Proxmox Backup Server — Installation, Datastore Tuning, and Garbage Collection
Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) is purpose-built backup storage for Proxmox VE. It does one thing and does it well: store, deduplicate, verify, and garbage-collect VM and container backups. No more cramming vzdump archives onto a NFS share and hoping they survive. This guide covers installing PBS on Debian 12, creating a datastore with sane retention, connecting a PVE host, and avoiding the gotchas that’ll eat your disk space. Why PBS Instead of a Simple NFS Export Capability NFS vzdump PBS Deduplication None Chunk-level, across all backups Incremental backups Full dump each time Changed blocks only Integrity verification None Auto-verify after backup Garbage collection None Prunes orphaned chunks Restore granularity Full restore only File-level, single disk, or full VM For a homelab with multiple VMs and LXCs, the deduplication alone saves hours of transfer and disk space. Incremental backups mean daily backups take seconds, not minutes. ...