Backup Proxmox

This article will explain how to backup your Proxmox containers and virtual machines.

Prerequisites

It is assumed that you already setup your Proxmox installation. Additionally, it is assumed that you have a storage available which is eligible for backups. It is recommended to add a storage which is on another device, i.e. a NAS. For more info check this article (wiki.mphslaats.com).

Setup

Login to your Proxmox instance and navigate to Datacenter and select Backup. Now click on Add.
Proxmox will now show you a prompt, fill it in as follows:

• Node: Select your node that you want to backup
• Storage: Select the storage where you want to store the backup
• Schedule: Select the schedule that you want to add to your backup, i.e. Sunday 01:00
• Selection mode: Select which containers and virtual machine selection you want, if you want everything just select All
• Send email to: Add an email to be informed about backups
• Email: Select how often you want to be informed; always or in case of failures
• Compression: Select the compression for your backups, i.e. ZSTD since it is fast and good
• Mode: Select Snapshot
• Enable: Select this to enable the backup

In the Retention tab, select the retention of your backups. It is recommended to set this to a value, i.e. 2, otherwise your storage will be full of backups. Also do not forget to protect your manual backups so they won’t get lost!
Optionally, fill in the Note Template tab and once satisfied click Create.

Finally, you can select the backup and click Run now to test it.