Create CIFS storage for ISO files

[ecce]

Just installed my first proxmox server and I've been fiddeling with it for a few hours. It's replacing ESXi that I've been running for years. I'm no vmware guru in any way, I just need a couple of virtual servers for testing and learning stuff in my job as a network technician.

I have a separate freeNAS server that stores ISO files for installing VMs, basically a "iso" folder with various subfolders (like "iso/linux"). The iso folder is a NFS share. In ESXi, I mount the NFS share and when a new VM is to be created I can easily browse though the folders to the right ISO file and boot from that. I'm looking for something similar in proxmox.

I've installed proxmox 6.1 on a server, so far it is the only node. If I understand it correctly, you add a storage (Datacenter > Storage) and specify is as an ISO storage and then when you create VMs it will show up as a local storage? The problem I have is that no files show up in the list. Since I cant see any folder browsing capabilities (I could be wrong) I created a CIFS share for the folder with Linux ISOs and added that as a storage, with "ISO image" as Content. Still, no files show up in the list. Since you cant nest NFS shares for the same IP subnet I cant create a NFS share for the Linux ISO files only, so I cant test that.

Is it possible to add a CIFS share as a ISO image storage and boot new VMs off those ISO files? Or do I need to look for another solution?

 

[Stefan_R]

Mounting the NFS share should work just fine, if the ISO images are available through it (make sure you have 'ISO image' checked when creating the storage!). You can check that by listing the contents of /mnt/pve/<storage-name> on your PVE node.

Keep in mind that PVE searches for ISO files at a specific location on the share ('template/iso'), and not on the root level (e.g. on my storage called 'images', the .iso files are located at '/mnt/pve/images/template/iso').

 

[ecce]

Mounting the NFS share should work just fine, if the ISO images are available through it (make sure you have 'ISO image' checked when creating the storage!). You can check that by listing the contents of /mnt/pve/<storage-name> on your PVE node.

Keep in mind that PVE searches for ISO files at a specific location on the share ('template/iso'), and not on the root level (e.g. on my storage called 'images', the .iso files are located at '/mnt/pve/images/template/iso').

Aha! Didn't know about the template/iso path. Moved some files and it worked right away. Guess I'll reorganize my isos.