Testing Proxmox backup and recovery
ITN's recovery infrastructure is built on Proxmox VE and Proxmox Backup Server. Backups from Proxmox environments can therefore be restored on separate virtualisation infrastructure, started, and handed over as an isolated test environment.
A verified backup is not a tested restart
Proxmox Backup Server brings good foundations with it: backups are deduplicated, encrypted and can be verified. Anyone using that has a solid statement that the backed-up data is technically intact. That is more than many environments offer — and it is still a statement about the backup, not about the business.
Because between a verified snapshot and an IT environment anyone can work in lie several steps that nobody rehearses in daily life: the virtual machines have to be written back onto a target environment, they have to boot there, they need a network in which they can reach each other, and they have to start in the right order. Only after that can you check whether the services inside them work.
Those are exactly the steps the Recovery Lab carries out — on Proxmox infrastructure that has nothing to do with your production systems.
From datastores to a running environment
What happens technically in a Proxmox recovery test.
Provide the backups
You provide the agreed snapshots from your PBS datastores, together with which virtual machines are in scope and in what order they need to start.
Build the recovery environment
On separate Proxmox VE infrastructure, the compute, storage and network resources needed for the test are created — separated from the customer's production network.
- Proxmox VE
- Proxmox Backup Server
- separate network segments
Restore the virtual machines
The agreed VMs are written back from the backups — complete machines, not individual files.
Recreate network and dependencies
As far as the engagement requires, network segments and the necessary system dependencies are recreated in the Recovery Lab. Without this step, restored machines remain loose parts with nothing joining them.
Start the machines
The restored VMs are booted. Whether and how they start is the first hard result of the test.
Hand over to you
The staff you name are given controlled access and check that things work in business terms themselves. On request we document the course of the test and its result.
Proxmox is everyday work for us, not a special case
ITN-Network runs customer cloud environments on Proxmox VE, backs them up with Proxmox Backup Server and filters mail with Proxmox Mail Gateway. That platform is the foundation of our cloud services — hosted in Germany, with no licence lock-in.
For a recovery test that is a practical advantage: we know how the platform behaves during restores, and source and target share the same technology. For customers with a Proxmox landscape it is the most direct route from snapshot to running test environment.
Source and target environment share the same technology — no detour through format conversion.
What gets restored are virtual machines, not individual files.
The test does not run in your production environment and does not change it.
We run Proxmox VE and PBS in daily customer operation, not only for tests.
Frequently asked questions about Proxmox recovery
What does a Proxmox recovery test check that verification in PBS does not?
Verification in Proxmox Backup Server checks the integrity of the backed-up data — it establishes whether a snapshot is technically intact. It restores no machine and starts none. A recovery test does exactly that: it writes the virtual machines back onto a separate Proxmox VE environment, starts them and connects them into an environment you can examine.
Do I need access to my production PBS for the test?
How the backups reach us is settled during preparation — that depends on your setup and your security requirements. What matters is that the restore then runs on our recovery infrastructure and not in your production environment.
Does this work for Windows guests too?
Yes. For the restore itself it makes no difference which operating system runs inside the virtual machine — Windows and Linux servers are both restored and started. What role the system played in operation only becomes relevant in your own functional testing.
Why is Proxmox the most direct route for ITN?
Because our recovery infrastructure is itself built on Proxmox VE and Proxmox Backup Server. We run that platform day to day for customer cloud environments. Source and target platform therefore share the same technology, and no detour through format conversion is needed.
What if I don't back up with Proxmox?
Then before the test we clarify what format your backups are in and which software the restore requires. You provide that software and its licences; we provide the recovery environment and carry out the restore.
More on this: Active Directory recovery for the directory service inside the restored landscape and testing backup restores for the depths of testing. Overview in the Recovery Lab.