for energy cost reasons, but also to make them immutable.)

 

[adrymax]

Thank you so much.

With SSDs/NVMe? Fine.

With rotating rust? Not good. Single vdev? You'll get the IOPS of a single drive only. And PBS needs relatively high IOPS. If you need to use classic HDD I highly recommend to use an additional "Special Device" built with good quality SSDs.

I will consider that for sure.
I just thought: server backup = more data = spinning rust !

So..., when this hardware server dies, the PVE instance will die and the Backup system will die - at the same time. A backup system is generally better placed on independent hardware.

Of course if you have more than one server : )

This bring an important question: are there a way to backup/restore just the essential data? So you can install new Proxmox then import those files instead of restoring a full backup which is much difficult.

 

[UdoB]

This bring an important question: are there a way to backup/restore just the essential data?

All my PBS' store encrypted data, they can not access the plain data. (Maybe this is overkill, but that's the way it is here.)

You can go to PBS --> Datastore --> <your datastore> --> Content --> open a backup by clicking "+" --> an "Open Folder" will be clickable and you can cherry pick single files to download.

I could not test this... as it is encrypted.

On PVE it works similar, and here the data is (of course) unencrypted: PVE WebGui --> <that VM> --> Backup --> select Storage: <your backup system> --> select one specific backup --> Top bar: "File Restore" --> drill down "drive-scsi0.omg.fidx --> part --> 2 ( or other partition with the largest size = probably drive C: ) --> Users --> <your user in Windows>" --> Documents --> ... --> Download as ".zip" --> save to where you want --> open the .zip and copy the file(s) to the original location. (Copied example for a Windows -VM.)

You can NOT restore a subset directly into a running VM.

I just thought: server backup = more data = spinning rust !

Yes, sure. I did that also, with four drives as two mirrored pairs. After some time I had put some TB of data there. Then listing the content of that datastore took so long that I got timeouts and an empty list. Only the second try was successful - because now most of the directory data was already read into the ARC. Another few weeks later this approach stalled also and I had to delete some backups to get going again. Meanwhile I learned about that "Special Device" and I rebuilt my pool. While the vast amount of data is on the HDDs the meta-data is completely stored there. Now listing the content is faster than ever. Just saying...