Reconsidering ProxMox
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Good read from long ago talking about how ZFS became a big buzzword long after its heyday was over and why it suddenly became promoted so oddly.
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
LVM is what we use.
So you don't take snapshots?
? You can take snapshots without ZFS?
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@stacksofplates You can't take snapshots on LVM. https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Storage
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@stacksofplates You can't take snapshots on LVM. https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Storage
You snapshot it through the hypervisor? Why would you do it that way?
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@stacksofplates You can't take snapshots on LVM. https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Storage
that says you can to me. And since we do, I'm sure it's correct.
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
LVM is what we use.
So you don't take snapshots?
We do, shouldn't, but we do because customers don't want to pay for better backups.
But if it was my own servers, of course not.
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@stacksofplates said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
LVM is what we use.
So you don't take snapshots?
? You can take snapshots without ZFS?
You definitely can. We use that as the backing to our main backup tools on LVM.
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@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
You definitely can. We use that as the backing to our main backup tools on LVM.
Then your using LVM-thin. Maybe that's just a subset of LVM?
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
You definitely can. We use that as the backing to our main backup tools on LVM.
Then your using LVM-thin. Maybe that's just a subset of LVM?
LVM-thin is just LVM with the -t flag set when created. They are both equally LVM. It's general practice to use thin provisioning by default and only vary when you have a specific workload that specifically benefits from being thick. Which for us is few and far between for sure. Those workloads exist, but they basically require special underlying hardware as well, like dedicated NVMe. So nothing exotic, but not general purpose, either.
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
You definitely can. We use that as the backing to our main backup tools on LVM.
Then your using LVM-thin. Maybe that's just a subset of LVM?
You can snapshot thick provisioned volumes also.
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@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
We do, shouldn't, but we do because customers don't want to pay for better backups.
I am surprised NTG would take on a client like this. We sure wouldn't. The risk is too great. We just tell the client to take there business elsewhere. Maybe we are sending clients to you guys! =P
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@stacksofplates said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
You definitely can. We use that as the backing to our main backup tools on LVM.
Then your using LVM-thin. Maybe that's just a subset of LVM?
You can snapshot thick provisioned volumes also.
Yeah, just for some reason in that table it shows that you can't. My guess is that it is a typo, but I've not tested it so I can't confirm.
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@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@stacksofplates said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
You definitely can. We use that as the backing to our main backup tools on LVM.
Then your using LVM-thin. Maybe that's just a subset of LVM?
You can snapshot thick provisioned volumes also.
Yeah, just for some reason in that table it shows that you can't. My guess is that it is a typo, but I've not tested it so I can't confirm.
It's been a few years since I've done that. But I'm pretty sure you can (on normal systems I have no idea with ProxMox).
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
We do, shouldn't, but we do because customers don't want to pay for better backups.
I am surprised NTG would take on a client like this. We sure wouldn't. The risk is too great. We just tell the client to take there business elsewhere. Maybe we am sending clients to you guys! =P
So your reaction to thinking I didn't do snapshots was meant to mean that you were impressed? I feel like you are flipping back and forth.
At first you acted like I was crazy for not doing snapshots. Then when you found out I do use them, you act like MSPs shouldn't take on any client that uses traditional backup software - which all use snapshots.
Are you truly telling me you don't have a single customer that demands you use regular backup software? And that you don't have them because you turn them down? Absolutely send them my way.
My job is to take care of the customer and give good advice. In no way is it my concern if they listen to that advice. I work in IT, I'm not an investor. Only an investor would care about that. I absolutely want those customers that demand we use Veeam or whatever.
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@stacksofplates said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@stacksofplates said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
You definitely can. We use that as the backing to our main backup tools on LVM.
Then your using LVM-thin. Maybe that's just a subset of LVM?
You can snapshot thick provisioned volumes also.
Yeah, just for some reason in that table it shows that you can't. My guess is that it is a typo, but I've not tested it so I can't confirm.
It's been a few years since I've done that. But I'm pretty sure you can (on normal systems I have no idea with ProxMox).
Oh I KNOW it works outside of Proxmox. The question here is if Proxmox has a button to push to make it happen in their interface.
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@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
Yeah, just for some reason in that table it shows that you can't. My guess is that it is a typo, but I've not tested it so I can't confirm.
It's defiantly not a typo. I am the member of a proxmox user group, and someone just did a install with LVM and everything related to snapshots was grayed out. Then we figured out it was LVM and not LVM-thin. So regardless if it's "all the same" it matters to proxmox.
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@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
We do, shouldn't, but we do because customers don't want to pay for better backups.
I was referring to this ^ Snapshots are not a backup, just like RAID is not a backup.
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
Yeah, just for some reason in that table it shows that you can't. My guess is that it is a typo, but I've not tested it so I can't confirm.
It's defiantly not a typo. I am the member of a proxmox user group, and someone just did a install with LVM and everything related to snapshots was grayed out. Then we figured out it was LVM and not LVM-thin. So regardless if it's "all the same" it matters to proxmox.
Why is each VM getting a volume? Just use qcow2 files. I don't get the point to doing it that way.
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@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
@scottalanmiller said in Reconsidering ProxMox:
We do, shouldn't, but we do because customers don't want to pay for better backups.
I was referring to this ^ Snapshots are not a backup, just like RAID is not a backup.
If I snapshot a VM and copy the snapshot off somewhere else it's a backup.
