"title":"Proxmox Backup to Personal Cloud Storage | ProxMenux Guides",
"description":"Use rclone to mount a personal cloud (Google Drive, Mega, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.) as a directory on the Proxmox VE host, register it as a vzdump datastore, and back up VMs / CTs straight to the cloud — no extra script.",
"ogTitle":"Proxmox Backup to Personal Cloud Storage",
"ogDescription":"Mount a personal cloud with rclone on a Proxmox VE host and back up VMs / CTs straight to it as a vzdump datastore."
},
"header":{
"title":"Proxmox Backup to Personal Cloud Storage",
"description":"Use rclone to mount a personal cloud (Google Drive, Mega, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.) as a directory on the Proxmox VE host, register it as a vzdump datastore, and back up VMs / CTs straight to the cloud — no extra script.",
"section":"Guides"
},
"intro":{
"pbsCalloutTitle":"Consider Proxmox Backup Server first",
"pbsCalloutBody":"On a second machine that meets its x86-64 requirements, <pbsLink>Proxmox Backup Server</pbsLink> offers incremental, deduplicated backups and optional client-side encryption. It is designed for VM backups. This guide instead covers mounting personal cloud storage such as Google Drive, Mega, OneDrive or Dropbox as a backup destination.",
"vzdumpCalloutBody":"Proxmox vzdump archives are <strong>full backups, not incremental</strong>. Their actual size depends on the data included and compression, not just the virtual disk capacity. If one archive occupies 30 GB, five retained archives need roughly 150 GB. Set a retention policy so the cloud does not fill up."
"heading":"1. Create the host directory and register it as a datastore",
"body":"SSH into the host (or use the Proxmox shell) and create a mount-point directory under <code>/mnt/</code>. The name is arbitrary — use something that identifies the provider:",
"mkdirCode":"mkdir -p /mnt/gdrive",
"afterMkdir":"In the Proxmox web UI: <strong>Datacenter → Storage → Add → Directory</strong>.",
"image1Alt":"Adding new storage in Proxmox",
"configIntro":"Configure it like this:",
"configItems":[
"<strong>ID:</strong> <code>gdrive</code> (or whatever you used for the directory name)",
"tunnelBody":"For providers with browser-based login, the Proxmox host usually has no browser. Follow <remoteSetupLink>rclone’s remote-setup procedure</remoteSetupLink>: use your laptop’s browser and forward its localhost callback connection through SSH to rclone on the host.",
"tunnelAfter":"This SSH session opens localhost port 53682 on your laptop and forwards connections to the same port on the Proxmox host. Keep it open during the rclone configuration below.",
"runBody":"In the SSH session you just opened, run:",
"runCode":"rclone config",
"runAfter":"Follow the prompts to add a new remote. The exact answers depend on your provider — see the <providerDocsLink>rclone provider docs</providerDocsLink> for Google Drive, Mega, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. The key step is the auth question:",
"authPrompt":"Use web browser to automatically authenticate rclone with remote?\n * Say Y if the machine running rclone has a web browser you can use\n * Say N if running rclone on a (remote) machine without web browser access\nIf not sure try Y. If Y failed, try N.\ny) Yes\nn) No\ny/n> y",
"authAfter":"Answer <strong>Y</strong> — rclone prints a localhost URL. Open it in <strong>your laptop's browser</strong> (the SSH tunnel routes it correctly), authorise the rclone application in your cloud provider, and the config completes.",
"nameRemote":"When asked for the remote's name, use something matching the directory you created — e.g. <code>gdrive</code>."
},
"mount":{
"heading":"3. Mount the cloud folder",
"body":"Create a folder in your personal cloud to hold the backups. Call it something like <code>PBC</code> (Proxmox Backup Cloud).",
"<code>gdrive:/PBC</code> — the folder in your cloud.",
"<code>/mnt/gdrive</code> — the host directory you registered as a datastore."
],
"mountFootnote":"<strong>This command stays in the foreground.</strong> For testing, leave it running in a terminal and try a backup. For permanent mounting on every boot, set up a systemd unit (next section)."
},
"systemd":{
"heading":"4. Auto-mount on every boot (systemd)",
"body":"A systemd unit is more robust than <code>crontab @reboot</code> — it can wait for the network to be ready, restart on failure, and gives you proper logs via <code>journalctl</code>.",
"unitCode":"[Unit]\nDescription=rclone mount for Proxmox cloud backups\nWants=network-online.target\nAfter=network-online.target\n\n[Service]\nType=notify\nExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone mount \\\n gdrive:/PBC /mnt/gdrive \\\n --allow-other \\\n --allow-non-empty \\\n --vfs-cache-mode writes \\\n --log-level INFO \\\n --log-file /var/log/rclone-gdrive.log\nExecStop=/bin/fusermount -uz /mnt/gdrive\nRestart=on-failure\nRestartSec=10\n\n[Install]\nWantedBy=multi-user.target",
"adjust":"Adjust <code>gdrive:/PBC</code> and <code>/mnt/gdrive</code> if you used different names. Save (<code>Ctrl+X</code>), then enable and start:",
"verifyAfter":"The unit requests a restart after 10 seconds if the rclone process exits with a failure. This does not repair expired credentials or guarantee recovery from every network or provider error. Check <code>/var/log/rclone-gdrive.log</code> and <code>journalctl -u rclone-gdrive.service -f</code>.",
"vfsCalloutBody":"With write caching, writes such as <code>fwrite</code> go to a local disk cache. rclone uploads a file after it is closed and the write-back delay has passed. Reserve enough local space for active backups, and verify the upload has completed before counting the cloud copy as available."
"body":"Proxmox vzdump archives are <strong>full backups, not incremental</strong>. Their actual size depends on the data included and compression, not just the virtual disk capacity. If one archive occupies 30 GB, five retained archives need roughly 150 GB. Set a retention policy so the cloud does not fill up.",
"<strong><code>Mount point /mnt/gdrive is itself on a fuse.rclone filesystem</code>:</strong> the directory is already mounted, possibly by another rclone instance. Check that no backup is active before removing the old mount with <code>fusermount -uz /mnt/gdrive</code>, then restart the systemd unit.",
"<strong>Backup is extremely slow:</strong> confirm <code>--vfs-cache-mode writes</code> is on the <code>ExecStart</code> line. Check local cache performance, upload bandwidth and provider limits. The background upload can continue after vzdump finishes.",
"<strong>Backup fails with No space left on device:</strong> check local cache space and the provider’s quota. The cache commonly uses <code>~/.cache/rclone/</code>. If it is full, select a cache path such as <code>--cache-dir /var/cache/rclone</code> on a filesystem with enough space; a different path on the same full filesystem will not help.",
"<strong>rclone authentication token expired:</strong> reconnect over SSH with the tunnel (<code>ssh -L localhost:53682:localhost:53682 root@ip_proxmox</code>) and run <code>rclone config reconnect gdrive:</code> to renew authorization.",
"<strong>Backups land but are corrupted on restore:</strong> stop using cloud storage as the <strong>only</strong> backup destination. Combine with local PBS / vzdump on a different disk for resilience."
