Doubts about installing Proxmox on an HPE server with RAID controller

[ic.tecnics]

Hello,

We are evaluating at work to start implementing Proxmox on our clients' servers. The idea is to start with the migration of physical Windows Server machines to virtual machines.

We have the case of a client who needs to update the version of W. Server and change the server. We are considering installing a new HPE DL series server and using the old server for PBS.

In principle, the new server will have a physical RAID controller but I would like to know:

- If there is a list of compatible models
- If there is a procedure to be done so that Proxmox sees the RAID

Since it will not be a place where a system like ZFS is needed, could it be mounted on EXT4? Could it cause any problems?

Thank you very much

 

[louie1961]

No EXT4 will not cause prolems. I would go with ext4 and LVM thin for your VM storage pool as it is more efficient on storage, allows for over provisioning and snapshots. Just be careful to not let your pool get too full.

 

[ic.tecnics]

I tried to install Proxmox on a HPE ML30 server that we have in stock and since it is a VROC fake RAID, I was unable to install it with EXT4 and RAID 1. The graphical installation only shows the creation of RAID with ZFS and experimental BTRFS. I know that a fake RAID is different from a RAID controller, that's why I'm asking about whether there are compatible models and if any procedure is needed with the RAID controller.

 

[Steven-b]

If we install PVE on INTEL servers Xeon 5/6 we disable VROC/VMD, if its an AMD EPYC there is no VROC/VMD, so in both cases the drives (SATA SSD or NVMe) are just passthrough, in PVE setup we usually configure them in a ZFS mirror because... shortages and pricing these days are absolutely insane.

Until now we have 0 issues or we did not see them yet...

On the other hand, I also think as in your case having a RAID controller would not cause issues, we just like using ZFS.