Add existing ext4 partition to Proxmox for use in container/VM

[engineer88]

Hello,

I have an existing hard drive of 14TB with movies and series that I would like to add to Proxmox. From there I would like to create a Samba and use Jellyfin and any pc in the network to access the hard drive with movies and series.

But for the life of me, I can not figure out how to add the existing partition to Proxmox. Every solution I have found wants me to reformat the disk. That is absolutely not an option, as I don't have a backup of all these movies.

What is the best way to use my existing hard disk/partition in Proxmox?

 

[ITandAutomation]

What filesystem is on the drive?
Is it a USB drive ? If yes you could add a USB device and then mount in the VM.

 

[engineer88]

What filesystem is on the drive?
Is it a USB drive ? If yes you could add a USB device and then mount in the VM.

Ext4.

 

[ITandAutomation]

try with
sudo mkdir /mnt/hdd
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/hdd
Does that work? If no what errors do you get ?

 

[engineer88]

try with
sudo mkdir /mnt/hdd
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/hdd
Does that work? If no what errors do you get ?

sudo was not recognized, but I could execute the commands other than that, no errors. I also heard the hdd spinning. But, I don't see anything changing within Proxmox. Where should I see if it worked?

I somehow would expect to be able to add the hdd as a volume group, but I can not select it there:

 

[ITandAutomation]

OK so now the drive is mounted on the host. Create a fstab entry so the drive gets mounted when you reboot -> https://askubuntu.com/questions/303497/how-to-add-an-entry-to-fstab

you could cd to /mnt/hdd and then type ls then you should see your files
You do not want to create a LVM Volume group i guess.
Now it depends how and where you want to use the drive. In a VM or LXC?

 

[engineer88]

OK so now the drive is mounted on the host. Create a fstab entry so the drive gets mounted when you reboot -> https://askubuntu.com/questions/303497/how-to-add-an-entry-to-fstab

you could cd to /mnt/hdd and then type ls then you should see your files
You do not want to create a LVM Volume group i guess.
Now it depends how and where you want to use the drive. In a VM or LXC?

I am not at home at the moment, so I didn't do fstab and mount the drive.

I want to use the drive in a file server that's an LXC.

 

[Pifouney]

Not easy with lxc.... but with qemu, simple
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Passthrough_Physical_Disk_to_Virtual_Machine_(VM)

 

[engineer88]

Not easy with lxc.... but with qemu, simple
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Passthrough_Physical_Disk_to_Virtual_Machine_(VM)

Would it then be easier to use a VM instead of LXC?