File server recommendation

[bea]

Hello!

I've never had a file server, but I now I think I need to have one as a PVE guest, a very basic one. I'd like something simple and easy, with a GUI. Its only purpose will be to store some simple data of a few vms and containers. I would go for the Turnkey file server LXC container but I need encryption, so either the file server provides encryption itself or the file server software can be installed on the top of Debian (I would create a LUKS-encrypted Debian VM and then install the file server software on the top of it).

In the case there is nothing simpler, should I go for TrueNAS? It has many things I won't ever use, but I've seen it has a GUI and encryption. I think it works with ZFS. Is ZFS on ZFS a problem? I'm asking because my PVE is on a ZFS-mirror. Don't know if ZFS is a must for TrueNAS, but I think I would need it becasue I think that's how it does encryption.

Any recommendation, suggestion, question, correction... is welcome!

Thank you.

 

[Kingneutron]

M

Thread 'HowTo - an easy way to protect your PVE with encrypted storage'

Jan 9, 2022

Hi guys,

I want to share my solution that I'm using for encrypted storage on PVE. This manual is mainly addressed to beginners, because people who are familiar with ZFS know these things as natural features.

If you are using worlds best virtualization PVE in combination with worlds best storage technology ZFS, this is an easy way to protect your data and run your VMs on encrypted storage. This could be interesting specialy for cloudservers, because they are often running in difficult environments and for this solution, there is for example no need to give a password in early stage of...

• MaLe
• Replies: 9
• Forum: Proxmox VE: Installation and configuration

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I used the above to create a test zfs encrypted dataset, and moved the vdisk of an LXC (already safely backed up) to it.
NOTE I have not rebooted or anything yet, not sure if requiring the passphrase instead of supplying a keyfile will halt the boot process until it's supplied.

DO NOT do zfs-on-zfs, or you will get horrific write amplification that will kill your disks early. If you have a guest that uses zfs, use lvm-thin as the backing storage.

 

[bea]

Thank you very much for the info.

Unfortunately that solution does not fit my needs. I have read replication and migration won't work with ZFS-encrypted datasets. I am looking for a solution compatible with a ZFS-replication-based cluster.

 

[bea]

I have just seen having an NFS server is a really easy thing and there is no need for a GUI. So I guess I'll go for a very basic luks-encrypted gnulinux vm and have my NFS server there.