How to Perform Offsite Backups of Your Proxmox Backup Server (PBS): A Guide

Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) is an essential tool for anyone running a Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE). It allows for seamless backups of your virtual machines (VMs) and containers. But one of the questions that comes up frequently is how to effectively perform an offsite backup of your PBS. In this article, we will explore various approaches to securely backing up your PBS data to a remote or cloud location.

Understanding the Setup

In many homelab setups, users run Proxmox Backup Server virtualized, often alongside TrueNAS or another NAS solution. Here’s a common scenario: one server handles the virtual environment (PVE and VMs), while the other server is responsible for the PBS and storage, typically mounted via an SMB or NFS share hosted on the same machine.

The main challenge arises when users want to ensure their backups are not just locally stored but also securely duplicated to an offsite location for disaster recovery.

Let’s explore some strategies and solutions shared by other users in the community.

1. Using TrueNAS Cloud Sync

One user suggests utilizing TrueNAS’s Cloud Sync functionality to synchronize their PBS datastore with a cloud storage provider such as Backblaze. TrueNAS Cloud Sync can automate the process of syncing your data from your Proxmox Backup Server to a remote cloud location, which is particularly useful in scenarios where you want to offload backups regularly without manually handling them.

Pros:

• Automated Syncing: Cloud Sync takes care of regularly syncing data to your cloud storage.
• Retention Policy Compliance: Cloud Sync can respect your Proxmox Backup Server’s retention policies, ensuring that only the necessary backups are synced.

Cons:

• Full Datastore Sync: While you can sync individual folders, some users note that their entire TrueNAS is being synced, which might be overkill. Fortunately, the source directory for the backup can be customized to avoid syncing unnecessary files.

As one user pointed out, “You can choose the source datastore you want to sync, and using ‘sync’ mode ensures that the cloud copy respects PBS’s retention policy.”

2. Offsite PBS with Providers

There are cloud providers offering Proxmox Backup Server services, which provide a remote PBS setup for your backups. Services like Tuxis PBS offer up to 150GB of free storage, making them a viable solution for users who want an external location to back up their PBS data.

Pros:

• Dedicated PBS: Some cloud providers offer PBS as a service, which means you can directly sync your local PBS data to their platform.
• Ease of Use: Hosted PBS services are usually well-integrated with Proxmox environments, making setup and ongoing backups straightforward.

Cons:

• Cost: Depending on the size of your backups, you may need to upgrade to paid plans, which can add up over time if you are handling large amounts of data.

As a user shared, “I use cloud-pbs as a hosted PBS where I sync my primary PBS to. It works flawlessly!”

3. Rsync to Remote Server or Cloud

For those who prefer more granular control over their backup process, using rsync to copy PBS backup data to a remote server or cloud storage can be a good option. Rsync is a command-line tool for synchronizing files between two locations, and it’s widely used for backup purposes.

Pros:

• Flexibility: Rsync gives you full control over what is backed up, when, and to where.
• Simple Verification: It also offers basic integrity checks to verify that backups are complete and haven’t been corrupted during transfer.

Cons:

• Manual Intervention: Rsync might require manual setup or scripting to automate. You need to ensure that it’s properly configured to run at intervals and verify the integrity of the backup.

As one user mentioned, “I assumed rsync would verify everything,” but it’s essential to verify the setup properly to avoid unexpected issues with missing or corrupt data.

4. Cloud-Based Storage Solutions

Another popular solution is leveraging cloud storage solutions like Amazon Glacier or Backblaze for long-term, low-cost storage. These services are ideal for offloading large amounts of backup data that do not need to be accessed regularly.

Pros:

• Cost Efficiency: Amazon Glacier, for instance, is designed for archival storage, with very low costs for storing large volumes of data.
• High Availability: Cloud storage is typically highly available and redundant, ensuring that your backups are secure and accessible from anywhere.

Cons:

• Restoration Time: Restoring data from cold storage like Amazon Glacier can take time, as the data needs to be “retrieved” before it can be accessed.

5. On-Premise Remote Backup

For those who prefer keeping data within their infrastructure but at a different location, setting up a secondary on-premise PBS server at a remote site is an option. This could be another home location, a friend’s house, or even a small server hosted elsewhere.

Pros:

• Full Control: You maintain full control over your backup data and can access it without relying on third-party cloud providers.
• Faster Restoration: Data restoration from an on-prem remote server could be faster than cloud solutions.

Cons:

• Maintenance and Costs: You’ll need to handle the server’s hardware, networking, and software maintenance, which may incur additional costs.

Conclusion

Backing up your Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) to an offsite location is critical to ensure your data is safe in case of hardware failure, disasters, or other unexpected events. Whether you choose to use cloud storage, a hosted PBS service, rsync, or a remote on-premise server, the key is ensuring regular, reliable, and verifiable backups.

As one user emphasized, “Do you have anything in mind as to how to verify backups in cloud will be intact/recoverable? Storing in a cloud drive won’t cut it without getting your hands dirty.” Regardless of the method you choose, always ensure that your backup strategy includes regular testing of restoration processes.

In the end, finding the right balance between ease of use, cost, and control will help you develop a backup strategy that ensures the safety of your virtual infrastructure.