cross-posted from: https://lemmy.buddyverse.net/post/10438
I recently upgraded my network from a basic router to a Netgear GS108E Gigabit switch. Backups are now way faster, which is great… but now I’ve run into a new problem.
I run Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) in a VM on one of my servers (let’s call it Proxmox 2). PBS has 100 GB of cache storage since I’m using S3 as a datastore - it stores chunks locally before uploading to S3.
Here’s the issue: I try to backup a VM from another server (Proxmox 1). The VM’s storage is 300 GB, but actual usage is under 30 GB. Everything works fine until it hits 34% (104 GB of data). At that point, the PBS VM and the host server itself become completely unreachable. I have to force power off and restart.
I understand why PBS might crash – my VM has 4 GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, and my internet is only around 60–70 Mbps—but why would the host server hang as well?
Has anyone experienced something like this? Could it be networking, storage, or something else in Proxmox causing the host to become unresponsive when PBS gets busy? Any ideas or advice would be appreciated!
For further context: https://lemmy.buddyverse.net/post/5455
Are you able to check the logs at all?
This may be totally off base but: I recently had some issues with the intel networking adapter on one of my Dell Optiplexes. Still not sure specifically why, but when it was at high load (including during one backup), it was crashing. I found Intel e1000 errors on the host and was able to follow these instructions which seemed to resolve the host become unavailable:
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/e1000-driver-hang.58284/page-4#post-302307I had the same thing with the intel nic having hardware hang issues. Definetely recommend mitexleo check out that link. If it is the same thing, you can unplug and replug the ethernet cable to at least get communication to the host again without restarting the computer.
You guys are right!
I was thinking about getting a USB Ethernet Adapter. Will it help me to resolve the issues easily?
I haven’t tried a USB adapter with proxmox, but there’s a chance it would work. I was also looking at a cheap pcie card like this one as a way to add another ethernet port. https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dQmLrH/tp-link-wired-network-card-tg3468
That being said, the steps in the link that David gave have worked for me to stop the hardware hang issue with the intel nic. Basically disable tcp segmentation offload and generic segmentation offload with
ethtool -K eno1 tso off gso off. You can add a post-up command to the interace config to make it persistent.The USB adapter resolved the issue! I didn’t disable offloading as it will increase CPU usage.
What is your PBS using for storage? Vmdisk or native zfs disk?
I suggest you pass through a hard drive(s) directly and it up with zfs within pbs. This allows pbs to utilize all of the features of zfs.
I use a USB HDD for this just so I can grab my backup drive and plug it in somewhere else if I need to.
That’s a great idea! Thank you so much. I will get a portable SSD or HDD as soon as I can.
