Disaster Recovery (DR) in Proxmox VE ensures that your virtual infrastructure can survive failures—whether due to hardware issues, data corruption, or entire site outages. While Proxmox doesn’t have a “one-click DR” feature, it provides flexible, modular tools to build solid DR strategies.

Key Disaster Recovery Options in Proxmox

1. Proxmox Backup Server (PBS)

Best for: Fast recovery of VMs and containers from snapshots or corruption

• Incremental, deduplicated backups
• Encrypted and efficient over WAN
• Granular restore (files, full VMs, VM disks)
• Can be automated and scheduled
• Restore to any Proxmox node or datacenter

Restore time: Minutes to an hour
Supports remote/offsite DR storage

2. ZFS Replication

Best for: Fast failover between nodes or datacenters using ZFS

• Built-in replication engine in Proxmox
• Sends ZFS snapshots to a second node
• Efficient, block-level, incremental
• Scheduled every few minutes if needed

CLI & GUI management
Only works if storage backend is ZFS
Target node must have same VM ID and compatible storage

3. Ceph with Multi-site or Backup

Best for: Enterprise-grade, fault-tolerant storage with optional multi-site

• Redundant, self-healing, distributed block storage
• Possible to replicate pools across clusters manually (complex)
• Integrates with RBD snapshots and backups

Multi-site setups require advanced Ceph configuration and networking

4. Offsite Backup with PBS or rsync

Best for: Full-site failure or ransomware protection

• Use PBS in a remote location or cloud VM (e.g., Hetzner, AWS)
• Sync backups offsite using proxmox-backup-client or rsync/ZFS send
• Keep daily, weekly, monthly backup chains

Can restore full datacenter from remote PBS server

5. Cold Standby or Clone Cluster

Best for: Budget-friendly DR with longer RTO (Recovery Time Objective)

• Create a second Proxmox cluster
• Use ZFS replication or PBS to sync VM data
• In DR event, manually start the VMs

Affordable, good for SMBs
Slower recovery (requires manual intervention)

6. Cluster-Level HA (Short-Term DR)

Best for: Node-level failure handling, not site-wide DR

• Use Proxmox HA manager and shared storage (Ceph, NFS, etc.)
• Automatic failover of VMs to healthy nodes
• No data loss, minimal downtime

Only effective within the same physical cluster/site

DR Strategy Examples

DR Best Practices for Proxmox

1. Automate daily backups (use PBS schedules)
2. Replicate to offsite storage (PBS remote or ZFS replication)
3. Test restores regularly (quarterly or monthly)
4. Keep at least 3 versions (daily, weekly, monthly)
5. Use encryption on offsite backups
6. Document your DR plan with VM priorities and contacts
7. Monitor backup jobs for failures or delays

Summary

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