Well, there are plenties of online tutorials about proxmox and backup itself, however, there is really difficult to find a working one with NFS installation, configuration and make it work with Proxmox. So I decide to add a short tutorial on how to backup proxmox with nfs.
Install NFS on remote storage server
- In this case, I also use Debian on the storage server
- Update package:
[bash]apt-get update[/bash]
- Install NFS server:
[bash]apt-get install -y nfs-kernel-server[/bash]
- Create a new directory for storing NFS shared files:
[bash]mkdir /backup/proxmox
chown -R nobody:nogroup /backup/proxmox[/bash] - Edit /etc/exports file to include sharing folder for NFS client (replace XXX.YYY.ZZZ.MMM with your NFS client’s IP. You can also use * for allowing public access, however it is not recommended):
[bash]/backup/proxmox XXX.YYY.ZZZ.MMM(rw,sync,no_subtree_check) IP2.IP2.IP2.IP2(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)[/bash]
- Update the table of the export file system:
[bash]exportfs -a[/bash]
- Edit /etc/default/nfs-kernel-server to disable NFS v4: find the line with RPCMOUNTDOPTS and edit it to include “–no-nfs-version 4” as follows:
[bash]RPCMOUNTDOPTS="–manage-gids –no-nfs-version 4"[/bash]
. Do not use NFS v4 or you will face the error “mount error: mount.nfs: Operation not permitted (500)” when mounting at NFS client.
- Secure the portmapper service for NFS server (“deny all, allow some” policy) by editing /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow as follows:
[bash]
#/etc/hosts.deny
rpcbind: ALL#/etc/hosts.allow
rpcbind: XXX.YYY.ZZZ.MMM, IP2.IP2.IP2.IP2
[/bash] - Do not forget to open ports for NFS and rpcbind services: TCP + UDP port for 2049 and 111
- Finally, start NFS server service:
[bash]service nfs-kernel-server start[/bash]
Install NFS client on Proxmox server
- Update package:
[bash]apt-get update[/bash]
- Install nfs-common:
[bash]apt-get install nfs-common[/bash]
- Do not forget to open (OUT) ports for NFS and rpcbind services: TCP + UDP port for 2049 and 111
- Done, even you can try mounting remote NFS directory with
[bash]mount.nfs SERVER.IP.ADDRESS.HERE:/backup/proxmox /mnt/pve/VMbackup-NFS[/bash]
, however, it is not necessary since Proxmox can do it when configuring a backup.
- If NFS is mounted manually, we will also need to add the following line to /etc/fstab so that it will be available each time the server is restarted:
[bash]SERVER.IP.ADDRESS.HERE:/backup/proxmox/ /mnt/pve/VMbackup-NFS/ nfs auto,noatime,nolock,bg,nfsvers=4,intr,tcp,actimeo=1800 0 0[/bash]
Configure Proxmox for backups
- For this, we can simply refer to Proxmox Backup and Restore wiki.
- First, we need to add a new NFS storage to Proxmox as described at Proxmox Storage Models. Remember to input remote directory path (/backup/proxmox) in Export field.
- Then, go to Datacenter >> Backup >> Add and configure VMs to be backed up.
