Proxmox VE Setup
-
So, installing ProxmoxVE 6.3 is simple.
But what is actually the best way to do it?
If it is a single server, you just leave things default, and it installs LVM and away you go.
But what if you want to have 2 servers and use replication?
Well the screw that pooch right off the bat.
As far as I can tell, unless you do everything as ZFS, you cannot do shit.
Has anyone here done anythign with that?
I've reinstalled PVE four or five times no tinkering with things.
-
I switched the default file system from ext4 to xfs.
With older versions I did experiment with changing the other default settings like swap and root partition size but that’s about it. -
@JaredBusch in my testing the only way to effectively get replication is to have a RAID1 for the install with all other drives in pass thru mode.
Then you can setup a zfs store on the remaining drives between your hosts.
-
I read through the documentation when I was labbing proxmox, and it specifically calls out that if you need replication the only way to do it is to not use a raid controller (present the drive's directly to the OS).
But to install, you'd ideally want some redundancy with an R1.
Otherwise you install to a single drive in the server and setup the ZFS Store on the remaining drives and risk it
-
This is the important bit from the installation guide.
Proxmox VE can be installed on ZFS. As ZFS offers several software RAID levels, this is an option for systems that don’t have a hardware RAID controller. The target disks must be selected in the Options dialog. More ZFS specific settings can be changed under Advanced Options (see below). Warning ZFS on top of any hardware RAID is not supported and can result in data loss.The alternative is to install directly into a ZFS Store using the options menu when selecting the installation target. But this makes me weary.
-
@black3dynamite said in Proxmox VE Setup:
I switched the default file system from ext4 to xfs.
With older versions I did experiment with changing the other default settings like swap and root partition size but that’s about it.XFS on LVM is the default now.
-
@DustinB3403 said in Proxmox VE Setup:
I read through the documentation when I was labbing proxmox, and it specifically calls out that if you need replication the only way to do it is to not use a raid controller (present the drive's directly to the OS).
More specifically, they intentionally restrict it to ZFS. Which really, really sucks. ZFS is a waste of overcomplication.
-
@scottalanmiller
So WTF is the benefit to PVE over raw KVM for a real business?Because I am not seeing it. There are exactly zero reasons to ever do anything except hardware raid (enabling blindswap) in any real SMB today.
Without doing ZFS on bare metal, you get almost no beneficial functionality from using Proxmox VE over KVM on your Linux distro of choice.
-
@JaredBusch
The reason I'm in the process of moving over to Proxmox is the ease of setting up backups. It's very straightforward and if a backup doesn't work then it doesn't require someone who understands scripting to work out why.Since Proxmox backup server was introduced a few months ago, PVE has the ability to do incremental backups too.
Apart from that there's not much extra functionality.
-
@JaredBusch said in Proxmox VE Setup:
@DustinB3403 said in Proxmox VE Setup:
I read through the documentation when I was labbing proxmox, and it specifically calls out that if you need replication the only way to do it is to not use a raid controller (present the drive's directly to the OS).
More specifically, they intentionally restrict it to ZFS. Which really, really sucks. ZFS is a waste of overcomplication.
Unless there has been a lot of turnover in Proxmox management, this is still the same company that insisted software RAID was unusable till they decided to adobt ZFS. Doing things weirdly and/or more complicated than it needs to be is just what they do.
-
@Doyler3000 said in Proxmox VE Setup:
@JaredBusch
The reason I'm in the process of moving over to Proxmox is the ease of setting up backups. It's very straightforward and if a backup doesn't work then it doesn't require someone who understands scripting to work out why.Since Proxmox backup server was introduced a few months ago, PVE has the ability to do incremental backups too.
Apart from that there's not much extra functionality.
Backup is a separate product. If I am moving to that ecosystem, just for a backup, I can just buy Veeam and use Hyper-V. It works better and is well known and supported.
-
That's true but being able to schedule backups easily from the console (even if they are full backups) is a benefit over raw KVM which was the question.
Actually another benefit is being able to live migrate between cluster hosts (without shared storage) from the console. I could live migrate stuff from raw KVM but only from the command line on the host.
-
@Doyler3000 said in Proxmox VE Setup:
is being able to live migrate between cluster hosts
Can you without using ZFS? I have not tried. as the entire design of this deployment requires replication.
-
@JaredBusch said in Proxmox VE Setup:
@black3dynamite said in Proxmox VE Setup:
I switched the default file system from ext4 to xfs.
With older versions I did experiment with changing the other default settings like swap and root partition size but that’s about it.XFS on LVM is the default now.
I just reinstalled. No, it is still ext4 by default. my bad.. too many times reinstalling. it is all blurring together.
-
@JaredBusch
Yes - I've done that a few times. I'm running with the default LVM.
I think it might be a little less picky about CPU options (during a migration) than raw KVM too. Though I definitely don't have enough data to say that with lots of confidence. -
@Doyler3000 you know you could do all of the same things you've mentioned with Xen Orchestra and XCP-ng too without the added complexity.
-
@DustinB3403
I don't doubt it.
There wasn't really any added complexity though. PVE was installed with all the defaults.
