PBS questions

proxwolfe

Active Member
Jun 20, 2020
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Hi,

I was wondering whether PBS

- can accept backups from other PCs/NASs (or only from PBE)
- can on-backup to other destinations (like NASs or "the cloud")

If not, I would like to suggest these as features.

Thanks
 
Hi,

I was wondering whether PBS

- can accept backups from other PCs/NASs (or only from PBE)
If these computers use linux you can use the PBS client from CLI.
- can on-backup to other destinations (like NASs or "the cloud")
Not sure what you mean with "on-backup" but you can use a NFS share on a NAS as your datastore for backups. But thats not recommended...
 
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If its these computers use linux you can use the PBS client from CLI.
In particular, I am thinking of my Synology NAS. Which is Linux based. I will have to check whether I can install this PBS client there. Thanks for the pointer!

you can use a NFS share on a NAS as your datastore for backups. But thats not recommended...
Yeah, that's what I meant - sort of anyway. I was thinking of backing up my PBS to yet another server (so that I would have one backup on PBS and a backup of the PBS on the other server).

What you are suggesting, if I understand it correctly, amounts to having the backup (only) on the other server and PBS working as a conduit. The thing is, the other server is in a remote location. But I guess I could do two backups to my PBS, one to a local datastore and one on a remote NFS.

I will need to check whether I can mount NFS via the internet into my PBS.

Why is it not recommended?

Thanks!
 
I was thinking of backing up my PBS to yet another server (so that I would have one backup on PBS and a backup of the PBS on the other server)
You can do that by installing a second PBS server that syncs its datastore(s) from the first one.

But I guess I could do two backups to my PBS, one to a local datastore and one on a remote NFS.
Yes, but a completely separate offsite PBS server would be a more reliable and secure approach imho.
 
Yes, for best results use local (mirrored) SSDs as storage and 2 PBS server on different locations and sync them.
If it is just for home use a NFS share on a NAS running on some HDDs will work too. I do it that way here and it works fine if you don't need grwat performance. And I use ZFS replication to sync the NFS share from my main NAS to my backup NAS.
 
You can do that by installing a second PBS server that syncs its datastore(s) from the first one.
Yes, but a completely separate offsite PBS server would be a more reliable and secure approach imho.
Yes, for best results use local (mirrored) SSDs as storage and 2 PBS server on different locations and sync them.


Investigating the sync (replication) route:

While the offsite PBS server would be separate, its contents would be dependent on the local PBS, right? So, not completely independent.

Would you say backing up to a local PBS and additionally backing up to a remote PBS would be prefereable? Or would just backing up locally and syncing to a remote location be safe enough? The latter option, to me, has the advantage that I don't have to punch a hole in the remote location's firewall (as, from what I understand, the remote PBS initiates the syncing).
 
While the offsite PBS server would be separate, its contents would be dependent on the local PBS, right? So, not completely independent.
No. Once synced, it's independent. Deletes / Prunes from the local PBS do not get synced to the remote PBS.
The remote PBS can be configured with it's own Pruning schedules, though.
 
What if I have 2 PVE servers +2 PBS servers and I create backups on both.
My backups from PVE1 will be removed when I sync the backups from PVE2? My goal is to have both PBS servers synced.
 
My backups from PVE1 will be removed when I sync the backups from PVE2? My goal is to have both PBS servers synced.
You actually could save to different PBSes and sync them by using different datastores for each PVE instance.
And if you backup different VMs (not the same VM on both PBSes), the backups should not "collide" in any way, whatsoever.
 
You actually could save to different PBSes and sync them by using different datastores for each PVE instance.
And if you backup different VMs (not the same VM on both PBSes), the backups should not "collide" in any way, whatsoever.
Indeed. My plean is to use different VM ids on PVE hosts.
 
You can do that by installing a second PBS server that syncs its datastore(s) from the first one.
I am setting up a PBS server for this purpose.

When this is all in place, how will I get my synced backups back, in case something happens to my local backup? Should I register a local user with the remote PBS as well?

Thanks!
 
When this is all in place, how will I get my synced backups back
You can add your second PBS on your PVE servers (ideally using a readonly user for security) and restore directly from the second PBS.
Or you can create a sync job on your first PBS that syncs from the second PBS, which essentially syncs back all your stuff.
 

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