combined ssd and raid configuration

[kavakopoulos]

Hello I am very new to proxomox
I have a server with 2 intel nvme drives and a raid controller with 10 HD drives.
question 1: I guess i should install proxmox on the nvme with ZFS raid 1 ?
question 2: I want the VMs and CT to be on nvme only, and use the slower raid for data storage (VM backups, database backups, etc ). How do i configure that?

 

[Dunuin]

Install Proxmox VE on the two NVMe SSDs as ZFS mirror and ignore the HDDs.
That way proxmox is installed on the two SSDs and you can use the SSDs as storage for VMs/LXCs too.
Keep in mind that ZFS requires you not to use a raid controller. You need a HBA without any raid features enabled.
So you might want to use HW Raid without ZFS or flash that raid controller into IT-Mode to be able to use ZFS.
And its only possible to bind-mount ZFS datasets into LXCs. If you want to access that HDD Pool from a VM you need some kind of NAS and Proxmox GUI can't share anything using NFS/SMB. So it might be a good idea to create a TrueNAS (for ZFS) or UnRaid/OpenMediaVault (no ZFS) VM and use PCI passthrough to bring the raid controller and all attached disks into the VM so that this VM can act as your NAS.

 

[czechsys]

No size of hdds.

My suggestion:
Create hw raid1 from 2 hdds and install pve there. Use rest 8 hdds as raid10 and nvme raid1 for VM storage.

It depends if you need zfs and its abilites for pve.

 

[kavakopoulos]

No size of hdds.

My suggestion:
Create hw raid1 from 2 hdds and install pve there. Use rest 8 hdds as raid10 and nvme raid1 for VM storage.

It depends if you need zfs and its abilites for pve.

Thank you czechsys,
Each HDD is 1,2 T and the SSD 1,4 T
so if I understand you suggest to put proxmox to HD in order to leave more space for the VMs in the SSDs? or there is another reason?

 

[kavakopoulos]

Install Proxmox VE on the two NVMe SSDs as ZFS mirror and ignore the HDDs.
That way proxmox is installed on the two SSDs and you can use the SSDs as storage for VMs/LXCs too.
Keep in mind that ZFS requires you not to use a raid controller. You need a HBA without any raid features enabled.
So you might want to use HW Raid without ZFS or flash that raid controller into IT-Mode to be able to use ZFS.
And its only possible to bind-mount ZFS datasets into LXCs. If you want to access that HDD Pool from a VM you need some kind of NAS and Proxmox GUI can't share anything using NFS/SMB. So it might be a good idea to create a TrueNAS (for ZFS) or UnRaid/OpenMediaVault (no ZFS) VM and use PCI passthrough to bring the raid controller and all attached disks into the VM so that this VM can act as your NAS.

Thank you Dunuin,
So if my VMs are in SSDs they cannot access storage in the HDs and they only way is through another VM that has truenas or unraid?

 

[Dunuin]

You don't need a NAS VM, you can also use the host itself as a NFS/SMB server. But then you will have to install and setup everything yourself using CLI.
Without NFS/SMB/iSCSI you won't be able to access the data on the HDDs from within any VM. So something has to provide the NAS functionality so you can share some folders. Especially if VMs should share the same folders/files. Proxmox with its WebGUI won't do that for you.
UnRaid/Openmediavault/TrueNAS is build for that and will offer you features and a webui to manage everything, so its not a bad idea to use it in a VM.