Welcome, fellow homelab wizard! Let’s break down the (slightly extra) process of adding USB hard drives to a virtual machine running Proxmox Backup Server (PBS). Spoiler alert: it’s a bit more work than if you just slapped a drive into a physical box, but we\u2019ve got this..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you’re running PBS inside a Proxmox VE virtual machine and want to add USB drives as data stores, you need to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\/etc\/fstab<\/code>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udee0 Step-by-Step Instructions (with Example Commands)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n1. Create Your PBS Virtual Machine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Create a virtual machine and install Proxmox Backup Server. This is your backup brain in a box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Attach the USB Drives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n- On your Proxmox VE host, go to your PBS VM settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Click Hardware > Add > USB Device<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Select the USB hard drive from the list and click Add<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
3. Boot the PBS VM and Open the Shell<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
From the Proxmox GUI:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Click on your PBS VM.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Go to Console<\/strong> or Shell<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
4. Identify the Drives<\/h3>\n\n\n\nlsblk\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nLook for drives like \/dev\/sdb<\/code>, \/dev\/sdc<\/code>, etc. These are likely your USB drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n5. Partition the Drives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Use fdisk<\/code> or parted<\/code> to partition each drive as GPT.<\/p>\n\n\n\nsudo fdisk \/dev\/sdb\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n\n- Press
g<\/code> to create a new GPT table.<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Press
n<\/code> to create a new partition.<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Write with
w<\/code> to save.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n6. Format the Drives<\/h3>\n\n\n\nsudo mkfs.ext4 \/dev\/sdb1\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nRepeat for each drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. Create Mount Points<\/h3>\n\n\n\nsudo mkdir -p \/mnt\/usb1\nsudo mkdir -p \/mnt\/usb2\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nEach drive needs its own folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. Mount the Drives<\/h3>\n\n\n\nsudo mount \/dev\/sdb1 \/mnt\/usb1\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nRepeat for each drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9. Confirm They\u2019re Mounted<\/h3>\n\n\n\nlsblk\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nYou should see your devices mounted to the paths you created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udce6 Add the Data Stores via PBS GUI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Now let\u2019s make PBS actually use<\/em> these drives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Go to the PBS web interface.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Click on Datastore > Add<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Enter:\n
\n- Name<\/strong> (e.g.,
USB-Backup1<\/code>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Path<\/strong> (e.g.,
\/mnt\/usb1<\/code>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Click Add<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Congrats! PBS now sees the drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udcbe Make Mounts Persistent with \/etc\/fstab<\/code><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBecause Linux is forgetful after reboots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Get the UUID of Each Drive<\/h3>\n\n\n\nsudo blkid\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nCopy the UUIDs and note which one is which.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Edit \/etc\/fstab<\/code><\/h3>\n\n\n\nsudo nano \/etc\/fstab\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nAdd lines like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx \/mnt\/usb1 ext4 defaults 0 2\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nDo this for each drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Test the Config<\/h3>\n\n\n\nsudo mount -a\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nIf no errors appear, you\u2019re golden. Reboot and verify with lsblk<\/code> or df -h<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\ud83e\uddd9\u200d\u2642\ufe0f Bonus Tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n- Take a VM snapshot<\/strong> before making these changes. Always good to have a time machine.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Update your PBS system<\/strong> first with:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n\n- If things break after reboot: check your
\/etc\/fstab<\/code> syntax or UUIDs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\ud83c\udfc1 Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Adding USB drives to a PBS VM takes some manual magic, but once it\u2019s set up, you\u2019ve got flexible, external backup storage running in style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So go ahead, mount up, back up, and sleep easy knowing your data has a solid home\u2014even if it\u2019s via a USB cable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome, fellow homelab wizard! Let’s break down the (slightly extra) process of adding USB hard drives to a virtual machine running Proxmox Backup Server (PBS). Spoiler alert: it’s a bit more work than if you just slapped a drive into a physical box, but we\u2019ve got this.. \ud83d\udd27 Overview When you’re running PBS inside a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-edu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenetworkhero.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}