Proxmox Backup Server still rocks!
On September 22, 2020, we launched the first BETA version of PBS as a cloud service with the idea of providing a fast, scalable backup solution that integrates with Proxmox VE.
Since then, we haven’t stopped improving our cloud service. Our PBS cloud service is now easier to deploy than ever thanks to our new Tuxis Portal. This allows businesses to easily roll out an efficient off-site backup solution without any hassle with long-term contracts or expensive licenses.
New features since launch
Proxmox has added many important and beautiful new updates & features to this product since the original launch of Proxmox Backup Server, including:
Remote pull / push syncs
Easily and securely synchronise your data from a local backup server with a PBS account from Tuxis, ensuring that your data is safe. In the beginning, this was only possible with a pull sync, where we had to configure a sync on our side. Since 28 November 2024, a push sync is also available. Push sync allows you to easily push sync on your local PBS.
configure, and synchronise all data encrypted to our PBS servers.
The new flexible notification system.
In the early days of PBS, only mail was supported, this was then by configuring Postfix. This still works perfectly, but is inherently limited in what can be sent. For this, Proxmox wrote the new ‘notification system’, which has the advantage that there are many more ways to send alerts & information as now with the Gotify integration or by means of a self-written webhook. This makes it a lot easier for the end user to receive notifications, and even configure what notifications to send.
New data change detection.
To ensure that file & container backups run even faster and more efficiently, the new ‘metadata’ & ‘data’ can now be used. Proxmox VMs already have a solution for this, this is the ‘bitmap’ of a VM. Here, it looks at what data is already present on the previous backup, and in doing so, only the difference is backed up which makes for a much faster backup job.
Tuxis goes for green hardware
We now have 8 PBS servers, all based on Supermicro hardware.
To help nature take a step forward, we now choose to use recycled chassis instead of buying a completely new build.
In terms of performance, there is no difference in self-built or new build, but in terms of cost & emissions there is.
Our machines currently look like this:
- Chassis: Supermicro SuperChassis 847BE2C-R1K23LPB
- CPU: Newest generation AMD Epyc 16-core
- RAM: 512 GB
- Disks: 3-way mirror SAS3 disks, 3-way mirror NvME special-devices.
As you can see, the machines have become a lot more powerful, and thanks to the popularity of our cloud service, the extra hardware is also considerably needed.
Geographically separated
The standard rule for backups was always 3-2-1. Everyone knows it:
3 copies of the backup, on 2 types of media, with 1 offsite location. That’s a nice principle to think about while writing backups.
But what if 1 off-site location is not enough? We have recently started having 3 active sites on which we run our backup machines.
- Ede
- Amsterdam
- Düsseldorf
Also planned is to set up remote-syncs between multiple locations from the portal, which will soon allow you to replicate data at 2 geographically separate locations.