Proxmox Disaster Recovery: your recovery plan in 4 hours
A disaster can strike at any time. With NimbusBackup, restore your complete Proxmox infrastructure in under 4 hours. Offsite PBS backup, geo-replication and air-gap included.
Why a DR plan is essential
Without a disaster recovery plan, a disaster can mean the end of your business. Threats are real and increasingly frequent.
Ransomware: 60% of affected SMBs close within 6 months
Cyberattacks target network-accessible backups first. Without air-gapped backup, ransomware encrypts both production and backups simultaneously. DR becomes impossible.
Physical disaster: fire, flood, extended outage
The OVH SBG2 datacenter fire destroyed 30,000 servers in one night — production and backups together. Without offsite backup, restoration is impossible. A solid DR plan requires geographically remote backup.
Human error: accidental deletion, mishandling
A mistyped command, a purge script running in production, a VM accidentally deleted. Human errors are the #1 cause of data loss. With a DR plan based on immutable PBS snapshots, you can restore any point in time.
The 4 pillars of an effective Proxmox DR plan
A disaster recovery plan is more than just a backup. Here are the fundamentals NimbusBackup implements for you.
Offsite backup
Your PBS backups are stored in an Equinix datacenter in France, physically separated from your production. A local disaster never affects your backups. Compliant with the 3-2-1 rule.
Multi-site geo-replication
With the Double Drive plan, your backups are replicated across two remote sites. If an entire datacenter goes down, the other takes over. Maximum resilience for your DR.
Air-gapped anti-ransomware isolation
With the AirGapped Drive plan, 2 disks are physically disconnected from the network at all times, with a guaranteed monthly rotation: you keep 2 months of offline backups. Ransomware cannot reach a medium that is not connected to anything. ANSSI calls an offline backup indispensable (recommendation R12 of its backup guide).
Regular restore tests
An untested DR plan is not a DR plan. We assist you with quarterly restore tests: snapshot integrity verification, actual VM restoration, real RTO measurement.
RTO and RPO: understanding recovery objectives
Two key metrics define your DR plan quality. NimbusBackup helps you achieve your objectives.
RPO
Recovery Point Objective
RPO measures the maximum amount of data you can accept losing. It corresponds to the time between the last backup and the disaster.
With NimbusBackup:
- RPO of 1h: backup every hour
- RPO of 4h: backup 6 times per day
- RPO of 24h: daily backup
RTO
Recovery Time Objective
RTO measures the maximum acceptable downtime between the disaster and full resumption of operations. Restore time depends on volume and uplink: estimate your restore RTO.
What the plan determines:
- Meca disk plans: data online, restore can start immediately
- Bank vault: 48 to 96 hours of media retrieval before you can begin
The restore duration adds to that delay and depends on your volume and your bandwidth. We measure it during accompanied tests and hand you the figure: that measurement is the estimate, not a contractual RTO.
Did you know?
Thanks to PBS native deduplication, incremental backups only transfer modified blocks. You can therefore increase backup frequency (and reduce your RPO) without blowing up your bandwidth or storage.
Restore scenarios
Three concrete scenarios to understand how NimbusBackup gets you back in production after a disaster.
Single VM restore
15 - 30 minutesAccidental deletion, file corruption, or failed update on a single VM.
- 1Open Proxmox VE, select the NimbusBackup datastore
- 2Choose the desired snapshot (point in time)
- 3Start the restore to the node of your choice
- 4The VM is operational in 15 to 30 minutes
Full node restore
2 - 4 hoursHardware failure, disaster, or ransomware. The entire node must be rebuilt.
- 1Install Proxmox VE on new hardware (or backup server)
- 2Add the NimbusBackup datastore (fingerprint + key provided)
- 3Restore all VMs from the latest valid snapshot
- 4Reconfigure the network and verify — production restored in 2 to 4h
Restore from bank vault
48 - 96 hoursMajor catastrophe scenario with complete compromise of the online infrastructure. Air-gapped media in bank vault are your last line of defense.
- 1Request media retrieval from our team (secure procedure)
- 2Disk is retrieved from vault within 24 to 48h (dual authentication)
- 3PBS data import on a prepared Proxmox VE node
- 4Full restore — business resumption within 48 to 96h
Which plan for your DR?
6 Proxmox backup plans tailored to your criticality level. Choose the data-access delay and the RPO that match your needs.
Single Drive PBS
Basic DROffsite backup on a single site. Ideal for a first level of DR.
Double Drive PBS
Geo-replicated DRGeo-replication across 2 remote sites. The best protection/price ratio for a solid DR.
AirGapped Drive PBS
Anti-ransomware DRDisks physically disconnected from the network. Maximum protection against cyberattacks.
Drive Bank PBS
Bank vault DRMedia stored in bank vault. Maximum physical security for critical data.
Magnetic PBS
DR + long-term archivingMeca + LTO tape for long-term archiving. Fast DR and extended retention.
Magnetic Bank PBS
Maximum DRThe ultimate protection: Meca + LTO + bank vault. For the most sensitive data.
Need help choosing? Book a free 15-minute DR audit.
DR + Managed Services = total peace of mind
Your DR is in place. What if your servers were also monitored 24/7? RDEM Systems offers managed services for your dedicated servers with NimbusBackup included. Monitoring, security patches, and DR — everything is covered.
24/7 Monitoring
Continuous monitoring + PagerDuty on-call
Proactive security
CVE security patches within 48h
DR included
Offsite NimbusBackup in every contract
Frequently asked questions about Proxmox DR
Set up your Proxmox DR plan
Don't let a disaster end your business. Offsite backup, geo-replicated and air-gapped. Data kept online, restores tested. From 12 EUR/TB/month.