[SOLVED] Disk Image option greyed out - only raw availble

[Brodie Davis]

This is probably a silly question, but I can't figure it out. On a fresh install of Proxmox, I can not change the disk type to be anything but *.raw. The drop down to change it is greyed out. Is there some obvious setting that I am missing? I would like to use *.qcow2 disks. I am using the latest version of proxmox, 4.2

Thanks, Brodie

 

[jeffwadsworth]

What type of shared storage are you using? Some types only allow RAW. Try an NFS share, etc.

 

[Brodie Davis]

Yes Jeff, I just found a solution, forgot to update my forum post. I was trying to use the default "local-lvm" storage, which only supports *.raw. My solution was to take the default /etc/pve/storage.cfg:

dir: local
        path /var/lib/vz
        content iso,vztmpl,backup

lvmthin: local-lvm
        thinpool data
        vgname pve
        content rootdir,images

And add images to "local" storage:

dir: local
        path /var/lib/vz
        content iso,vztmpl,backup,images

lvmthin: local-lvm
        thinpool data
        vgname pve
        content rootdir,images

There is already an images folder within /var/lib/vz (the default local storage directory), so why is storing images there disabled by default?

-Brodie

 

[fireon]

LVM Thin Storage is much more stable then the qcow2. One thing are the snapshots. For example you have an machine with 50GB of memory und you make an Livesnapshot with qcow2 sometimes you will get an error. When not on creation then really on delete. The second thing. Raw is an nice generic format, like DD. You can do everything with, without convert... And it have better performance then qcow2.

In the past we always used qcow2 too. But this time on new installation we switch to the LVM. It is really high recommended.

But yes qcow2 can do the job for you. It's depending on your feature wishlist

 

[Brodie Davis]

I did some testing with LVM, and was even able to take snapshots, so LVM is our choice here!

Wanted to follow up for future readers.

-Brodie