File Server Recommendation

[damageG]

I'm looking for some suggestions for running our LAN file server for a small office. I have a three node proxmox cluster running Ceph. There is an SSD pool and HDD.

As a test, I created a Debian LXC on the HDD pool, gave it a large disk size and setup a samba server. It was easy enough and the performance is fine. The drawbacks seem to be the need to resize the LXC if the file storage gets too big and that backing up the LXC include all the files.

Is there a recommendation for how to create a separate file storage and mount it in the LXC? That way, I could control the backups independently. It would be nice if I could expand the Ceph storage as needed without having to resize the file storage.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[wolfgang]

Hi,

you can use CephFS for this.
Instead of using a single disk (ceph rbd) mount CephFS on the host and give the CT a bind-mount [1] to the CephFS mount.

1.) https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#pct_settings section 11.3.4

 

[damageG]

Thanks for the feedback.

I couldn't see how to specify the pools to use for the storage in the GUI. The default seems to use both hdd and ssd pools.

I found this https://blog.svedr.in/posts/setting-up-ceph-fs-on-a-proxmox-cluster/

and it looks close to what I'm trying to do - use the hdd for data and the ssd for metadata.

I think I understand the concept but still missing the steps to get there.

Also, in adding and deleting stuff, I have a cephfs storage icon with a ? that won't go away.

 

[wolfgang]

I found this https://blog.svedr.in/posts/setting-up-ceph-fs-on-a-proxmox-cluster/

This is not necessary anymore.
A CephFS can be created on the GUI.

You have to use the device class to create new replicated rules.[1]

When this is done you have to set the replicated rule on the command line.
CephFS got two pools cephfs_meta what you set to the SSD replicated rule and cephfs_data.
How to set the replicated rule is described in the Documentation [1].

1.) https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#pve_ceph_device_classes

 

[damageG]

That worked. Thank you.

 

[KatyComputer]

What gui are you using for Samba management?