Restore a "proxmox-backup-client" save, to a seperate standalone linux

[lanepark5033]

(This is a test enviornment)
I managed to save a backup to a local PBS of a disk (.img) from my standalone linux. Now I want to restore said backup to the same disk on the standalone system.
Do I have to run the "restore" from the PBS cli, or can I run the "restore" from my standalone system cli ?
If I can run the restore from my standalone system how do I code the actual "target" parameter ?

 

[Chris]

Do I have to run the "restore" from the PBS cli, or can I run the "restore" from my standalone system cli ?

You will run the command on the client you want to restore your image to, not the PBS server.

If I can run the restore from my standalone system how do I code the actual "target" parameter ?

You can use pbs-restore for this, this thread might help you https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/restore-individual-disk-from-pbs.115024/

Edit: Also, since pbs-restore might not be available to you on your standalone Linux system, you can dump the restored content stream to stdout by using - as target for proxmox-backup-client restore so you can pipe that further to e.g. dd to write to a block device.

 

[lanepark5033]

You will run the command on the client you want to restore your image to, not the PBS server.


You can use pbs-restore for this, this thread might help you https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/restore-individual-disk-from-pbs.115024/

Edit: Also, since pbs-restore might not be available to you on your standalone Linux system, you can dump the restored content stream to stdout by using - as target for proxmox-backup-client restore so you can pipe that further to e.g. dd to write to a block device.

Thanks for the thoughts Chris, I've been trying what you suggest and the PBC comes back with "target missing argument". I specified the following from the cli of the standlone system that I used to backup the disk I'm trying to test to be sure when and if I need it, I can restore and be on my merry way.
Here is what I'm using so far:
sudo proxmox-backup-client restore --repository /root@pam@192.168.4.89:host/daily:host/daily/2025-07-15T00:43:51Z lpbkup - | dd of=/dev/sdc
Here is the error message:
Error: parameter verification failed - 'target': missing argument

 

[Chris]

Thanks for the thoughts Chris, I've been trying what you suggest and the PBC comes back with "target missing argument". I specified the following from the cli of the standlone system that I used to backup the disk I'm trying to test to be sure when and if I need it, I can restore and be on my merry way.
Here is what I'm using so far:
sudo proxmox-backup-client restore --repository /root@pam@192.168.4.89:host/daily:host/daily/2025-07-15T00:43:51Z lpbkup - | dd of=/dev/sdc
Here is the error message:
Error: parameter verification failed - 'target': missing argument

Just tested this here without issues, my command line invocation looks like:

proxmox-backup-client restore host/<hostname>/<snapshot> <archive-name>.img - --repository root@pam@<pbs-host>:<datastore> | dd of=<path-to-target> bs=4M

So I guess you are not providing the correct arguments, e.g. you have the repository starting with / and the snapshot separated by : and no archive name extension...

 

[lanepark5033]

Just tested this here without issues, my command line invocation looks like:

proxmox-backup-client restore host/<hostname>/<snapshot> <archive-name>.img - --repository root@pam@<pbs-host>:<datastore> | dd of=<path-to-target> bs=4M

So I guess you are not providing the correct arguments, e.g. you have the repository starting with / and the snapshot separated by : and no archive name extension...

Again thanks for the info and how you restored a disk.
I see that you changed the order of parms such that hostname and archive name preceed the --repository statement.
In the mean time I was able to get the restore to work, and though I used a different order of info I think your order of info of the restore attempt makes more sense and will redo the my testing accordingly.
I did notice that the info supplied by "error processing" of my failed attempts does not indicate where my errors were, and a google search of how a restore should be attempted was more informative.
Heres what worked for me:
sudo proxmox-backup-client restore -repository root@pam@192.168.4.89:lpbkup host/win11/2025-07-16T00:18:48Z disk.img - | dd of=/dev/sdd status=progress bs=254M
The disk in question is a standalone win11 that I normally dual boot from grub. I restored the disk and switched out the original win11 disk and was able to boot the restored copy. (It's fairly important to not have both disks on the system as duplicate uuids makes linux crazy )