Boot Proxmox from Ceph

[alex purser]

Hi. Im looking to build a new proxmox 4 node cluster from scratch using 4x HP DL360p G8 servers. I would also like this cluster to include Ceph storage (exclusively - including for boot). I am taking this direction with Ceph reluctantly because I have not been able to find a cost effective solution to use these servers OOTB for Ceph - i think i can put the P420i RAID controller into HBA mode and i think that will consequently stop it allowing its disks to boot. The server has an SD slot inside also if thats needed

I guess im looking to see if im over reaching here - has anyone got a working example of a proxmox cluster hat boots from Ceph? Any experience with this hardware is obviously useful and any guidance generaly appreciated
Cheers
Alex

 

[t.lamprecht]

I guess im looking to see if im over reaching here - has anyone got a working example of a proxmox cluster hat boots from Ceph?

Cannot really work. You cannot boot from a storage which needs already booted server to even run.
You would at least need a minimal installation somewhere and use that as a starting point.
Proxmox VE doesn't needs that much place, you could install it to 32GB partition. If you plan to only use ceph you could set the "maxvz" in the installer to 0 and hdsize to 32.

Some people install PVE on a SDCard, if I'd at least ensure to get a model which can handle a few more writes.
Having a bigger one and doing more frequent TRIMs could help too. Also, you could clone the SDCard for each node after installation to a backup, so if one fails you can just plug in the other one.

 

[alex purser]

thank you Thomas - yes this is starting to become clear to me that ceph cant bootstrap itself!. Moving on, I have seen people use the sata port (for optical drive) in this server to connect a sata drive. I would hope to be able to boot from this and it sounds a step up from an sd card!... i wonder whether i can mirror the sata drive to the (good quality as you say) SD card for boot volume resilience?... or run 2 disk drives off a single sata port?!
Cheers
ALex

 

[guletz]

Hi,

Maybe a better solution,

You can buy come kind of cheap external rack (who can do hardware mirror and have usb) and conect on the usb port on server. Then you can boot from this external usb device. Or you can use 2 external usb disks.

Good luck / Bafta.