Validate my backup and restore to new server process

[proxmonger]

Hi,

Age old question about backing up and restoring a VM, from one Proxmox server to another. It seems to have worked but I wanted to run it by this forum to make sure I did not miss anything that will come back and bite me later, and also to check if there might have been a better way to do it.

• I stopped the VM on the old server and performed a backup via GUI
  • Storage: local
  • Mode: Stop
  • Compression ZSTD
• Found the backup in /var/lib/vz/dump/
• SCP'ed the .zst file to the new server to its /var/lib/vz/dump/ directory
• Could not find a way to locate the backup file via GUI. Is there a way to do that?
• At the CLI performed a qmrestore <filename> <ID>
  • Restored failed with an error of "failed: storage 'local-lvm' does not exist".
  • I understand the error, but I could not find instructions anywhere on how to prepare a configuration the new server to restore a VM into. Is there any documentation on how to do that?
• Even though it failed, the action did create a VM node in the GUI and its backup dashboard had the zst file listed.
  • Should I have done something different at the CLI to prevent the failure above?
• Restored the VM from that backup file with the GUI and was able to specify the local storage on this new server.

This did not feel like an ideal backup and restore process. What could have I done better?

Thanks and cheers!

 

[mariol]

Could not find a way to locate the backup file via GUI. Is there a way to do that?

If /var/lib/vz/dump/ has also been declared for backups at the target, the backup is also visible at the target in the GUI.

I understand the error, but I could not find instructions anywhere on how to prepare a configuration the new server to restore a VM into. Is there any documentation on how to do that?

When restoring with a dump where the target storage does not exist, the VM is still created. This must then be deleted before the restore is carried out again with the correct target storage. Have a look at the manpage, or help option: qmrestore help

For example:

qmrestore /mnt/pve/fullbackup/dump/vzdump-qemu-143-2024_10_14-12_30_13.vma.zst <new_VMID> --storage teststore01

 

[proxmonger]

Thanks, Mario! This is helpful.

To make sure I understand this completely. In the future if I move a backup file from one server to another, on the new server I can just execute the following:

qmrestore /mnt/pve/fullbackup/dump/vzdump-qemu-143-2024_10_14-12_30_13.vma.zst <new_VMID> --storage teststore01

to restore the VM on the new server, correct? (obviously with the correct CLI parameters).

If I wanted to do this via the GUI, I can navigate to the Backups directory, select the backup, and select Restore?

Regards!

 

[mariol]

to restore the VM on the new server, correct? (obviously with the correct CLI parameters).

Yes, you only need the storage option if the storage entered in the VM-config, does not exist at the target server.

If I wanted to do this via the GUI, I can navigate to the Backups directory, select the backup, and select Restore?

Yes, there is also an option to choose the right target storage.

 

[proxmonger]

Thank you again, super helpful!