How to Restore Proxmox Containers

How to restore an LXC from Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) as a new container with a different ID, leaving the original untouched.

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Step 1: Find the Backup

1. In the Proxmox VE web UI, go to Datacenter -> Storage
2. Select the Proxmox Backup Server storage
3. Click Backups and locate the backup you want to restore

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Step 2: Restore as a New Container

Open the Proxmox shell (or SSH into PVE) and run:

pct restore <new-id> PBS:<datastore>/ct/<original-id>/<timestamp> --storage <target-storage>

Placeholder	Description
<new-id>	Unique ID not already in use (e.g. 110 if existing container is 100)
<datastore>	PBS datastore name
<original-id>	ID of the backed-up container
<timestamp>	Backup timestamp shown in the Backups view
<target-storage>	Where to restore (e.g. local-lvm)

Example:

pct restore 110 PBS:backup/ct/100/2025-05-04T18:30:00Z --storage local-lvm

This restores container 100 as container 110 on local-lvm storage.

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Step 3: Verify

1. In Proxmox VE: Datacenter -> Node -> Containers
2. Confirm the new container appears with the new ID
3. Start it and verify it works correctly

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Step 4: Cleanup (Optional)

Once verified, destroy the test container:

pct destroy <new-id>

Or, to replace the original container with the restored one, restore it again using its original ID.