Dedicated boot drive?

[Possums]

Hello,

I am planning on purchasing a single large (3.2TB) NVME drive for VM storage.
I noticed that many Proxmox users install the OS onto a small dedicated boot drive.
Is this necessary, and what are the pros/cons to doing so?
Would I be fine using my drive for both OS and VM storage?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[LnxBil]

Would I be fine using my drive for both OS and VM storage?

Yes.

Is this necessary, and what are the pros/cons to doing so?

Con:
- if you drive-bay-limited, having separate disks for OS and VM cost you performance that would otherwise be beneficial for your VM storage
- In case of ZFS: ARC is split and used for two pools.
- (other can jump in and complete this list)

Pro:
- You can reinstall PVE without interfering with your VM data
- (other can jump in and complete this list)

 

[Possums]

Thank you for your reply!
It really helped clear things up for me.

 

[LnxBil]

Hopefully, other will jump in and provide more pro/cons.

 

[sb-jw]

I am planning on purchasing a single large (3.2TB) NVME drive for VM storage.

It depens on the Storage you want to use. For CEPH i would recommend to us smaller Disks and more instead of bigger.

I noticed that many Proxmox users install the OS onto a small dedicated boot drive.
Is this necessary, and what are the pros/cons to doing so?
Would I be fine using my drive for both OS and VM storage?

You do not need Performance for PVE itself, so you do not waste expensive space for PVE. If you want to change from dedicated to shared Storage, you can pull out the Storages Disks are you are fine.

But in the end, you have to evaluate whats the better solution for you.