Help with new setup (ZFS) , CPU/Memory Allocation

[dva411]

But you said your backups were on LVM-Thin pool that you deleted.

Yes, my backups were on a external SSD LVM Thin. I ran thost two commands on my host and lvs and vgs and they return nothing (my host only has a zfs pool right now)

Yes, most likely. Your best bet then would be some data rescue suites or companies...or setting every up from scratch again in case that might be less work.

LVM-Thin is block based storage. You can only store backups on a filesystem based storage. Without manually creating a thin volume and mounting it as a directory storage via CLI you shouldn't be able to store backup on a thin pool...

I created in GUI by going to host/disks/lvm-thin.... I unchecked storeage. Then I went to data center in the GUI and added a directory storeage for backups to that pool. I was able to store backups to it. But when I wiped proxmox and reinstalled. I could see that sda had a thin pool but i couldnt access what was on it, and I wasnt seeing a partition (Just sda). I was hoping, that once I reinstalled, that I would be able to go to backups and see my backups.

 

[Dunuin]

I created in GUI by going to host/disks/lvm-thin.... I unchecked storeage. Then I went to data center in the GUI and added a directory storeage for backups to that pool. I was able to store backups to it

I don't see how this could work via GUI without manually creating a thin volume, formating it and mounting it first via CLI. My guess would be that you never stored your backups on the LVM-Thin pool in the first place and you wrote them to your root filesystem instead because your directory storage was misconfigured. So they were actually stored on your old system disks. In that case you would have wiped your backups when reinstalling PVE overwriting your old system disks.

 

[dva411]

I just replicated my original steps.

See screenshots below. When I went to disks, I first wiped the drive. Then I initialized with GPT. Then I created a thin Volume called BackupPool on that drive SDA (you can see it is sized at 1tb and i created it on my SDA).

Then I was able to go to storage and choose BackupPool and create a directory for backups.

However, I just noticed when I use that directory to make a backup it is showing me almost 2tb of available space which is what is on my root ZFS. I only have 1tb on the external SSD.

So you are saying even though it allowed me to wipe and create a thin volume on SDA, that I'm not actually storing on SDA because I didnt create the volume in the CLI and I didnt format in CLI and I didnt mount in CLI? That's really confusing, because I created the volume on SDA.

Of the steps required which ones do I have to perform in the CLI and which ones are faster to do in the GUI? Is wiping and initializing with GPT not formatting and creating the physical volume?







Thanks again, I'm learning... By making mistakes I wont make this one again!

 

[Dunuin]

thin Volume called BackupPool

Thats a "thin pool" not a "thin volume". "Thin volumes" are the LVs you create on top of your "thin pool" and those can't be directly created via GUI. Only way to indirectly create those via GUI would be to create a VM and store its virtual disk on that thin pool. And even then you would have to manually mount that virtual disk on PVE to store backups on it via CLI.

However, I just noticed when I use that directory to make a backup it is showing me almost 2tb of available space which is what is on my root ZFS. I only have 1tb on the external SSD.

Yes, that is what I've guessed. Misconfigured Directory storage that is actually storing stuff on your root filesystem (so in this case now the ZFS pool which is why it tells you that you got 2TB).

So you are saying even though it allowed me to wipe and create a thin volume on SDA, that I'm not actually storing on SDA because I didnt create the volume in the CLI and I didnt format in CLI and I didnt mount in CLI? That's really confusing, because I created the volume on SDA.

Correct. So no wonder you weren't able to find your backups on the LVM-Thin if they were never stored there and were already deleted at the time you tried to import your LVM-Thin pool.

Of the steps required which ones do I have to perform in the CLI and which ones are faster to do in the GUI? Is wiping and initializing with GPT not formatting and creating the physical volume?

If you want it easy and you only want to store backups on that 1TB SSD, I wouldn't use a LVM-Thin for that in the first place but a directory created via "Node -> Disks -> Directory -> Create: directory".

Otherwise, if you want to store backups as well as virtual disks to be used for VMs/LXC to store your downloads on it, a LVM-Thin would be an option.
But then you would need to:
a.) wipe the disk via "Node -> Disks -> YourDisk -> Wipe Disk"
b.) create a thin pool via "Node -> Disks -> LVM-Thin -> Create: Thinpool"
c.) create a thin volume via CLI with something like: "lvcreate --thinpool yourVG/yourThinpool --name NewThinVolumeName --virtualsize 100G"
d.) format that thin volume with a filesystem of your choice via CLI like "mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/yourVG-NewThinVolumeName"
e.) create a new folder to be used as a mountpoint via CLI with something like "mkdir /mnt/NewThinVolumeName"
f.) mount that filesystem on the PVE host by adding a new like to the /etc/fstab like "/dev/mapper/yourVG-NewThinVolumeName /mnt/NewThinVolumeName ext4 defaults 0 2" and then a "mount -a" or "reboot"
g.) add a new Directory Storage via GUI pointing to that mountpoint via "Datacenter -> Storage -> Add -> Directory"
h.) tell PVE that this directory storage is using a mountpoint via CLI with something like "pvesm set YourStorageId --is_mountpoint /mnt/NewThinVolumeName"
i.) do some test backups and verify with "lvs" that those backups actually fill up your thin pool.

 

[dva411]

Thanks Dunuin! I actually found an old thread where you had mapped out the steps for someone else (Last night). I was able to cobble together a few things and I think I did it correctly. I think the steps I followed were creating a logical volume and then converting it to thin. if I remember correctly I used a -l parameter and a percentage of free space. I originally tried to fill the disk between two logical volumes but it wouldnt let me. Then I just set both to 10% of available space. Then I was able to convert to Thin. Will it just grow automatically since its thin? Do I need to do something to adjust the virtual size? Both were sized at 10% of the 1tb before I converted to thin.

Also, now I have a backup volume and a share logical volume on the USB drive. Is it possible to pass the Share Logical Partition to my OMV VM. When I look at BLKID or LSBLK im just seeing the physical partion SDA1. I dont want to pass the whole thing, as I want to have the backups stay on PVE. If the answer is no... I just wasted a bunch of time. I should have just formatted it ext4 and given the whole disk over to PVE for backups.

I've been working non stop putting everything back to how I had it. I think if I do this again, I'll take a backup of my backup. If I did this correctly this time, Will a new installation of PVE recognize and allow me to see my backups on that USB drive (LVM Thin), when I plug it in? I assume I would need to mount the partions and they would be there....Are there any other steps? I wouldnt want to create Directory storeage again, as that would wipe out the backups, wouldnt it?

 

[Dunuin]

Then I just set both to 10% of available space. Then I was able to convert to Thin. Will it just grow automatically since its thin? Do I need to do something to adjust the virtual size? Both were sized at 10% of the 1tb before I converted to thin.

No, thin pools won't automatically increase in size. Thin volumes could if you set it up properly. But I never tried that.

Also, now I have a backup volume and a share logical volume on the USB drive. Is it possible to pass the Share Logical Partition to my OMV VM. When I look at BLKID or LSBLK im just seeing the physical partion SDA1. I dont want to pass the whole thing, as I want to have the backups stay on PVE. If the answer is no... I just wasted a bunch of time. I should have just formatted it ext4 and given the whole disk over to PVE for backups.

Add the thin pool as a LVM-Thin storage to PVE (Datacenter -> Storage -> Add -> LVM-Thin) and then use that storage to store a virtual disk you add to your OMv VM.

I think if I do this again, I'll take a backup of my backup. If I did this correctly this time, Will a new installation of PVE recognize and allow me to see my backups on that USB drive (LVM Thin), when I plug it in?

No, PVE won't do such things on its own. You would need to add that manually.

I assume I would need to mount the partions and they would be there....Are there any other steps? I wouldnt want to create Directory storeage again, as that would wipe out the backups, wouldnt it?

You would need to do step e) to h) again.

 

[dva411]

Hey Dunuin. On the issue above, I took your advice and scrapped the idea of thin pool to shrink/grow the size of my combined backup/share drive, and just partitioned the drive into two paritions and formatted ext4. Wasnt worth the time to thin provision.

ON an unrelated note.... Maybe you can clear something up in my understanding. I'm running zfs raid 1 for my VM/Container storeage. However any VM or container that I try to snapshot, tells me that my configuration doesnt support it. I've noticed that I can snapshot before I pass through or mount an external drive. As soon as I add an external drive to the confiiguation I can no longer execute snapshots. Even when I exclude those drives from backups. Is that the expected behavior? When i run backups, they snap almost intantly, and then write out. But I cant use the native snapshot funcitonality. Is that the expected outcome, or am I doing something wrong?