Each datastore on your Proxmox Backup Server has its own page in Aprox. It shows how full the datastore is and when it is expected to be full, how well deduplication works, how the last garbage collection went, and how the datastore is configured. From the same page you can start garbage collection or verify every snapshot in it. Viewing is free. Starting garbage collection and Verify All need Aprox Pro.
Where to find it
Sidebar › your Backup Server › Datastores › the datastore.
You can also tap a datastore on the Backup Server Overview.
The page has six tabs: Summary, Content, GC, Jobs, Options and Tasks. The toolbar holds the Actions menu.
Read the summary
The Summary tab has these parts:
| Card | Field | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Usage | usage bar | Used space against the size of the datastore, with a line about garbage collection, failed verification and the expected full date. |
| Available | Free space. | |
| Estimated Full | The date Backup Server expects the datastore to be full, based on its growth. Shown only when there is a forecast. | |
| Deduplication | How many times more data the backups reference than is actually stored, for example 12×. |
|
| Datastore | Path | Where the datastore lives on the server. |
| Backend | The storage backend type. | |
| Mount | The mount state, for removable datastores. | |
| Maintenance | The maintenance mode, if one is set. | |
| Comment | The datastore's comment. | |
| History | Used, Disk I/O | Charts over the chosen Timeframe: Hour, Day, Week, Month or Year. |
Fields Backup Server does not report are left out.
Check garbage collection
Garbage collection is how Backup Server frees space. Pruning or removing a snapshot only removes its index; the data chunks stay on disk until garbage collection finds that no snapshot references them any more.
Open the GC tab:
| Card | Fields |
|---|---|
| Schedule | Schedule (the calendar event, or none) and Next Run. |
| Last Run | Finished (or Started, while it is running), Result and Duration. |
| Found | On Disk (space the chunks take), Referenced (data the snapshots reference), Deduplication, Removed (space freed), Pending (space that becomes free on a later run) and Bad Chunks (only when there are any). |
If garbage collection has never run, the tab says "Garbage collection has not run on this datastore yet."
Note
Backup Server keeps chunks for about a day after they stop being referenced before it deletes them. Space freed by a prune therefore shows up under Pending first and under Removed on a later run.
Start garbage collection
Needs Aprox Pro.
- Open the datastore.
- Tap Actions in the toolbar.
- Choose Start Garbage Collection.
- Aprox shows Collecting garbage… and then Garbage collection finished.
On a large datastore garbage collection can take hours. After a minute, Aprox tells you it is still running on the server; you can follow it in the Tasks tab or in the server's task list.
Verify all snapshots
Verification reads every chunk of a snapshot and checks it against its checksum, so you find damaged backups before you need them. Needs Aprox Pro.
- Open the datastore.
- Tap Actions › Verify All….
- Read the confirmation "Verify every snapshot in <datastore>?": "Snapshots verified in the last 30 days are skipped. On a large datastore this runs for a long time and reads every chunk from disk."
- Tap Verify All. Aprox shows Verifying… and then Verified.
To verify a single backup group or snapshot instead, see Browse, verify and prune backups. To verify on a schedule, add a verify job: see Prune, verify and sync jobs.
Review the datastore options
The Options tab shows how the datastore is configured. It is read-only; change these settings in the Backup Server web UI.
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| GC Schedule | When garbage collection runs, or none. |
| Prune Schedule | When the datastore's own prune schedule runs, or none. |
| Retention | The datastore's retention policy, for example "last 3, daily 7, weekly 4", or "keeps everything". |
| Verify New Backups | Whether each new backup is verified right after it finishes. |
| Notifications | How Backup Server sends notifications for this datastore. |
| Tuning | Advanced tuning options, if any are set. |
| Backing Device | The device of a removable datastore. |
The Permissions card below lists who has access to this datastore: each user, group or token with its path and role. If nobody has been given access, it reads "No permissions are set on this datastore. Only root@pam and users with access to / can use it." To change permissions, see Users, API tokens and permissions.
See the datastore's tasks
The Tasks tab lists the Recent Tasks that concern this datastore, newest first: backups, garbage collection, verification, prune and sync. A green check means the task succeeded, a red sign means it failed (with the error underneath), and a dotted circle means it is still running. Tap a task to open its log.
The other tabs
- Content: backup groups and snapshots. See Browse, verify and prune backups.
- Jobs: prune, verify and sync jobs. See Prune, verify and sync jobs.
Requirements on the server
Typically, browsing needs Datastore.Audit, garbage collection needs Datastore.Modify and verification needs Datastore.Verify on the datastore.
Good to know
- If a datastore was removed, or your account cannot see it, the page reads "Datastore not found".
- The watch app can also start garbage collection and verify a datastore.
- With Aprox Pro, alerts warn you when a datastore passes 90% full.