this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
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Proxmox Backup Server: Bare Metal vs. Privileged LXC vs. VM? (reddthat.com)
submitted 9 months ago by libretech@reddthat.com to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Hi folks,

My small homelab (if it even qualifies as such) currently has a separate NAS host running TrueNAS CE and an additional Proxmox VE host. I want to set up Proxmox Backup Server and ultimately feed the backups to my TrueNAS, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to do so. I know the official guide suggests a whole separate machine (so a third host), but I'd prefer to not have to buy more hardware and keep it running 24/7 if I can avoid it (though if it is really critical I could probably get a little N150 box if it was strictly necessary, but this feels like a little much).

I am also considering virtualizing PBS on Proxmox itself, but it seems like either option is not ideal. For LXCs, it seems like trying to create a stable NFS share out to the TrueNAS system means I'd have to go with a privileged LXC vs. an unprivileged one (though I'd be happy to be wrong on that if folks have other experience with it), but of course this gives root access to the host itself. Alternatively, if I go with a VM, I'd heard that there are sometimes recursion issues where PBS ends up attempting to back up all VMs, including the VM that contains it, which leads to instability and just overall not having a great time.

As another alternative, I suppose I could pick up an NVMe and try to run PBS as an app on TrueNAS itself (but my understanding is that PBS is snappier when backups are on the same host and then pushed out via NFS afterward)?

Before I rip too much of my hair out, I figured I'd try to crowdsource and see how more experienced folks are approaching this. Thanks very much!

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[–] tvcvt@lemmy.ml 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

If you’d like some separation, one option is to create a VM on TrueNAS for PBS that connects to an NFS export where all the data would be stored.

What I did in this scenario is an LXC container running PBS, which uses a bindmount for storage. That bindmount is populated via an NFS export from my NAS, mounted on the PVE host using autofs so that if it disconnects, it will reconnect as soon as it can.

[–] libretech@reddthat.com 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Thank you! Just to make sure I am following correctly, for your LXC running PBS, it sounds like you used a privileged container on Proxmox itself, right (vs. an LXC on TrueNAS)?

[–] tvcvt@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

No, I used an unprivileged container and I set the permissions on the NFS server to accommodate that.

[–] klangcola@reddthat.com 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks for sharing! TIL about autofs. Now I'm curious to try NFS again.

What's the failure mode if the NFS happens to be offline when PBS initiates a backup? Does PNS try to backup anyway? What if the NFS is offline while PBS boots?

EDIT: What was the reason for bind mounting the NFS share via the host to the container, and NFS mounting from NAS to host?
I did the NFS-mount directly in the PBS. (But I am running my PBS as a VM, so had to do it that way)

[–] tvcvt@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

Sure thing—autofs is a pretty cool utility and it works with SMB as well.

If the storage isn’t present for PBS, the backup would fail. There are files inside the directory that PBS will notice are missing.

Mounting the NFS export in the PVE host is the simplest way to get shared storage into an LXC container. You have to fight apparmor to mount NFS or SMB inside the container directly.