Backup Proxmox containers and Virtual Machines to a portable USB drive

Posted byMvandeK

I use a Samsung Portable SSD T7 for offline backups of containers and VMs. It is formatted with the exFAT filesystem, making it readable by multiple operating systems.

This guide requires basic Linux knowledge and is intended for occasional backups, as there are better solutions than backing up to portable SSDs.

Mounting the portable USB drive in Debian

  1. Open the shell via the Proxmox webinterface or login via SSH
  2. List the current attached SCSI, SATA, or USB drives:
    ls -l /dev/ | grep sd
  3. If the command output is not empty, it will list the connected drives and partitions:
    sda
    sda1
    sda2
    sda3
  4. Attach the portable SSD to the computer on which Proxmox is running
  5. Check if the portable SSD is correctly detected by Proxmox:
    lsusb
  6. The portable SSD should be visible in the results:
    Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04e8:61fb Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd PSSD T7 Shield
  7. Create a local directory which will be used to mount the portable SSD:
    mkdir -p /root/ssd/
  8. List the current attached disks again, to verify which disk has the partition we want to mount into the local folder:
    ls -l /dev/ | grep sd
  9. If the command output is not empty, it will list the connected drives and partitions:
    sda
    sda1
    sda2
    sda3
    sdb < Samsung Portable SSD
    sdb1 < exFAT partition
  10. Mount the exfat partition sdb1 into the local folder /root/ssd/:
    mount /dev/sdb1 /root/ssd/
  11. Create a folder called proxmox_backup:
    mkdir -p /root/ssd/proxmox_backup/

Add the portable USB drive as a backup target in Proxmox

  1. In the webinterface of Proxmox, click on Datacenter > Storage > Add > Directory
  2. Enter the following information:
    ID: SamsungT7
    Path: /root/ssd/proxmox_backup/
    Content: select Disk image and VZDump backup file
  3. Click Add
  4. A new entry should be added with the ID you entered

Create a backup of a container or virtual machine

I prefer to back up containers and virtual machines that are shut down to ensure no changes are made during the backup process.

Repeat the steps for every container or virtual machine you want to back-up.

  1. Select the container or virtual machine you want to back-up
  2. Shutdown the container or virtual machine
  3. Click Backup in the vertical toolbar
  4. Click Backup now
  5. Make sure the settings are:
    Storage: SamsungT7
    Mode: Stop
  6. Click Backup
  7. When the backup is successfull, start the container or virtual machine

Remove the portable USB drive as a backup target in Proxmox

Ensure all backups are finished before proceeding with these steps:

  1. In the webinterface of Proxmox, click on Datacenter > Storage > SamsungT7 > Remove
  2. Confirm with Yes

Unmount the portable USB drive in Debian

  1. Open the shell via the Proxmox webinterface or login via SSH
  2. Go to the root of the filesystem:
    cd /
  3. Unmount the portable USB drive
    umount /root/ssd/
  4. Check if the partition sdb1 is really unmounted – the result should be empty:
    df -h | grep sdb
  5. Remove the portable SSD from the computer in which Proxmox is running.
  6. Store the portable SSD somewhere safe