TrueNAS LXC PBS

Preparation

• Create a Bridge for the LXC to use. On bond0 I have br0 with my main IP.
• Create a user: backup

If you want to use a VM, see my ofter blog, TrueNAS VM PBS

Create a dataset and share

Go to Datasets, point to the correct pool and hit Add dataset for the PBS data. Select a Name for this dataset, like pbs-backups, leave Dataset Preset as generic.

Change the properties

Roles

• Hit Create NFS Share → Advanced Options → Maproot User and set to root

Create a LXC for PBS

• Go to Instances and Create a new Instance Container with the default Debian Bookworm Image. Leave all as default, and start it up by hitting Create.

PBS Installation

We need to use shell for the rest of the installation.

Run these Commands in the LXC shell.

Update the packages

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y

Add wget

sudo apt install wget -y

Add the PBS-No-Subscription repository

echo "deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pbs bookworm pbs-no-subscription" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

Deactivate the Enterprise repository

sed -i '/enterprise/ s/^/#/' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pbs-enterprise.list

Add GPG keys

wget https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-release-bookworm.gpg -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-release-bookworm.gpg

Update the LXC

sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

Install the Proxmox Backup Server

sudo apt update && apt install proxmox-backup -y

When the mail config screen comes up, select Local only and hit OK

For the System mail name, hit OK to accept the LXC name

Get the IP of the PBS

echo "https://$(ip -4 addr show $(ip route | grep default | awk '{print $5}') | grep inet | awk '{print $2}' | cut -d/ -f1):8007"

Set the root password

passwd root

Check for success

• In your browser, go to the printed IP address to access the webui. The commands will print the IP address just before asking you to create a root password.
• Login to the webui as root and the password you just created

Add the Dataset to the LXC

This will be done in the System Shell

Go to System → Shell and run the following as root:

• <container-name> ⇒ the name of the container, pbs-lxc
• mkdir -p ⇒ Create a mount point inside the container with a name, backup
• path= ⇒ is the mount point in the LXC
• <mnt/pool/dataset> ⇒ use your Dataset from the host

sudo su
sudo incus exec <container-name> -- mkdir -p /backup && sudo incus config device add <container-name> mydataset disk source=<mnt/pool/dataset> path=/backup shift=true

Mount the Dataset

sudo incus exec <container-name> -- mkdir -p /backup && 
sudo incus config device add <container-name> mydataset disk source=/mnt/tank/pbs path=/backup shift=true

Add the Datastore

Go to the PBS GUI and hit Add Datastore and add the Datastore you created.

Create a Datastore admin user on PBS GUI

Go to Acces Control and add a new user, pbs-user to the PBS realm

Go to Datastore → backup → Permissions and add this user as a DatastoreAdmin

Final steps – if you didn't do this step earlier

If you don't have a subscription

Go to Configuration → Administration → Repositories and do the following:

• Add the PBS-No-Subscription repository
• Disable the Enterprise repository

Set up your functions

Now add the New backup server to your nodes and set up the parameters for all your backups as for the Prune & GC and Verification. If you have several PBS servers, set the Sync Jobs as needed according to your backup-strategy.

Example, simplification

Backups run during the night to minimize network traffic during daytime. The way PBS do its backups, they are extremely fast (incremental) after the first time, and uses minimum storage space (my Deduplication Factor is 85.33 after almost 3 years).

• Garbage Collection, daily @ 19.00
• Verification, daily @ 20:00
• Sync Job, daily @ 21.00
• Prune job, daily @ 7:00

Initial runs

Do the initial runs by hand and add the schedule after that.

Add the PBS to your PVE

Go to your cluster or stand-alone PVE Datasenter → Storage and add PBS.

You should also set the Backup Job calling the new PBS and set the Schedule and Selected Nodes, Note Template (Cluster, Guest name, Node, VM ID) and other. The Retention is set on the PBS according to your strategy.

{{cluster}}, {{guestname}}, {{node}}, {{vmid}}

Removing the Nag Screen

echo "DPkg::Post-Invoke { \"dpkg -V proxmox-widget-toolkit | grep -q '/proxmoxlib\.js$'; if [ \$? -eq 1 ]; then { echo 'Removing subscription nag from UI...'; sed -i '/data\.status.*{/{s/\!//;s/active/NoMoreNagging/}' /usr/share/javascript/proxmox-widget-toolkit/proxmoxlib.js; }; fi\"; };" >/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/no-nag-script

References

PBS ^[1] Incus ^[2] Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts ^[3] LinuxContainers ^[4]