TrueNAS VM PBS

Preparation

• Create a Bridge for the VM to use. On bond0 I have br0 with my main IP.
• Create a user: backup
• Download Proxmox Backup Server Installation ISO to your PC
• You need to have an app for VNC, my choice is Remmina

If you want to use a LXC, see my ofter blog, TrueNAS LXC 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, Dataset Preset leave as Generic.

Change the properties

Roles

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

Set up the VM

Go to Instances and Create a new Instance: Debian 12 LXC and start it up

• Use your previously downloaded ISO on your PC

• Set CPU to 1 or 1-2, RAM to 4 GiB, Root Disk to 10 GiB (it's only for the OS)
• Enable VNC, use a port that is free and a password.
  • You need to have an app to open VNC, my choice is Remmina

PBS Installation

Hit the Create button and the VM will start, if not, check your settings.

Start Remmina direct or via the Browser on vnc://<IPofNODE>:<PORT> like

vnc://192.0.2.40:5900 as an example, see the Instance for more.

The Installation screen is now showed in the VNC window

Install PBS as you would do on real rust. The VNC connection will break a few times, but just relogin and continue installation.

Fill in the parameters like your: Country, Keyboard, Timezone, Password, e-mail, FQDN and IP address. Hit Install and you are ready.

Login to your new virtual PBS on the IP shown on the Welcome screen.

Add the Dataset to the VM

This will be done in the in the PBS shell

We will use the Dataset we created and set as a NFS share in the beginning.

Open the VM (PBS-vm) shell and run this, changing the IP, path, and mount point to fit your server.

echo "<IP>:/mnt/<pool>/<dataset> /backup nfs vers=3,nouser,atime,auto,retrans=2,rw,dev,exec 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

# Example
echo "192.0.2.100:/mnt/sas-tank/pbs-backups /backup nfs vers=3,nouser,atime,auto,retrans=2,rw,dev,exec 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

Reboot the PBS VM

Final steps

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

Using a 3d party Post Install Script

To use the Proxmox Backup Server Post Install script, run the command below only in the PBS Shell. This script is intended for managing the Repositories and removing the Nag Screen.

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/main/tools/pve/post-pbs-install.sh)"

References

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