Backnix

Offsite backup for Proxmox VE and Proxmox Backup Server

Proxmox gives you powerful backup tools, but a backup that lives in the same building as your cluster is still one incident away from disappearing. Backnix is designed to add the offsite layer to your Proxmox strategy.

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Proxmox VE and Proxmox Backup Server are different products

Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) is the hypervisor platform that runs your KVM virtual machines and LXC containers. Its built-in backup tool, vzdump, creates backup archives of guests and can send them to local storage, NFS, CIFS or a Proxmox Backup Server.

Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) is a separate product dedicated to storing backups. It deduplicates data in chunks, supports incremental backups of running VMs, verifies backups, prunes old snapshots and can synchronize datastores to another PBS.

The problem

The problem: backups that share the cluster's fate

Many Proxmox installations keep backups on a local disk, a NAS in the same rack, or a PBS in the same data center. That protects against a deleted VM, but not against fire, theft, power events, ransomware that reaches the backup server, or the loss of the whole site.

  • Same location

    Hypervisors and backup storage can be lost together.

  • Reachable from the network

    A backup server reachable with the same credentials can be encrypted by the same attacker.

  • Untested restores

    Backups that were never restored on another node may hide missing disks or configuration.

The consequence

The consequence: no way back after a site-level incident

If the cluster and its backups are lost together, every virtual machine has to be rebuilt from scratch. For businesses running dozens of VMs, that means weeks of work and data that is simply gone.

The solution

How Backnix approaches Proxmox backup

Backnix is designed to keep an offsite, encrypted copy of your Proxmox backups in S3 cloud storage, with retention and recovery planning, so you can restore guests to another node or another cluster after a disaster.

  • Proxmox VE backups

    Protect vzdump archives of virtual machines and containers.

  • Proxmox Backup Server integration

    Keep an offsite copy of PBS data for disaster recovery.

  • Recovery planning

    Document and test restores to different hardware.

Proxmox backup flow: Proxmox VE sends backups to Proxmox Backup Server, which keeps an offsite copy used for recovery.
Proxmox backup flow: Proxmox VE → Proxmox Backup Server → Offsite Storage → Recovery.

The diagram shows the designed architecture; availability is listed below.

Benefits

Benefits

  • Real offsite copy

    Survives the loss of the site, the rack and the backup server.

  • Keeps your Proxmox workflow

    Continue using vzdump and PBS; Backnix adds the offsite layer.

  • Region of your choice

    Store copies in the region that matches your data residency requirements.

Technical considerations

Technical considerations

vzdump supports snapshot, suspend and stop modes; snapshot mode keeps VMs running and works best with the QEMU guest agent installed for file system freezing. PBS performs incremental VM backups using dirty bitmaps while the VM keeps running, and restores need the PBS datastore and, if encryption is used, the encryption key. Keep a copy of your encryption keys outside the cluster. Bandwidth matters: the first offsite upload of a large datastore can take days, so plan initial seeding and retention carefully.

Availability

Current status of these capabilities

  • Proxmox VE Backup

    Offsite copies of Proxmox VE virtual machine and container backups.

    Coming soon
  • Proxmox Backup Server Integration

    Offsite protection for Proxmox Backup Server datastores.

    Coming soon
  • Disaster Recovery

    Recovery planning for the loss of a server or site.

    Coming soon

Status is updated as capabilities are released. See all features.

Related articles

Learn more

Proxmox backup FAQ

Do I need Proxmox Backup Server?
No. vzdump can write archives to regular storage. PBS adds deduplication, incremental backups, verification and synchronization, which make it the better choice for most clusters.
Can I restore to a different node?
Yes. Proxmox backups can be restored on another node or cluster, as long as storage and network configuration are available there.
Is PBS encryption enough?
PBS client-side encryption protects data at rest, but you still need an offsite copy and a safe place for the encryption key.

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