Table of Contents
Proxmox backups
This page documents the Proxmox backup context discovered while investigating host006. It is an operational orientation page, not a complete backup policy.
Scope
This page is about Proxmox guest backups on the Hackeriet Proxmox cluster. Do not confuse this with unrelated service-specific backups such as forum.hausmania.org backups.
Current cluster context
The Proxmox cluster documented so far is klynge001, with verified nodes:
A weekly vzdump job was observed from the cluster configuration while documenting host006 and host007. The observed job used:
- Schedule: Sunday 03:00
- Mode: snapshot
- Storage: local
- Compression: zstd
- Retention: keep last 1
- Failure mail: backupmail@hackeriet.no
Treat this as observed state, not as a reviewed backup policy.
Host006 storage finding
host006 has enough physical storage, but the layout makes local backups fragile:
- Physical disk observed: about 1 TB NVMe.
- LVM volume group observed: about 953G, with 0G free.
- Root filesystem observed: about 94G usable, about 94% used, about 6.2G free.
- Proxmox local storage is on the root filesystem.
- /var/lib/vz/dump is not a separate large filesystem on host006; it resolves to the crowded root filesystem.
- local-lvm is the large thin pool for VM disks, not file-based backup dumps.
Several recent vzdump failures on host006 had errors like:
- vma_queue_write: write error - Broken pipe
Disk pressure on host006 local storage is the first suspect for these failures. Investigate storage before changing guests.
Contrast: host007
host007 has the same cluster backup job, but a healthier storage layout:
- Root filesystem observed: about 18% used.
- /var/lib/vz/dump observed as a separate filesystem, about 503G total and about 331G free.
- Proxmox local storage observed around 17% used.
- local-lvm observed around 27% used.
This makes host006 disk-pressure failure mode much less likely on host007.
Remediation options
Possible ways to reduce recurrence risk:
- Short term: review and remove obsolete files from /var/lib/vz/dump on host006.
- Better medium term: add dedicated backup storage for host006, either mounted at /var/lib/vz/dump or added as a new Proxmox storage target.
- Longer term: use Proxmox Backup Server for clearer retention and deduplicated backups.
- Avoid casual in-place LVM reshaping; it can put VM disks at risk and should only be done with a maintenance window and recovery plan.
First checks
On the relevant Proxmox host:
- df -h
- du -sh /var/lib/vz/dump
- pvesm status
- systemctl –failed
In Proxmox, check the backup job configuration and recent task logs before deleting files or changing retention.
Safety notes
- Do not delete backups or ISOs during an incident without understanding what they are.
- Do not change guest VM state unless the incident requires it.
- Do not mix up Proxmox guest backups with application-specific backup systems.