Currently looking for recommendations on what to use for my new hypervisor - currently I use the Windows version of UrBackup server to backup VMs on a Hyper-V server, both image and file backups, hosting both Windows and Linux VMs.
I really want to get away from Hyper-V and of course stick with UrBackup, but wondering what to move on to. I’m experienced at work with VMware so I could set up an ESXi host but I was also looking at Proxmox. Can UrBackup work with either of these or do I also need to look for an alternative for backups, bearing in mind my current backup server is a Windows machine?
Well, ESXi is certainly a nice tool, but if you are already into Linux, give Proxmox a chance. Or just install QEMU-KVM. You can control it remotely by virsh or from a Linux client with Virtual Manager.
I myself use the 2nd approach. SSH into the server and use virsh. But i am thinking about to switch to Proxmox because of the UI.
I’m currently flipping between keeping the status-quo and remaining with Hyper-V, simply as everything is working, but also now looking on how I can move to Proxmox. I’ve kind of eliminated ESXi as I don’t like how backup is limited for the free version, which is a shame as it’s what we use at work.
So what can UrBackup do with Proxmox, otherwise I’m faced with having to get the Proxmox Backup Server running to get good backups.
I have my normal services (mail, files, nextcloud) on Windows server and in Hyper-V. And because i won’t have the MS licensing anymore, I plan to move to Linux. Still waiting to find a nice low noise/priced HW to make a cluster.
My Windows Server feels older than me.
After working with ESXi/vSpere in my company I decided to certainly not going that road. A lot of nice features are only with a license. And expansive ones at that. So probably Proxmox.
If you’re asking if UrBackup can backup LXC’s/VM’s that are built in Proxmox, the answer is yes and no. Obviously, Proxmox will store these VM’s and LXC’s on the disk, but it’s not a “native” solution like the commercial “UrBackup Client for Hyper-V” client. An option you do have, however, is creating backups within Proxmox then having UrBackup back up those backups. It’s a little confusing, but basically Proxmox can create local backups of VMs and LXCs. These backups can be copied anywhere. So, just use UrBackup to copy them to a backup drive of your choice.
But, in all honesty, nothing will be as good as Proxmox Backup when it comes to native Proxmox VM/LXC backups
Nowadays we could add a script to do LVM volume backups… will have to look into this (if there is any interest and everybody doesn’t just switch over to proxmox backup server).
Backing up Proxmox is probably best done with Proxmox Backup Server. Probably because I don’t know much about it, just assume.
But evtl. you could split the backup into system partition backup with Proxmox Backup Server and the data with urBackup.
Or see how you fare with ZFS snapshots and urBackup. Runs fine if your hardware is not too old.
I would love to see this! I have several KVM/LVM servers in the field, with one of the guests being a urbackup server using external USB3.2 storage for backups. My plaform of choice is openSUSE Leap 15.x, which is very stable. I compile a clean server with each major update. I have not had ANY failures out in the field - it’s an excellent platform for those who are interested. @uroni, if you need a guinea pig, I happily volunteer!
Have gone with Promox on the new host, ZFS Raid, and have already migrated some of the smaller VMs that didn’t need additional disk space above a single OS drive while I wait for more storage to arrive.
For backup with Hyper-V I am using a combination of Veeam for OS drive images, UrBackup for a couple of VMs for image/file backups (as I had run out of free licences for Veeam), then wherever I wanted file backups of the VMs and also some other machines, I use Duplicati. All backups go to a dedicated local server (which is running Veeam and UrBackup), and the file level backups are also replicated to Wasabi S3 for offsite.
So for the new host the issue is the image backups being as neither Veeam or UrBackup helps, so I have gone for using the PVE backup option (not the Proxmox backup server which I may look at another time), sending the files to a share on my backup server, and then the file level backups remain with Duplicati.
I will see how this goes but it means I can drop Veeam once those backup’s retentions expire, and probably UrBackup as well, though I do hope it gets Proxmox support in the near future - which I too am happy to help test.
