3-2-1 Backup in Practice: Velero + PBS + Offsite That Doesn't Work Yet

Originally published at woitzik.dev

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The 3-2-1 backup rule is simple: 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media types, with 1 copy offsite. My homelab implements all three layers. In theory. In practice, each layer has its own failure mode that I discovered only when I needed it — starting with the Garage S3 target Velero backs into, which is where layer 1 lives.

View the complete homelab infrastructure source on GitHub 🐙

The Three Layers

Layer 1: Velero → Garage S3 (in-cluster, daily 05:00 UTC)
    ↓
Layer 2: PBS → External HDD (local, daily 03:00 UTC)
    ↓
Layer 3: rclone → Google Drive (offsite, DISABLED)

Layer 1: Velero → Garage S3

Velero backs up k3s namespaces (apps, vault, database, argocd) to Garage S3 — a self-hosted S3-compatible object store running inside the same cluster.

# kubernetes/system/velero/schedule.yml
spec:
  schedule: "0 5 * * *"
  template:
    defaultVolumesToFsBackup: true
    includedNamespaces: ["apps", "vault", "database", "argocd"]
    excludedResources: ["events", "events.events.k8s.io"]
    ttl: 720h  # 30 days

defaultVolumesToFsBackup: true was the critical fix. Without it, Velero only captured Kubernetes manifests — not the actual PVC data. The backups "completed" for weeks with zero data.

After the fix, Kopia sidecars run alongside each pod, copying PVC contents to the Garage S3 velero bucket. Daily backups, 30-day retention.

The catch: Garage runs inside the cluster. If the cluster dies, both Velero and Garage are gone. Layer 1 is useful for recovering individual PVCs or namespaces within a running cluster — not for full cluster recovery.

Layer 2: PBS → External HDD

Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) backs up VM and LXC disk images to a Seagate 2TB External HDD* connected via USB.

# PBS backup job — runs daily at 03:00 UTC
# Backs up all VMs and LXCs to /mnt/backup (USB HDD)
proxmox-backup-client backup \
  --repository local:/mnt/backup \
  --ns homelab \
  vm/110/pct/200/pct/210/...

PBS handles deduplication, compression, and incremental backups. The USB HDD provides local, offline backup that survives cluster failures.

The gotcha: PBS and the k3s VMs share the same physical host. A host-level failure (PSU, NVMe death) takes out both the primary data and the PBS backup. Layer 2 is protection against software failure (corruption, accidental deletion), not hardware failure.

Layer 3: rclone → Google Drive (DISABLED)

The offsite layer was supposed to be rclone syncing from Garage S3 to Google Drive. In practice, Google's API throttled the sync to 1.6 KiB/s:

Transferred:   1.6 KiB / 4.2 GiB,  0.00%
Elapsed time:  2h 30m
Transfer rate: 1.6 KiB/s

Google Drive's API rate limiting for server-to-server transfers (no user interaction) is aggressive. For 4 GB of data, the sync would take days. Combined with Google's 750 GB/day upload limit for personal accounts, and the fact that the sync would need to run continuously to keep up with daily backups, the offsite layer was disabled.

The replacement (Cloudflare R2) is scaffolded but not active:

# kubernetes/system/velero/offsite-schedule.yml
apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Schedule
metadata:
  name: daily-offsite
spec:
  schedule: "0 4 * * *"
  template:
    includedNamespaces: ["apps", "vault", "database", "argocd"]
    storageLocation: r2-offsite
    ttl: 168h  # 7 days

Waiting on a Cloudflare R2 account with real API credentials. R2 has no egress fees and no API rate limiting for the volume this backup produces (~4 GB/day). Activating it also fixes a second problem beyond throttling: Garage runs inside the same cluster Velero is protecting, so an in-cluster-only backup target is circular regardless of how fast it uploads.

The Restore Gotcha

The first time I tested a full restore, PBS hit an IP/MAC conflict:

Error: VM 211 is running on a different node (10.0.20.11)
Proxmox cannot start the VM because the MAC address is already in use

The issue: PBS restores the VM's network configuration exactly as it was, including the MAC address. If the original VM is still running (or its MAC is cached in the bridge), the restored VM can't start because Proxmox detects a MAC conflict on the virtual bridge.

The fix: restore to a temporary VMID, verify the restore is complete, then shut down the original and rename the restored VM. This is a manual multi-step process — not something you want to do under time pressure during a real disaster.

What Actually Works

The honest assessment: I have two functional backup layers, both on the same physical host. True offsite backup doesn't exist yet. The 3-2-1 rule is aspirational, not achieved.

The Verification Gap

The most important lesson: a backup you haven't restored is not a backup.

Velero backups run daily, PBS runs daily, and until recently neither had been fully restored. The Velero defaultVolumesToFsBackup gap existed for weeks because nobody tested a restore. The PBS IP conflict was discovered during the first full restore test.

After these discoveries, I added:

1. Monthly Velero restore test — restore the database namespace to a temporary namespace, verify Postgres starts and contains expected data
2. Quarterly PBS restore test — restore one VM to a temporary VMID, verify it boots and services are functional
3. Post-backup verification — velero backup describe --details | grep "Pod Volume Backups" after every scheduled backup

Backup verification is the same compliance requirement in Azure: ISO 27001 and NIS2 both require documented, tested restore procedures. Azure Backup reports "Completed" for VM snapshots, but the snapshot might not include the data disk if the backup policy was misconfigured. The only way to verify is to actually restore a test VM and confirm its contents — the same monthly drill I now run against Velero and PBS.