Backups
The Backups page provides a comprehensive interface for managing Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) backups and backup jobs from both PVE and PBS connections.
Overview
ProxCenter integrates with Proxmox Backup Server to give you a centralized view of all your backup archives, datastore statistics, and backup job configurations. If you have multiple PBS servers connected, you can switch between them using the PBS server selector in the top-right corner.
You must have at least one PBS connection configured in Settings > Connections to use the Backups page. If no PBS server is connected, a warning message will guide you to the settings page.
In multi-tenant deployments, backups are scoped by tenant and vDC. Provider administrators can manage all PBS connections, while tenant users only see backup archives, jobs, and restore targets that belong to their own vDC.
Dashboard KPIs
When a PBS server is selected, six key metrics are displayed at the top:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Backups | Total number of backup archives |
| Datastores | Number of available datastores |
| Capacity | Total storage capacity of the PBS server |
| Verified | Number of backups that have passed verification |
| Protected | Number of backups marked as protected |
| Usage | Storage utilization percentage with a progress bar |
Backup Archives
Listing
Backup archives are displayed in a data grid with server-side pagination. You can choose to display 25, 50, or 100 items per page. Each row shows:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| ID | The backup VM/CT ID |
| Name | VM or container name |
| Type | VM, CT (container), or Host |
| Datastore | The PBS datastore storing this backup |
| Date | When the backup was taken |
| Size | Backup archive size |
| Verified | Whether the backup has been verified (green chip) or not |
| Protected | Lock icon for protected backups |
Filtering
Three filter options are available above the backup list:
- Search -- Free text search with debounced input (searches across backup names and IDs)
- Datastore -- Filter backups by a specific PBS datastore
- Type -- Filter by backup type (VM, CT, Host)
Click Reset to clear all filters and reset pagination.
Backup Detail Drawer
Click on any backup row to open a detail drawer on the right side of the screen. The drawer has two tabs:
Information Tab
Displays detailed metadata about the selected backup:
- Backup ID and VM name
- Size and owner
- Protection status
- Verification status and timestamp
- Comments
Action buttons for restore, verify, download, and delete are available in the detail drawer for quick backup operations.
Explorer Tab
The backup archive explorer lets you browse the files inside a backup archive. This feature works with PBS .pxar archives.
How to use the explorer:
- Open a backup's detail drawer and switch to the Explorer tab
- The top level shows the available archives within the backup (e.g.,
drive-scsi0.img.fidx,root.pxar.didx) - Click on a browsable archive to enter it
- Navigate through directories using the file list
- Use the breadcrumb navigation at the top to jump to any parent directory
- Click the back arrow to return to the archive list
File type detection: The explorer displays specific icons based on file type and extension, including icons for images, videos, audio files, PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, archives, code files, configuration files, and more.
Backup Jobs
The Backups page includes a tabbed section for managing backup jobs from both PVE and PBS connections.
PVE Backup Jobs
View and manage backup jobs configured on your Proxmox VE clusters. For each PVE connection, you can:
- View all backup jobs with their schedule, storage target, node, selection mode, backup mode, and comments
- Create new backup jobs with full configuration: storage selection, schedule, node, backup mode (snapshot/suspend/stop), compression (zstd/gzip/lzo), VM selection (all/include/exclude), retention, and email notifications
- Edit existing jobs to modify any configuration parameter
- Enable/disable jobs with a toggle switch
- Run jobs immediately with the play button
- Delete jobs with confirmation dialog
Tenant-Scoped Backup Jobs
For vDC tenants, PVE backup jobs are constrained to the tenant's resource pool and allowed backup target. The create/edit flow uses a structured schedule picker:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Daily, weekly, or custom schedule |
| Time | Execution time for the backup job |
| Weekdays | Days selected for weekly schedules |
| Target | Tenant-visible PBS storage or namespace |
| Selection | VMs and containers inside the tenant's vDC pool |
Tenant users can verify and delete their own allowed backup archives. They cannot target provider storage, another tenant's PBS namespace, or VMs outside their vDC pool.
vDC PBS Bindings
Each vDC can have a dedicated Proxmox Backup Server namespace. In automatic mode, ProxCenter provisions the PBS namespace, sub-token, ACL, and matching PVE storage entry. Manual mode is available when operators want to pre-create PBS objects or enforce custom naming.
This binding isolates backup data by design:
- PBS archive lists are filtered by namespace
- Restore targets must belong to the tenant vDC
- Backup jobs are limited to the tenant pool
- Provider administrators retain cross-tenant visibility from the provider view
Tenant Restore
Tenant users can restore from PBS in two modes:
- Overwrite source VM -- Restore the backup over the original tenant-owned VM or CT.
- Restore as new VM -- Create a new VM or CT inside the tenant's vDC pool.
The tenant restore dialog uses a simplified flow and hides advanced Proxmox flags that are not needed for self-service recovery. Placement, storage, network, and quota checks are enforced before the restore starts.
PBS Backup Jobs
View and manage jobs configured directly on your Proxmox Backup Server. PBS job types include:
| Job Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Sync | Synchronize backups between PBS servers or remotes |
| Verify | Verify backup archive integrity |
| Prune | Apply retention policies to remove old backups |
| GC | Garbage collection to reclaim unused storage |
| Tape | Tape backup jobs for offline storage |
For each PBS job, you can view:
- Job ID, type, datastore, namespace, and schedule
- Last run state (OK, Error, Warning, Running)
- Last and next execution timestamps
- Comments
PBS jobs support create, edit, run now, and delete operations with type-specific configuration dialogs.
Required Permissions
To access the Backups page, users need one of the following permissions:
backup.view-- View backup archives and detailsbackup.job.view-- View backup job configurations