Writing generic data to tape

[Fischer-HWH]

Hello,

due to limitations of our setup and Proxmox combined, I'm in need of writing some generic Data to tape.
Basically, I want to sync files (from a windows box) to Proxmox, and then write that to tape(s). I can of course create a datastore, and just dump the files into that folder, the question is: will proxmox be able to write that onto tapes, preferably with working incremental backups?

I'm of course open to other ideas (and can go into detail why I think I need this), but the point is that the granularity of selecting what gets backed up (and how) in proxmox and pbs doesn't allow me to do that any other sensible way, as far as I can tell.

Thanks!
Fischer

 

[dcsapak]

Basically, I want to sync files (from a windows box) to Proxmox, and then write that to tape(s). I can of course create a datastore, and just dump the files into that folder, the question is: will proxmox be able to write that onto tapes, preferably with working incremental backups?

no thats not how the tape support works

only pbs snapshots ("backups") can by synced onto the tapes, and the format is specially crafted for pbs (to optimize space usage & speed)

I'm of course open to other ideas (and can go into detail why I think I need this), but the point is that the granularity of selecting what gets backed up (and how) in proxmox and pbs doesn't allow me to do that any other sensible way, as far as I can tell.

two options come to mind:

* have a seperate tape (or multiple) that you don't manage with pbs but with another software
* backup the files into its own group via proxmox-backup-client and sync that backup onto the tape
(e.g. export the files from windows to a linux box)

 

[Fischer-HWH]

two options come to mind:

* have a seperate tape (or multiple) that you don't manage with pbs but with another software
* backup the files into its own group via proxmox-backup-client and sync that backup onto the tape
(e.g. export the files from windows to a linux box)

The source machine is a Windows-VM, as far as I know there is no windows version of the proxmox-backup-client?
So unless I'm fundamentally misunderstanding how that client works, I can't do any of that.

Edit: let me clarify, it's not just "some files", it's terrabytes of data. I can't use the normal backup mechanism cause it baloons the main datastore to a size where I need like 8 tapes to backup it once. So I can't just sync it somwhere, THEN bring it into PBS, I don't have that kind of diskspace to have 3 copies of it. The whole point of this is that it's less critical data (archive data, basically) and I don't need as much redundancy or "up-to-date-ness" (sorry, don't know how to properly call that). I would basically like to sync the files to PBS, on some sort of schedule, ZFS-Snapshot it and that covers 98% of what I need for this. Just as an infrequent, additional safety I wouldn't mind writing it to tape, but I can't affort another copy of all of it on disks.

 

[dcsapak]

it could work in two ways:

* install wsl2 and backup from there (i believe there were some forum users that had success with that)
* export the files via e.g. smb to another (linux) machine that mounts that and can use the proxmox-backup-client
(instead of exporting, you could also copy the files to a linux machine ofc, but then you'd need twice the space)

 

[Fischer-HWH]

Ah unfortunate timing, I was just typing an edit to my previous comment that tries to clarify what I'm trying to do as you replied.

I suppose the simplest solution is just to buy an external hard drive (instead of using tapes), occasionally connecting it and (also) syncing it onto that.
But WSL2 or just smb-mounting it to a linux-VM might work to stremaline that process and have it integrated with PBS. I'll have a poke at it and see if that works as expected.

Thanks!