Offsite & DR with PBS Remote Sync

1) Design the topology

• Primary PBS: Receives backups from PVE clusters.
• Secondary PBS: Receives Remote Sync from primary to keep an offsite copy.
• Namespaces/datastores: Mirror names across primary/secondary to simplify restores and permissions.
• Network: Use a dedicated path/VPN between sites; enforce TLS and token scope.

2) Plan bandwidth and capacity

• Estimate change rate (daily deltas) and the throughput the link can sustain.
• Target to finish syncs reliably; increase bandwidth if needed.
• Use bandwidth limits on the Remote Sync job if you need to protect production traffic.
• Measure effective throughput with a test sync and adjust limits accordingly.

3) Set up Remote Sync

On the primary PBS:

• Create a scoped token on the secondary PBS with access to the target datastore/namespace.
• Remotes > Add: enter secondary PBS hostname, port, and token.
• Sync Jobs > Add: choose datastore/namespace and bandwidth limit.
• Enable Remove vanished only if you want deletions mirrored; otherwise, keep off for extra safety.

CLI example:

proxmox-backup-manager remote add secondary --host secondary.example.com --token 'pbs@pbs!sync=SECRET'
proxmox-backup-manager sync-job create sync-secondary \
  --remote secondary --remote-store primary --store primary \
  --schedule "daily" --delete 0 --limit 0

4) Security and isolation

• Scope tokens to specific datastores/namespaces; rotate regularly.
• Restrict firewall rules to required ports from primary to secondary.
• Separate admin accounts per PBS; enable 2FA and audit logging.

5) Run failover restore drills

• Monthly: restore a VM/CT from secondary PBS to a test PVE cluster; measure RTO and throughput.
• Check fingerprints and TLS trust on the secondary before drills to avoid delays.
• Document steps: switch PVE backup target to secondary, run restore, validate app health, then switch back.

6) Example DR playbook

• Document roles for primary and secondary ownership.
• Keep a runbook with failover and restore steps.
• Run quarterly failover drills and capture lessons learned.
• Drills: monthly restore to test cluster; quarterly full failover simulation.