Proxmox VE – Complete Backup & Restore Plan (NVMe Failure Scenario)

This document is the single authoritative backup and restore guide for a standalone Proxmox VE host. It is written to be usable during a real failure (NVMe disk read/write issues) but with the premise that the Proxmox VE host is still running and accessible (to try to create VM backups).

1. Scope and assumptions

Single Proxmox VE host (no cluster)
Proxmox VE 8.x backups, restore onto Proxmox VE 9.1-1
One failing NVMe (system + VM storage)
One internal 500 GB SATA SSD used mainly for ISO images and auxiliary storage
One external USB disk (NTFS) used for backups (already contains other data)
VMs:
- Ubuntu-01 .. Ubuntu-04 (continuously running, some with Docker)
- Several Windows/macOS test VMs (mostly stopped)

2. Backup strategy – overview

What must be backed up

Virtual machines (primary priority)
Proxmox host configuration (network, VM configs, mail, storage)
Awareness of what is not backed up (packages, logs, caches)

What is intentionally NOT backed up

/var/log
/var/cache
/usr, /bin, /lib (reinstalled by Proxmox installer)
System users/passwords

3. Preparing the USB backup disk (NTFS)

The USB disk already contains data and must not be wiped.

3.1 Mounting the USB disk

Example (adjust device name if needed):

lsblk
mkdir -p /mnt/usb-backup
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdX1 /mnt/usb-backup

If an error occurs on mount, then most probably NTFS driver is not installed:

apt install ntfs-3g

3.2 Create Proxmox backup directory

mkdir -p /mnt/usb-backup/proxmox-backups/dump

3.3 Add storage in Proxmox UI

Datacenter → Storage → Add → Directory

ID: usb-backup
Directory: /mnt/usb-backup/proxmox-backups
Content: ✔ Backup

Important: do not select ISO / Disk image here.

4. VM backup procedure

4.1 Backup modes explained

Mode	When to use	Notes
`snapshot`	Running Linux VMs	Requires QEMU guest agent for consistency
`stop`	Docker-heavy VMs or Windows	VM is stopped automatically by `vzdump`

You do not need to manually stop the VM when using --mode stop.

4.2 Recommended backup commands

Ubuntu VMs with Docker or others that are already stopped (example: 201, 103)

vzdump 201 --storage usb-backup --mode stop
vzdump 103 --storage usb-backup --mode stop

Running Ubuntu VMs without Docker

vzdump 202 --storage usb-backup --mode snapshot
vzdump 100 --storage usb-backup --mode snapshot

Windows / inactive VMs

vzdump 101 --storage usb-backup --mode stop

5. Handling backup failures (important)

NVMe read errors during backup

Errors like:

critical medium error, dev nvme0n1
job failed with err -61 - No data available

Mean:

The source NVMe is failing
The backup is aborted at the unreadable sector

This is not recoverable via vzdump.

Correct response

Do not retry endlessly (accelerates disk death)
Accept partial VM loss
Plan post-restore data recovery from raw disks

6. Proxmox host configuration backup

6.1 What to back up

Critical directories/files:

/etc/pve
/etc/network
/etc/hostname
/etc/hosts
/etc/postfix
/root

6.2 Final backup command (safe)

tar -czf /mnt/usb-backup/proxmox-backups/proxmox-host-config.tar.gz \
  /etc/pve \
  /etc/network \
  /etc/postfix \
  /etc/aliases \
  /etc/aliases.db \
  /etc/hostname \
  /etc/hosts \
  /etc/fstab \
  /etc/vzdump.conf \
  /etc/lvm \
  /etc/ssh \
  /root

Warnings about "Removing leading /" are normal and harmless.

7. Installing new NVMe + Proxmox VE 9.1-1

7.1 Download

ISO: https://enterprise.proxmox.com/iso/proxmox-ve_9.1-1.iso

7.2 Create bootable USB (Windows)

Use Rufus:

Partition scheme: GPT
Target system: UEFI
Boot selection: Proxmox ISO
Write mode: ISO mode (default)

8. Fresh Proxmox installation

During installer:

Hostname: proxmox or proxmox.local
IP address: 192.168.0.88
Same gateway and DNS as before

Do not create extra storage yet.

9. Post-install restore order (critical)

Correct order

Install Proxmox
Configure networking
Mount USB backup disk
Restore host config (selectively)
Add storage
Restore VMs

10. Restoring host configuration (SAFE METHOD)

10.1 Extract to temporary directory

mkdir /root/restore
cd /root/restore
tar -xzf /mnt/usb-backup/proxmox-backups/proxmox-host-config.tar.gz

10.2 Restore selectively

cp -a etc/pve /etc/
cp -a etc/network /etc/
cp -a etc/postfix /etc/
cp -a etc/hostname /etc/hostname
cp -a etc/hosts /etc/hosts

❌ Never extract directly to /.

11. Re-adding storage

11.1 USB backup disk

Same as section 3.

11.2 SATA SSD (500 GB)

Identify disk: lsblk
Mount (example):

mkdir -p /mnt/sata-iso
mount /dev/sdY1 /mnt/sata-iso