How To Install Proxmox Backup Server Version 1.0 On VMware ESXi 6.0 And VMware Fusion.
Perfoming a data backup refers to the action of copying files and information to a secondary location. That location can be an external flash drive, hard drive, NAS drive or cloud storage. Keeping data backups can protect you from software or hardware failures, data corruption, ransomware & maliscious hacking, viruses, user errors, natural / environmental disasters and other unforseen events. Backups essentially provide a means to restore destroyed, deleted or overritten files. There are many software solutions available today that offer many features to help ensure that you never lose your important data however most of those software solutions come with a high price tag. Proxmox Backup server is an open source, free to download and use data backup and protection system that comes with enterprise grade data backup and protection features and functionality for FREE! Continue reading this tutorial to learn how to install Proxmox Backup Server version 1.0 on VMware ESXi 6.0 and on VMware Fusion 11.0. A FREE video tutorial is also available on YOUTUBE click on the VIEW YOUTUBE TUTORIAL button to watch it now!
REQUIREMENTS
This tutorial should take 20 minutes or less to complete. In order to complete this tutorial successfully the following items are required. Please ensure to have these items available before taking implementation action on this tutorial:
1) A server running VMware ESXi 6.0 or any newer version
2) A computer running MacOS 10.13 High Sierra or newer
3) The Proxmox backup server version 1.0 disk image file (ISO)
4) A web browser (Firefox, Google Chrome, Mircrosoft Edge or Safari)
5) VMware Fusion 11.0 or any newer version
OVERVIEW
1) Proxmox Backup Server system requirements.
2) Go to the proxmox website and download the Proxmox Backup Server disk image file (ISO).
3) Open VMware Fusion and create the Proxmox Backup Server virtual machine.
4) Power on the VM and complete the Proxmox Backup Server installation process.
5) Open the Proxmox Backup Server web based management interface.
Proxmox Backup Server System Requirements
The following are the minimum system requirements needed to run the Proxmox backup server on a physical computer (bare metal installation) or as a virtual machine:
1) A dual core intel x86_64 or AMD64 processor
2) Atleast 2GB or RAM for the OS, filesystem cache and Proxmox Backup Server daemons.
3) An SSD or HDD with atleast 10GB of disk space
4) Atleast 1 gigabit ethernet network interface card
5) If using a dedicated server we recommend RAID with battery protected write cache (BBU) or a redundant ZFS setup.
Step 1: Download The Proxmox Disk Image File (ISO).
1) You can download the proxmox disk image file (ISO) using a direct download link or using a torrent download link. Click HERE to go to the proxmox download page and click on the DOWNLOAD method that works best for you.
Please note that the disk image file is about 645MB in size.
Step 2: Open VMware Fusion And Create The Proxmox Backup Server Virtual Machine (VM)
2) Launch the VMware Fusion app installed on your Mac and click on FILE > NEW to open the virtual machine creation wizard. On SELECT INSTALLATION METHOD click on choose the INSTALL FROM DISK OR IMAGE option and click on NEXT.
3) On the CREATE A NEW VIRTUAL MACHINE section, click on the USE ANOTHER DISK OR DISC IMAGE button, browse to the folder where the PROXMOX BACKUP SERVER ISO file is located, select it and click on CONTINUE.
4) On the CHOOSE OPERATING SYSTEM section, click on LINUX and select DEBIAN 9.X 64 BIT from the list of linux operating systems and click on CONTINUE
5) On the CHOOSE FIRMWARE TYPE section you will be prompted to choose the firmware type to be used to boot the Proxmox Backup Server VM. Click on the UEFI option and click on CONTINUE
6) A virtual machine summary will shown and indicate all the selections that you have made. If there are any changes you would like to make to the virtual machine configuration click on the CUSTOMIZE SETTINGS button.
Once all changes are complete click on the FINISH button. A popup box will be displayed prompting you to enter a virtual machine name. Type in any name that you would like and click on FINISH.
Step 3: Power On The VM And Complete The Installation Process.
7) From the VMware Fusion virtual machine library, right click on the newly created proxmox VM and click on START UP.
8) When the virtual machine boot process completes select the INSTALL PROXMOX BACKUP SERVER option and press ENTER.
9) Nowadays almost all software has some form of agreement that you need to accept before you can use it and the Proxmox Backup Server has no exception for this. Click on the I AGREE button to accept the END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT (EULA).
10) When installing the Proxmox Backup Server you can select an installation disk and this is usefull when using a computer with multiple hard disks. In this case there is only 1 virtual hard disk which will be automatically selected as the target hard disk. Click on NEXT to proceed to the next step.
11) The Proxmox Backup Server uses location and timezone information to select the closest mirror location when downloading system updates. On the LOCATION AND TIME ZONE SELECTION section, enter your COUNTRY, TIME ZONE and KEYBOARD LAYOUT and click on NEXT.
12) On the ADMINISTRATION PASSWORD AND EMAIL ADDRESS section, type in a password for the PBS root user account. A password that contains a capital letter, small letter, number and special character such as an exclamation mark is recommended. Alternatively you can use the AVAST PASSWORD GENERATOR to create a secure password.
13) The next step is to specify an IP address that will be used to access the web based management interface. Choose a MANAGEMENT INTERFACE, type in the FQDN hostname, IP address, gatway as well as DNS server and click on NEXT.
14) An installation summary will be shown, that will allow you to verify the selection that you have made on previous sections. If the selections shown here are correct click on the AUTOMATICALLY REBOOT AFTER SUCCESSFUL INSTALLATION checkbox then click on the INSTALL button to start the Proxmox Backup Server installation process.
15) Once the installation process is complete, the server will automatically restart and indicate to you the IP address and port number needed to open the Proxmox Backup Server management interface.
Open a new web browser window, type in the IP address and port number as shown in the server command line interface and press ENTER.
SUCCESSFUL INSTALLATION checkbox then click on the INSTALL button to start the Proxmox Backup Server installation process.
16) When the Proxmox Backup Server is installed a self signed SSL certificate is installed so as to ensure that the web based management interface can be accessed using the secure HTTPS protocol.
When you attempt to gain access to the PBS web management interface for the first time you might see a warning message indicating that PBS uses an invalid security certificate that is not trusted because it is self signed.
Click on the ACCEPT THE RISK AND CONTINUE button to proceed to the PBS login page.
17)On the PBS login page, enter ROOT as the USERNAME and type in the password that you specified during the PBS installation process. On the REALM drop down menu, select LINUX PAM STANDARD AUTHENTICATION and click on LOGIN
18) Once logged in you should see the PROXMOX BACKUP SERVER dashboard that shows important stats about server resources and running tasks.
Install The Proxmox Backup Server On VMware ESXi 6.0
19) Open a new browser tab, type in the IP address or domain name of your VMware ESXi server in the browser address bar and press ENTER. Enter your ESXi login credentials and click on the LOGIN button.
20) Click on STORAGE > DATASTORE BROWSER and click on the UPLOAD button. Browse to the folder where the Proxmox Backup Server disk image file is located and click on OPEN. You will see a file upload progress bar on the top right corner of the DATASTORE BROWSER window.
21) Close the DATASTORE BROWSER windows then click on VIRTUAL MACHINES > CREATE / REGISTER VM. On the NEW VIRTUAL MACHINE wizard select the CREATE A NEW VIRTUAL MACHINE option and click on NEXT.
22) Type in a name to identify the virtual machine on the NAME text input box, select LINUX on the GUEST OS FAMILY drop down and choose DEBIAN GNU/LINUX 8 (64-BIT) on the GUEST OS VERSION drop down and click on NEXT.
23) on the SELECT STORAGE step, choose the datastore that you would like to use to store virtual machine files. If your ESXi server only has 1 datastore simply click on NEXT.
24) On the CUSTOMIZE SETTINGS step, set the number of CPU’s, amount of MEMORY and HARD DISK size. scroll down the CD/DVD drop down menu and choose the DATASTORE ISO FILE option.
A file selection window will be shown, select the Proxmox Backup Server disk image file, ensure that the CONNECT check box is checked and click on NEXT.
You will see a list that you can use to check and verify the options that you have selected. Click on the FINISH button to complete the virtual machine creation process.
25) Right click on the newly created PBS virtual machine and select POWER > POWER ON. Once the virtual machine starts up, complete the Proxmox Backup Server installation process as explained above from STEP 8 to STEP 18.
