Proxmox Host backup

[bluepr0]

Hello!

I'm in total love with Proxmox. It just works, it just runs. However I'm having a hard time finding a way to create a configuration backup of the whole hypervisor. I've read some threads where people are suggesting to backup /etc folder, so on but I thought that there's probably a cleaner/oficial way of doing this through the web GUI?

Thanks and keep up the great work guys!

 

[Dunuin]

No, there is not. If you want a not that complete but regular backup, you can backup your "/etc" folder. If you want a complete backup of your PVE you can boot into clonezilla and create a block level backup of your complete boot/system disk.

If you are using PBS on a remote machine you can use the proxmox-backup-client (only CLI) to do both of the above.

 

[bluepr0]

No, there is not. If you want a not that complete but regular backup, you can backup your "/etc" folder. If you want a complete backup of your PVE you can boot into clonezilla and create a block level backup of your complete boot/system disk.

If you are using PBS on a remote machine you can use the proxmox-backup-client (only CLI) to do both of the above.

Thanks for the reply. Basically I can backup the etc folder and replace it in a new server and I will get the hypervisor as it was before?

 

[Dunuin]

Thanks for the reply. Basically I can backup the etc folder and replace it in a new server and I will get the hypervisor as it was before?

Its not that easy. PVE is a complete Debian/Ubuntu based Linux OS and not just an appliance. That means you can do whatever with it you want (install and configure nearly all programs you can think of) but that also means its very complex and each host can be different. Only saving some folders like "/etc" + "/root" + "/home" + "/var" is like just like only saving the user folder of a windows machine. You will get a copy of most user files and configurations but copying the user folder to a new windows machine won't make it working the same way. You are missing all the installed programs and so on.
So saving the config is a great help so you don't need to setup everything again from scratch but it isn't a full backup. Especially if you customized your PVE alot.

Before and after every big change to the hypervisor I create a full blocklevel backup of my complete boot/system disks. So in case something bad happens I can restore a out-of-the-box working 1-to-1 copy of my complete PVE system (without guests that are on separate disks and backed up individually). And then I got my automated daily backups of the "/etc", "/root", "/home" and "/var" folders.
So in case of a desaster I would first restore the (possibly months old) blocklevel backup, run apt update && apt dist-upgrade to bring it to the lastest version and then copy over the contents of my "/etc", "/root", "/home" and "/var" folders from the past day.