Knowledge base · Proxmox Backup Server
Proxmox Backup Server — guides
From first login to datastore setup, sync jobs, prune and performance tuning.
Overview
18 articles in this category
From setup to advanced topics, in a sensible order.
First login to the Proxmox Backup Server — what you see in the GUI
After ordering, the login mail arrives. Here's an overview of the most important areas of the PBS GUI — datastore, sync, tape, users, notifications.
Setting up the datastore as a backup target in Proxmox VE
Add your xaweho PBS datastore to your Proxmox VE in a few clicks — via GUI or CLI, with fingerprint and login.
Creating an encryption key for PBS and storing it safely
Enable client-side encryption with AES-256-GCM. Generate the key, store it safely and register it in the PBS storage.
Running your first backup to the PBS — step by step
A manual test backup of a single VM to check that the datastore is connected correctly and everything works.
Configuring a backup job in Proxmox VE — schedule, retention, encryption
How to set up an automatic backup job that regularly sends your VMs and containers to the PBS.
Understanding the backup overview in PBS — snapshots, verifications, logs
How to read your datastore content in the PBS GUI, browse snapshots, interpret verifications and find logs.
Restoring a complete VM or container from PBS
Step by step: select the backup snapshot, choose the target storage, keep or reassign the VM ID — and start the restore.
Restoring a single file from a VM backup (file restore)
You only need one file back from a VM, not the whole VM? PBS can browse VM backups and extract individual files — without a full restore.
Backup verification — how PBS checks the integrity of your backups
Verification recalculates the hashes of the backup chunks and makes sure nothing is corrupt. Here's how to enable regular verifications and read the results.
Prune explained — how PBS automatically clears out old backups
Prune decides which snapshots get deleted — based on the retention policy. What it does, what it doesn't do, and why it frees no storage on its own.
Garbage collection explained — what actually frees up storage in PBS
Garbage collection (GC) clears out orphaned chunks left behind by prune. How GC works, when it runs and why it's allowed to take longer.
Configuring retention policies — keep-last/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly
How to configure a sensible retention for your backups — from the standard setup to strict compliance requirements.
Sync jobs — mirroring backups to a second PBS
How to copy your PBS backups regularly to a second site — to your place at home, for example, or to another location.
Backing up multiple Proxmox VE hosts to one PBS datastore
Cluster setup, separate hosts, standalone PVE — how to merge multiple PVE sources into a single PBS datastore without them getting in each other's way.
Protecting backups from ransomware — append-only and sync strategies
How to configure PBS so that compromised PVE hosts or admin accounts cannot delete your backups.
Understanding storage usage in PBS — deduplication and reporting
Why 100 GB of backups often occupy just 30 GB, how to read the actual usage and why the reported sizes look so odd.
Setting up email notifications in PBS
So you get a mail immediately when a backup, a verification or a sync job fails — before it's too late.
Performance tuning for slow PBS backups
When backups or restores take longer than expected — what to check on your Proxmox VE, what we can adjust on the server side, and when it's simply your connection.
Ask us about Proxmox Backup Server.
If a guide is missing or a step doesn't work — open a ticket. We help directly and update the knowledge base where it makes sense.