How to configure new ZFS pool for backing up VM's Step-by-step

Configure the pool to be usable for backups

1. Create a parent datasets with:

zfs create /DATASET_NAME

Example: zfs create ProxmoxStorage/backup

2. Create new directory in mnt to mount/link the dataset to the directory level.

   mkdir /mnt/FRIENDLY_DIRECTORY_NAME

Example: mkdir /mnt/backups

3. Direct the zfs pool on where to mount the pool on the filesystem,

   zfs create POOL_NAME/DATASET_NAME/FRIENDLY_VM_NAME -o mountpoint=/mnt/vm_backups/FRIENDLY_VM_NAME.

Example: zfs create ProxmoxStorage/backup/Windows11 -o mountpoint=/mnt/backups/Windows11

4. Check status of datasets with zfs list

Output:

root@vm:~# zfs list
NAME                              USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
ProxmoxStorage                    924K  14.4T    96K  /ProxmoxStorage
ProxmoxStorage/backup             192K  14.4T    96K  /ProxmoxStorage/backup
ProxmoxStorage/backup/Windows11    96K  14.4T    96K  /mnt/backups/Windows11
rpool                            30.8G   399G   104K  /rpool
rpool/ROOT                       1.68G   399G    96K  /rpool/ROOT
rpool/ROOT/pve-1                 1.68G   399G  1.68G  /
rpool/data                       18.5G   399G    96K  /rpool/data
rpool/data/vm-101-disk-0           80K   399G    80K  -
rpool/data/vm-101-disk-1         3.71G   399G  3.71G  -
rpool/data/vm-102-disk-0          124K   399G   124K  -
rpool/data/vm-102-disk-1         14.8G   399G  14.8G  -
rpool/data/vm-102-disk-2           64K   399G    64K  -
rpool/var-lib-vz                 10.5G   399G  10.5G  /var/lib/vz
root@vm:~#

5. Go to Datacenter > Storage > Add > Directory

6. Fill out the form:

ID: A friendly name, like 'Windows11Backups'. Directory: where our dataset is mounted on the system, e.g: /mnt/backups/Windows11 Content: The type of content to be housed, for backups it is VZDump backup file

7. Click Add

8. Navigate to the VM to click on the Backup menu

9. Click Backup Now and fill out the form

Storage: Where we should store the backup, our newly created link should now be visable here.