https://adamazl.github.io/homelab/tags/pbs/Recent content in Pbs on The Home LabHugoen-usSun, 15 Mar 2026 00:37:20 +1300https://adamazl.github.io/homelab/posts/proxmox-backup-server/Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://adamazl.github.io/homelab/posts/proxmox-backup-server/<h2 id="the-problem-with-ad-hoc-backups">The Problem with Ad-hoc Backups</h2> <p>Proxmox VE has built-in backup functionality — you can snapshot a VM to a directory or NFS share on a schedule. But it stores full backups each time, space grows fast, and restoring requires the whole archive. Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) solves all three problems.</p> <p>PBS is a dedicated backup server that:</p> <ul> <li>Stores backups with <strong>client-side deduplication and compression</strong> (typically 50–80% space savings)</li> <li>Does <strong>incremental backups</strong> — only changed chunks are uploaded</li> <li>Supports <strong>instant verification</strong> by recalculating checksums</li> <li>Has <strong>pruning policies</strong> — keep 7 daily, 4 weekly, 12 monthly backups automatically</li> </ul> <h2 id="architecture">Architecture</h2> <p>PBS is a separate Debian-based appliance. It does not run inside Proxmox VE. You have a few options:</p>