A story of readiness, resilience, and Reliable partnership
It’s the kind of Monday nobody wants.
A web development agency (let’s call them CreativeWeb Studio ) arrived at the office to find silence. Not the peaceful kind… the kind that means all systems are down.
Their 3-node on-premise Proxmox VE cluster, running everything from their website to internal tools like GitLab and Mattermost, was unreachable. Their local Proxmox Backup Server (PBS)? Damaged beyond immediate recovery due to a power surge and hardware failure. The entire rack was affected.
But this story isn’t about panic, it’s about planning ahead.
Cloud-PBS Managed Restore Service
Fortunately, CreativeWeb had subscribed to our Managed Restore Service just two months earlier, a decision that turned out to be invaluable when disaster struck. Because of this, they already had everything in place to recover quickly and efficiently:
🌐 A dedicated cloud-hosted Proxmox VE node was already provisioned, fully pre-configured, and continuously maintained by the Cloud-PBS team, ready to spin up services at a moment’s notice.
🔐 Their encrypted datasets were being regularly synchronized to our secure infrastructure, ensuring data integrity and availability even if their local systems went offline.
🗝️ We had also agreed in advance to securely store a copy of their encryption key, making it possible to begin the restoration process without delays or manual intervention on their side.
🛠️ And, perhaps most importantly, a complete disaster recovery project plan had been built collaboratively with our team. It was documented, validated, and ready to be activated, so everyone knew exactly what to do when the unexpected happened.
🔁 The recovery plan in action
Within minutes of the incident being reported through the dedicated MRS communication channel, our response team was mobilized and fully engaged. Thanks to the pre-established recovery plan, we were able to follow a clear sequence of actions, restoring critical services one by one with precision and coordination.
🔁 The first priority was to restore the corporate website. This wasn’t just about uptime but more about communication. We brought the site back online quickly so visitors and customers would immediately see a message explaining the situation and confirming that the team was handling it.
📧 Next, we focused on bringing back the email server. Internal and external communication is key during an outage and email remains the backbone of operational coordination. Once restored, the CreativeWeb team could reconnect with clients, partners, and one another.
💻 With communications re-established, we moved on to reviving the GitLab instance. Developers needed access to code repositories, CI pipelines, and project history. In just over an hour, the GitLab service was fully operational, giving the dev team the green light to resume their work.
💬 Finally, we restarted Mattermost their internal messaging and collaboration tool. With this back online, teams could once again chat, plan, and sync up in real time, completing the transition from chaos to coordination.
Each step was communicated in real time through our dedicated channel, ensuring complete transparency and alignment from start to finish.
🤝 Side by side all the way
From the very first call to the final system reboot the Cloud-PBS team stayed in constant, real-time contact with CreativeWeb through their dedicated recovery channel. Whether it was by email, instant messaging, or even jumping on a quick voice call, our goal was clear: to guide them every step of the way with no guesswork, no delays, and no stress.
🧭 We coordinated each restore phase with precision, making sure priorities were respected and execution was smooth.
📦 Every backup was carefully verified for consistency and completeness before being used : no surprises, no data left behind.
📞 Before moving on to the next step, we made sure each restored service was fully operational and accessible to the right teams.
💬 We also supported CreativeWeb in crafting clear and honest communication to their own customers, helping them maintain trust even during disruption.
In moments like these, it’s very important to have the right tools and the right people by your side.
Within a few hours CreativeWeb was back in business, operating in a degraded but functional mode and able to keep their projects going and start planning local hardware replacement.
Conclusion
Disaster recovery isn’t just about having a backup copy sitting somewhere, it’s about being truly ready to act when it matters most.
💼 It means having a fully provisioned infrastructure, already configured and ready to boot up at a moment’s notice.
🔐 It means ensuring that even encrypted data can be accessed and restored without delays, thanks to pre-shared keys and secure handling procedures.
📋 It means working from a clear, predefined action plan and not scrambling to figure things out under pressure.
👨💻 It means knowing you have real, knowledgeable humans on the other end, not just ticketing systems or scripted support.
⚙️ Ultimately, it means being able to keep your business running, even in the middle of a crisis.
At Cloud-PBS, powered by LenoIT, that’s exactly what we deliver. As a certified Proxmox partner, we specialize in building solid, open-source-based infrastructures with recovery, resilience, and real partnership at the core.
With our Managed Restore Service, you’re never alone when the unexpected happens. You’ll have a plan. You’ll have the tools. Most importantly, you’ll have a team by your side.
Ready to plan your recovery?
Don’t wait for disaster to think about recovery. Contact us today and let’s build your custom plan together.
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