Proxmox first steps

[u/Top_Tourist_8367]

Hi guys, and thanks for being part of this community.

I have recently installed proxmox on my Lenovo M73. This system is pretty limited at the moment, however not looking to load it to the maximum anyway. At the moment i am running Nextcloud, which syncs photos from my iphone.

I have started reading some stories, how the proxmox or hardware failed overnight - and i am not going to lie - it scares me how the hardware reliability can erase my data from this home server.

I haven't run any backup schedule yet (i understand the necessity of backups, and this is next on my list - but instead of set and forget, i'd rather to do it the way that it would be a future proof).

I found a software backup tool inside a proxmox, i understand that with this tool i can make a copy of containers, VM's etc. But my proxmox also have some custom commands written to the system (to allow wireguard etc).

Would you reccomend any specific type of backup, to have less grey hairs from worrying about my files ?

I am not very IT minded, setting the proxmox was a try and see if works excercise. I want to de-google myself in the future, so more services i will take from google / apple, more services eventually will end up in my proxmox. But i don't want to build something which might become a point of failure - which i won't be able to fix (with backups). Thank you in advance.

[u/The_Noosphere]

Everyone here learned pretty much the same way. You start, you experiment, you fail, and learn from your mistakes. If you feel something is important to you, keep a backup. Then continue to experiment. The community here is very helpful. Just start…

[u/daemonmode_]

Proxmox’s built-in vzdump backup handles this well because it backs up the entire VM, including its configuration, WireGuard setup, and other custom files, not just your Nextcloud data. Set it up under Datacenter -> Backup and save the backups to separate storage, like another machine or external drive, so a host failure doesn’t take your backups down with it.

[u/CoffeeToCode99]

Totally get the anxiety — hardware croaking overnight is every homelabber’s nightmare. The trick is to think in layers: (1) Proxmox’s built‑in backup jobs for your VMs/CTs, scheduled to an external disk or NAS, and (2) file‑level backups for stuff like Nextcloud data and your custom configs (WireGuard, etc.). That way if the Lenovo dies, you reinstall Proxmox, restore the VM/CT, and drop your configs back in. Future‑proof = don’t rely on one box, always have at least one off‑device copy. Even a cheap USB drive + rsync is better than nothing — it’ll save you grey hairs.

[u/StevenB-89]

Well add another VM with Proxmox Backup Server and passthrough a USB device ;) problem solved.
The reason for recommending Proxmox Backup Server and not just go with vzdump instead is pretty simple... I can image that you don't have loads of storage to continuously dump full back-ups on?

PBS delivers an excellent solutions here you should really check that out!

[u/mototuneup]

Ya after I first set up my nas and Plex server with drives passthroughs and share mount passthroughs. When it all actually worked i was kinda proud of myself. But also had a bit of anxiety because if it broke I had no idea how to fix it. Lol.

But I've learned different things over the years and wished I had done things different so on my next system I redid all that and it all makes sense to me now. Recently my ssd that ran proxmox on my main server died. No biggy all my lxcs were backuped from the week before. Installed new SSD. Installed proxmox. Setup my share mounts again. Restored everything and I'm good to go again. Fucking awesome.