Ceph 20.2 Tentacle Release Available as test preview and Ceph 18.2 Reef soon to be fully EOL

[jsterr]

We also did 15 upgrades from ceph 19 to 20 in nested pve-environments (all clean installs from training) all went fine without issues. The only thing which was not 100% clear howto check what mds-services are standby via cli:

Take all standby MDS daemons offline on the appropriate hosts with:

systemctl stop ceph-mds.target

We looked at the webui to find out. Adding a cli command might be also useful / as people are already on cli. Rest went smooth, my error from above did not happen in all those clean installs.

 

[benbutton]

Just upgraded myself. Went just fine no issues. 3 OSDs. I got some interesting data after upgrading:

Ceph Squid → Tentacle Upgrade Benchmark Summary

Cluster: 3-node Proxmox (Intel NUC14, NVMe)
Pool: ceph-vms (replicated, size 2 / min_size 2)
Upgrade Date: 2026-01-16

RBD Bench (from Proxmox host)

Test	Pre-Upgrade (Squid 19.2.3)	Post-Upgrade (Tentacle 20.2)	Change
4K Random IOPS	60,207	68,516	+13.8%
4K Random BW	235 MB/s	268 MB/s	+14.0%
64K Seq IOPS	7,488	10,120	+35.1%
64K Seq BW	468 MB/s	632 MB/s	+35.0%

Test script:

#!/bin/bash
# Save as: ceph-bench.sh

POOL="ceph-vms"
IMAGE="bench-test-$(date +%s)"
SIZE="10G"

echo "=== Ceph RBD Benchmark ==="
echo "Date: $(date)"
echo "Pool: $POOL"
ceph -s | grep -E "health|mon:|osd:"
echo ""

# Create test image
rbd create $IMAGE --size $SIZE --pool $POOL

echo "--- 4K Random Read/Write (VM typical workload) ---"
rbd bench --io-type rw --io-size 4K --io-threads 16 \
    --io-total 1G --io-pattern rand $POOL/$IMAGE

echo ""
echo "--- 64K Sequential Read/Write (file transfers) ---"
rbd bench --io-type rw --io-size 64K --io-threads 8 \
    --io-total 2G --io-pattern seq $POOL/$IMAGE

# Cleanup
rbd rm $POOL/$IMAGE

echo ""
echo "=== Benchmark Complete ==="

Is this with crimson? If not could we get those? And also an EC test?

 

[jsterr]

Is this with crimson? If not could we get those? And also an EC test?

Crimson is not included in pveceph yet.

 

[PmUserZFS]

Crimson isnt really ready for general testing as it seems.

https://docs.ceph.com/en/reef/dev/crimson/crimson/

 

[jsterr]

Seems like tentacle has landed in no-subscription now (noticed it today)

 

[Heracleos]

Seems like tentacle has landed in no-subscription now (noticed it today)

Really?
I tried adding a repository, but I still only see the usual Ceph Squid.

 

[Neobin]

Really?
I tried adding a repository, but I still only see the usual Ceph Squid.

http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-tentacle/dists/trixie/no-subscription/binary-amd64/

Types: deb
URIs: http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-tentacle
Suites: trixie
Components: no-subscription
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

 

[jsterr]

Its visible when you install a new proxmox node with ceph, there you can select it already.

 

[Heracleos]

Its visible when you install a new proxmox node with ceph, there you can select it already.

Okay, understood. In my case, since it's an “old” installation, I have to manually modify the repositories in /etc/apt.
For those who have already upgraded, have you experienced any particular problems? Is it fairly reliable?
Thanks

 

[VictorSTS]

I have to manually modify the repositories in /etc/apt.

Just follow the docs: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Ceph_Squid_to_Tentacle

 

[avidee]

You can't yet, SMB module isn't packaged with Proxmox's Ceph Tentacle but Ceph Dashboard package expects it.

Is the SMB mgr module not planned to be shipped in the Proxmox Ceph package, or is it planned? I’m spinning up a Proxmox host soon, and I’d like to test Tentacle, but the combined lack of the dashboard (due to the dependency issue) and the lack of the SMB mgr module (which is important to my macOS clients) make it a tough decision.

 

[alexskysilk]

s the SMB mgr module not planned to be shipped in the Proxmox Ceph package, or is it planned?

You dont actually need the module- all it does is integrate what you always could do with smbd. Its a nice to have, not a showstopper.

 

[avidee]

You dont actually need the module- all it does is integrate what you always could do with smbd. Its a nice to have, not a showstopper.

It is a showstopper for the dashboard, which has it as a hard requirement. (Perhaps that’s a bug on Ceph’s part, but right now that’s what we have to deal with downstream.) Also, yes, I could spin up a separate smbd, but it would be nice to have the option of using a headlining feature of Tentacle.

 

[alexskysilk]

It is a showstopper for the dashboard, which has it as a hard requirement.

I didnt know that, but that kinda begs the question what does the dashboard offer you beyond what PVE presents; if it really something necessary, I'd probably just set up ceph with cephadm seperate from pve. PVE doesnt consider the entirety of the ceph stack necessary for full function since it doesnt need all of it.

 

[avidee]

if it really something necessary, I'd probably just set up ceph with cephadm seperate from pve. PVE doesnt consider the entirety of the ceph stack necessary for full function since it doesnt need all of it.

I didn’t think that opting for the hyper-converged implementation of Ceph in PVE would require giving up basic functionality of Ceph (the dashboard and the SMB mgr module).

And it’s not clear if this is intentional or not, which is why I asked if it was. @t.lamprecht can you comment (as the staff member who announced this release)?

 

[avidee]

if it really something necessary, I'd probably just set up ceph with cephadm seperate from pve. PVE doesnt consider the entirety of the ceph stack necessary for full function since it doesnt need all of it.

I didn’t think that opting for the hyper-converged implementation of Ceph in PVE would require giving up basic functionality of Ceph (the dashboard and the SMB mgr module).

And it’s not clear if this is intentional or not, which is why I asked if it was.

 

[avidee]

And it’s not clear if this is intentional or not, which is why I asked if it was.

https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/mgr/smb/ says:

At this time, the smb module requires cephadm orchestration. It does not function without orchestration.

Sigh, I can see why it might not end up getting supported.

 

[alexskysilk]

require giving up basic functionality of Ceph (the dashboard and the SMB mgr module).

The dashboard and smb modules are, as the terms suggests, OPTIONAL MODULES. they are not required for "basic functionality" and provide no utility to a ceph installation as a component of PVE.