Tuxis launches free Proxmox Backup Server BETA service

[leesteken]

Hey, is it possible to backup PVE virtual machines using an API key instead of the actual login and password? When logged in with my username and password, everything works fine, but I'm getting the following error when trying to back up my VM using an API key:

ERROR: VM 100 qmp command 'backup' failed - backup connect failed: command error: backup owner check failed (DB1000@pbs!api-key != DB1000@pbs)

(number in the username (after DB) and api-key names redacted for privacy)

Something like this hit me a quite some time ago: If there are exising backups owned by the user, then an API-key is typically not allowed to access them and backups fail. Change the owner of the existing backups to the API-key and all should work again. At least I think that's how I fixed it.

 

[fabian]

@leesteken that's exactly right (and the user that the "owner" API token belongs to will be able to access/manage those backup groups as well!)

 

[tuxis]

The free version is temporarily unavailable sold out*. Running accounts are unaffected. We are getting quite a few requests, which is of course great. We find that the server we create the free accounts on is too busy. So we are going to upgrade that server.

We think most will use it for their home projects, and that's fine. Some will also order an account to test it for their business. To avoid giving those testers the wrong impression, we can't add any more users to it. Paid accounts are still available. Those are on different servers.

If you have a company, and still want to test, please let us know. Then we will create a paid account. If you cancel within a month, and let us know that it does not work as you expected, we will not send an invoice and will, of course, ask you what went wrong (we would prefer you to contact us beforehand ).

When new free accounts can be created again, we will post it here.

We would like to thank the free users who helped us with troubleshooting things. And if you are a free user and are having trouble, don't hesitate to create a ticket on https://support.tuxis.nl/en

*It said unavailable but should be sold out. It might assume that running accounts are shut down. This is not the case. We just don't create new ones at this time.

 

[hanoon]

Don't waste your time signing up for their service - I think they just collect users' data at this point.

We can't deliver the free version at the moment. Please follow us at Linkedin. We will post there when we have upgraded the servers. https://www.linkedin.com/company/tuxis-internet-engineering/ With kind regards, Vriendelijke groeten,

 

[fabian]

@hanoon @tuxis posted an announcement and the reasoning behind the current unavailability literally in the post above yours, and it also clearly states on their front page that the free offering is "temporarily sold out".

 

[hanoon]

I think it would have made sense to disable the form collecting users' data (with an explanation) rather than keeping it up while they were aware they can't support those free plan beta requests, Instead of promoting paid ones which they can support at the moment

Additionally, If they can't honor the requests that made it through the form, It would have been respectful to respond to the ticket with an apology message (explaining the issue) rather than asking for help getting popular

 

[tuxis]

Hi @hanoon We do not want to ignore your complaint but also prevent misinformation.
Since we placed the announcement, both on the page as in the form, it says that it is not available. And even the ones that did order got a reply that we could not deliver. We are not in it to collect data. In that case, we would have a waiting queue.
Not sure what went wrong or why you chose not to contact us but use this forum. But feel free to mail us via info@tuxis.nl if you want your personal info deleted from our systems (we do not know who you are at this point).

 

[hanoon]

@tuxis I have no intent to accuse or judge your business model nor derail the focus from your solution in this thread, It was my experience, and frustration that I shared so others are aware and have proper expectations, I'm glad you turned off the form and edited the post above mine to clarify further.

For the sake of everyone's time - I'm clear and hope you resolve your capacity issues to offer the service soon.

 

[Dunuin]

I see why Tuxis stopped adding more free customers. The free PBS server is already at its performance limit with GC tasks (of only 43GB data) failing after running for 20+ hours. Also had some verify tasks with failed chunks and sometimes the backup tasks are failing because the PBS datastore isn't reachable (but the latter could also be a network problem on my side).

But customer support was very fast and friendly so far.

Maybe it would be a good idea if the Proxmox team could add some mechanism that will monitor the IO load, RAM usable and CPU load over the day and then a special type of daily/weekly/monthly schedule that will run the GC/verify/prune tasks at varying times, whenever there is the least load on the server. So the resource utilization could be optimized when running a lot of datastores on a single server for multiple customers?

 

[rason]

Don't waste your time signing up for their service - I think they just collect users' data at this point.

We can't deliver the free version at the moment. Please follow us at Linkedin. We will post there when we have upgraded the servers. https://www.linkedin.com/company/tuxis-internet-engineering/ With kind regards, Vriendelijke groeten,

I strongly disagree with you. As a satisfied customer of Tuxis, I have found their service to be extremely helpful and efficient. I have never felt like they were collecting my data for any nefarious purposes. I understand that the free version may not be available at the moment, but I have full confidence in the Tuxis team to upgrade their servers and provide us with the service we need. I encourage you to follow Tuxis on LinkedIn for updates, as they suggested, and to give their service a try when it becomes available again.
Also, I would like to mention that PBS offers the option to encrypt your backups before sending them. This ensures that Tuxis does not have access to your data, giving you complete control and peace of mind. I have personally used this feature and found it to be extremely helpful in maintaining the security of my data.

 

[tuxis]

Good news!

Our free version of #Proxmox Backup Server is available again. You can order again @ https://tuxis.nl/en/pbs
We have expanded the storage, added NVMe cache, more cores and more memory.
Questions? Don't hesitate to ask!

 

[r0PVEMox]

Got a PBS made ready for me today. I just uploaded the VMs into the remote PBS. Impressive.

 

[Ivan Dimitrov]

Why is the 1TB version only available for companies? I have requested the 150GB version but I will most likely need more storage and it will be bad if I can't grow it. I mean my money are the same as company money

P.S.
This looks like much more elegant solution than what I was planning - backup the PBS stores to bacblaze via the S3 interface.

 

[tuxis]

Why is the 1TB version only available for companies? I have requested the 150GB version but I will most likely need more storage and it will be bad if I can't grow it. I mean my money are the same as company money

P.S.
This looks like much more elegant solution than what I was planning - backup the PBS stores to bacblaze via the S3 interface.

The problem is VAT rules when supplying private persons. We have to register in each country and calculate VAT according to the rules of that country. We are a B2B company and not equipped to invoice that way.

We were able to help some by pointing out a company that can resell our PBS service in your country. So if you contact us, we might be able to help you.

 

[Zappy]

@tuxis why my account was deleted ? and none of my email get answered ?
that's really a shame.
anything going on there ?

 

[tuxis]

Hi @Zappy

We have sent a mailing, if there has never been data in your datastore, your account will be deleted. We would like other people to be able to test these accounts too.

What is your email? Then I'll take a look at your ticket.

 

[rjblake]

Have just requested my free account and got a reply with the details in under 5 minutes. Have setup a quick backup job to the Tuxis service and it is busy running very well (constrained by my rather poor upload speed). So far 10/10 for this free offering!

 

[tuxis]

The free version is temporarily sold out. Running accounts are unaffected. We are getting quite a few requests, which is of course great. We find that the server we create the free accounts on is too busy. So we are going to upgrade that server again.

When new free accounts can be created again, we will post it here.

 

[lukyjay]

@martin the title of this sticky post is a bit misleading given its now a paid service

 

[tuxis]

@martin the title of this sticky post is a bit misleading given its now a paid service

It is only temporarily sold out. We are adding servers and it will be available again. By unsticking it, other enthusiast will not know it exists.
So there will be free accounts available soon.