May 7th, 2024
Proxmox VE / Pimox backups copy all the data within the backup. These backups can’t be differential or incremental so they take up a whole lot of space on your backup location. The Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) is a great server that can create true snapshots, allowing differential backups vs. the afore mentioned full backups done by Proxmox VE / Pimox VE on their own. This can save 10x+ space on your storage device, especially on services that don’t change much. However, it does require an x86 chipset, Proxmox Backup Server wont’ run on ARM64 processors, like the Pi.
Proxmox and Raspberry Pi
The nice part, even though PBS won’t run on a Pi, it will backup and restore VMs on a Pi without issue or complaint.
PBS can be run on BareMetal or as a VM on Proxmox. I don’t have an extra x86 machine around to dedicate to Proxmox Backup Server, so I have PBS as a vm on my Proxmox VE server. I back up PBS using the normal Proxmox VE backup process. If I corrupt the PBS VM, or wipe Proxmox I can restore PBS from backup and have all my settings in place. I tested this theory by wiping and rebuilding by Proxmox VE as a test and the VE restore of PBS worked beautifully.
More Details on setting up the Proxmox Backup Server
Proxmox Backup Server Install and Configure
Conclusion
While this article is short and to the point, I can’t say enough about how great a Proxmox Backup Server is and should be included in any Proxmox / Pimox installation.