Recommendation Request: Dual Node Shared Storage

[dlasher]

Had a client request a fully redundant dual-node setup, and most of my experience has been either with single node (ZFS FTW) or lots of nodes (CEPH FTW). Neither of those things seem to work well in a dual node fully redundant setup.

Here's my thinking, wanted to see what the wisdom of the crowd suggested:


1. three machines - (1) Dedicated NAS - TrueNAS/etc, and (2) PMX boxes. Use either iSCSI or NFS
2. two machines - (2) PMX boxes, using DRBD and either LVM or ZFS on top. (seems to be a lot of gotchas in either of those)
3. two machines - (2) PMX boxes - use PMX replication for non-real-time copies of VM's to allow failover
4. some other option.


thoughts?

 

[bbgeek17]

Technically Proxmox does not work well in dual node cluster either. A proper cluster requires 3 or more nodes (odd number).
You could run the vote as a Qdevice inside Truenas as container, so that could still be an option.
Since the customer asked for "redundant" setup, your option (1) only covers compute redundancy. The Storage/Network needs to be considered separately.

Likewise, option 2 also needs a 3rd node or Qdevice. The production support for DRBD is also something you need to investigate. Its fine for home lab. If this is something implemented for a client, that you are paid for, perhaps you have more of "provide supported solution" duty?

Again, 3rd node required for option 3. Will this client have a dedicated IT person available for replication management? Or are you taking that on?

4 Other options depend the budget and requirements around performance, redundancy, etc.


Good luck

---

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[dlasher]

Thanks, appreciate the clarification - that's kinda where I was thinking as well.

I would be taking on most of the support, however, any parts that require commercial licensing (including pmx and/or drbd) would be paid by the customer.

I do wish there was a good dual-node model, I think it would fit a nice niche in the small business model.. where people realize a single server is a point of failure, but don't want to build an entire cluster. And then as their business grows, the faith they've built in the dual-node paves the way for the 3/cluster/up model.

BTW, Love your products, looking forward to the day when I can price in their usage. Do you have a home lab/IT/small-business/etc type license available? Something one could run on their own hardware (like TrueNas) but learn the product?

 

[sb-jw]

I don't remember DRBD as a stable solution, so I wouldn't use that.

What exactly do you have in terms of hardware? Is there budget for additional components or can you only use what is there?