Guide to Setup Proxmox Backup Server VM and ZFS on Raspberry Pi

[Anexgohan]

Instructions to get Proxmox Backup Server and ZFS working on a VM.

Tested on Raspberry Pi 5 8gb model, should work on others aswell as long as they are arm64 support.

Links:
Proxmox Backup Server Documentation
Guide and Discussion thread
Brainstormin thread - closed for now

You need a VM running in Proxmox VE.
Tested for Debian & Ubuntu VMs.

Cloud Image Sources

Get cloud images from here:

Debian

• Genericcloud-arm64 image needed.
• https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/
• https://jenkins.linuxcontainers.org/view/Images/job/image-debian/
• https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/cloud/

Ubuntu

• QCow2 UEFI/GPT Bootable disk image needed.
• https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/

A). Raspberry Pi 5 Host Setup

This section is performed on the Raspberry Pi 5 host.

Raspberry Pi 5 should use the Kernel with 4K pagesize:

If the container summary memory usage and swap usage always shows 0, please modify cmdline.txt.
Recently RPi 5 updates moved this file to:

nano /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

Old file location (use whichever works for you):

nano /boot/cmdline.txt

Put the following parameters to the end of the line:

cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_enable=memory cgroup_memory=1

B). VM Shell Setup

Everything after this point is done in the VM's shell.

Make the VM using Proxmox GUI or baremetal.

• Use the image downloaded above.
• Set the CPU type to host.
• Set the CPU cores to 2 or more.
• Set the RAM to 2GB or more.
• Set Bios to OVMF (UEFI).
• Set the machine type to Default. Version Latest, vIOMMU Default (None).
• Set Display to Default or VirtIO-GPU with 8MB of video memory.
• Set SCSI controller to virtio-scsi-single.
• Set the disk size to 16GB or more.
  • Optional: Cache: Default (No cache), Discard: Yes, IO Thread: Yes
• Set the Network to virtio (paravirtualized).
• Add an EFI disk if you are using UEFI. with EFItype=4m, pre-enrolled-keys=1, size=64M
• Add a Serial Port (serial0).

Install Utilities

Install some essential tools and optional utilities:
(Everything after curl is optional)

ifupdown2 is needed for Debian if you have network issues. Install it with apt install ifupdown2.
Only install ifupdown2 after trying basic troubleshooting; this will either completely fix or completely break your VM's networking.

apt update && \
apt install nano wget curl openssh-server rsync bash-completion parted usbutils pciutils qemu-guest-agent -y

Setup Repositories

echo 'deb [arch=arm64] https://mirrors.apqa.cn/proxmox/debian/pve bookworm port' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pveport.list && \
echo 'deb https://mirrors.apqa.cn/proxmox/debian/pbs bookworm port' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pbs-port.list && \
curl https://mirrors.apqa.cn/proxmox/debian/pveport.gpg -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/pveport.gpg && \
apt update && apt full-upgrade -y

Add Non-Free Source (Debian)

sudo sed -i 's/^/# /' /etc/apt/sources.list && \
echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list && \
echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list && \
echo "deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list && \
echo "# see https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_updates_and_backports" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list && \
apt update

Install Proxmox Backup Server

apt update && \
apt install proxmox-backup-server

Then reboot:

reboot

If you encounter any error, or if some package does not install, or if you get an ifupdown2 error, reboot and run apt install proxmox-backup-server again.
If the update fails due to being unable to reach repositories or a "Failed to fetch" error, then disable the enterprise repository as shown below.

Disable Enterprise Repository

The enterprise repository will halt apt updates if you don't have a subscription.

sed -i 's/^/#/' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pbs-enterprise.list

Add Kernel Repository

echo "deb https://mirrors.apqa.cn/proxmox/debian/kernel sid port" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kernel-port-sid.list && \
apt update

Search for Kernel Headers (Raspberry Pi 5)

This should give you a long list of pve-kernel-* Proxmox PVE Kernel Images available.

apt update && apt search pve-kernel-6.1*

Install Kernel Headers (Raspberry Pi 5)

This will take a long while and may feel like it's stuck or crashed, but it's working in the background. Be patient.
On my RPi 5 with a 2-core, 2GB RAM VM, it takes approximately 5-10 minutes.

You can install the latest generic kernel or openeuler version available for arm64 architecture.

apt install pve-kernel-6.5.11-generic

or

apt install pve-kernel-6.6.0-openeuler

You can also install newer versions; 6.6 openeuler was the latest at the time of writing.
Use this to list available generic arm64 kernels:

apt update && apt search pve-kernel-6.* | grep -Pi '^(?=.*arm64)(?=.*(?:generic|openeuler))'

Disable Kernel Repository

You may want to disable this if you do not wish to perform kernel updates.
Also, the 'Sid' suite should not be used in production environments. Kernel updates can induce instability if done improperly, so be careful.

sed -i 's/^/#/' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kernel-port-sid.list

Setup ZFS

This will take a long while and may feel like it's stuck or crashed, but it's working in the background. Be patient.
On my RPi 5 with a 2-core, 2GB RAM VM, it takes approximately 10 minutes.

apt update && apt install dpkg-dev zfs-dkms zfsutils-linux -y

Reboot (a simple 30-60 second reboot can save you a lot of headache and hours of troubleshooting):

reboot

If this command does not throw an error, your ZFS is good to go:

modprobe zfs

Final Update and Upgrade

apt update && apt full-upgrade -y

Clean Up

Remove broken and unnecessary leftovers:

apt autoremove && \
apt autopurge && \
apt autoclean

Accessing Proxmox Backup Server

Get the VM's host IP address:

ip -c a

Or with a filter:

ip -c a | grep -E 'eth*|vmbr*|ensp*' -A 1 | grep 'inet' | awk '{print $2}'

Log in to PBS via your browser:
https://<ip-address-of-VM>:8007/

Final Notes:

USB Disk Pass-Through:

Pass any disk by passing the entire USB port to the VM from the Proxmox VE GUI.

1. Go to the Proxmox VE GUI > Select the VM > Hardware tab.
2. Click "Add" and select USB Device.
3. Select the USB device or Select the entire USB port.
   • If you select the entire USB port, all devices connected to that port will be passed through to the VM.
   • If you select a specific USB device, only that device will be passed through.
4. Click "Add" to confirm.

Note:
No SMART data will be available inside the VM, monitor the disk health from the Proxmox VE GUI.

NVME Disk Pass-Through:

In case of using NVME drives with an expansion board like pimoroni's NVME board.
find the /dev/disk/by-id/ path of the NVME disk you want to pass through.

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/

Then add the disk to the VM configuration file.

nano /etc/pve/nodes/pve-rpimox01/qemu-server/<vmID>.conf

Add the following line to the VM configuration file:

scsi1: /dev/disk/by-id/<ID-of-the-nvme-disk>,backup=0,discard=on,iothread=1,size=0,ssd=1

Note:
No SMART data will be available inside the VM, monitor the disk health from the Proxmox VE GUI.

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Now you can use ZFS inside PBS and get the awesomeness that is ZFS and Deduplication.