Proxmox Install and backups

[Dataninja]

Looking for guidance before I mess anything up and have to reinstall Proxmox from scratch.

Being new, I may have incorrectly setup my Proxmox partitions. Forgive me in advance if I'm misusing certain terms in the Proxmox world.

I have 2 SSD drives, 1 TB SSD and a 2 TB NVME SSD:

• 1 TB SSD
  • local (Directory) - 100GB
  • local-lvm (LVM-Thin) - 900 GB
• 2 TB NVME SSD
  • ZFS for my VM/Containers (guests?)

Questions:

1. I'm in the middle of learning about backups and it's stored on "local" which only has 100GB of space. Can I just remove the local-lvm in the GUI since I won't be using it for my VMs/Containers to make space for my back ups? My VMs and Containers are currently installed on the ZFS 2 TB NVME SSD
2. Is backups as simple as just highlighting the backup in the GUI and then clicking restore? Does the original VM/Container need to be deleted before restoring from the backup?
3. I wanted to use a snapshot with my Plex LXC container, but since I've mounted an NFS share, only back up is an option. For homelab best practice, how many copies of the back up do you make? I'm trying to grasp how to best use the retention.

 

[Dunuin]

Questions:
I'm in the middle of learning about backups and it's stored on "local" which only has 100GB of space. Can I just remove the local-lvm in the GUI since I won't be using it for my VMs/Containers to make space for my back ups? My VMs and Containers are currently installed on the ZFS 2 TB NVME SSD

No. You would need to manually manage your LVM in the CLI (destroying LVM thin pool, extending root LV, resizing ext4 filesystem and so on). Also keep in mind that you probably want a backup of your config files ("/etc" folder) and those shouldn't be stored on the same 1TB disk, so you don't lose the PVE installation and the backups at the same time.

Is backups as simple as just highlighting the backup in the GUI and then clicking restore?

For VMs/LXCs yes.

Does the original VM/Container need to be deleted before restoring from the backup?

No.

I wanted to use a snapshot with my Plex LXC container, but since I've mounted an NFS share, only back up is an option. For homelab best practice, how many copies of the back up do you make? I'm trying to grasp how to best use the retention.

Use the proxmox backup server instead of VZdump. Then retention doesn't matter that much, when data isn't heavily changeing, as nothing has to be stored twice. 100 backups of a VM that barely ever changes doesn't need much more space than a single backup of that VM. I for example keep 12 daily, 8 weekly, 12 monthly and 3 yearly backups + some manual backups before doing any bigger updates/changes.

 

[Dataninja]

First, Thank your patience and assistance, Dunuin. You answered my other questions about Ram in another thread and it's greatly appreciated.

No. You would need to manually manage your LVM in the CLI (destroying LVM thin pool, extending root LV, resizing ext4 filesystem and so on). Also keep in mind that you probably want a backup of your config files ("/etc" folder) and those shouldn't be stored on the same 1TB disk, so you don't lose the PVE installation and the backups at the same time.

Do you have a link to a resource on how to back up the /etc folder? Or is it something I can do in the GUI? I currently have a NFS share to my Qnap NAS and could back it up there.

Solved: This one work in resizing the volume.
I found the following syntax in another thread, but I'll continue researching:
lvremove /dev/pve/data ("data" didn't exist on my system)
lvresize -l +100%FREE /dev/pve/root
resize2fs /dev/mapper/pve-root

Does the original VM/Container need to be deleted before restoring from the backup?

No.

If I don't delete the original VM/Continer and a static IP was set, would there be a conflict on the restore since the restore would have a new container ID, but share the same IP config as the original?

Use the proxmox backup server instead of VZdump. Then retention doesn't matter that much, when data isn't heavily changeing, as nothing has to be stored twice. 100 backups of a VM that barely ever changes doesn't need much more space than a single backup of that VM. I for example keep 12 daily, 8 weekly, 12 monthly and 3 yearly backups + some manual backups before doing any bigger updates/changes.

Is the PBC something I can run in a container and I define the location like a NFS sharae or is it something else I run outside of Proxmox?

 

[Dunuin]

Do you have a link to a resource on how to back up the /etc folder?

That really depends on how you want to do it. Usually running some commands via crontab or systemd timers:
- proxmox-backup-client in case a PBS is available
- tar+gzip to a NAS share or backup disk
- rsync that folder to a NAS share or backup disk
But make sure the mountpoint "/etc/pve" is also included.

If I don't delete the original VM/Continer and a static IP was set, would there be a conflict on the restore since the restore would have a new container ID, but share the same IP config as the original?

When restoring a VM/LXC using another VMID and using static IPs, this would cause problems, beause of conflicting IPs. When restoring a guest using the same VMID PVE will destroy the existing guest and replace it with the one from the backup.

Is the PBC something I can run in a container and I define the location like a NFS sharae or is it something else I run outside of Proxmox?

Both will work. But best would be to get a dedicated host. You can only restore stuff when the PBS is running and it won't be able to run when your VM/LXC or system disk fails. Or PVE somehow just refuses to boot.

 

[Dataninja]

That really depends on how you want to do it. Usually running some commands via crontab or systemd timers:
- proxmox-backup-client in case a PBS is available
- tar+gzip to a NAS share or backup disk
- rsync that folder to a NAS share or backup disk
But make sure the mountpoint "/etc/pve" is also included.

Thanks, Dunuin. I've been doing a lot research and using your guidance to get this going. I've made progress, but I hit a wall with -rsync.

I was able to successfuly setup a key on the host, imported the key to the remote server (NAS), and tested the (NAS) with SSH successfuly; however, when I run the rsync to back up the "/etc/pve" it continues to ask me for a password for my NAS (password doesn't)

I've searched the web and argued (lol) with ChatGPT to try to get it to use the key instead of a password, but can't get it to work.

Also, I'm looking into getting a dedicated host for PBS, maybe a very low powered NUC. This homelab stuff is really fun/addicting. I need to be careful of power creep.