Fileserver "best practice" + proxmox to qemu

trbfred

New Member
Sep 9, 2013
1
0
1
Hello,
I'm new in this filed of virtualisation-technology and plan to setup my "testing server" with proxmox. I was able to get answers to all my questions through lots of searching + reading all around several proxmox-related sites. Actually two questions are still open:

1.
I want to use two KVM-guests as fileserver-nodes: One should act as a media-server, the other one should serve my personal files. I wondered about the "best practices" for useing VM-guests as fileserver-like systems. I know from my local KVM-QEMU installation that filesystem-passthrough via VirtFS is supported. It seemed to me as the best way to create the matching folders on the host system and use them within the specific VMs.

Main advantage: I do only need to backup the host-folders to get a full-backup of all the related files. The configuration of the VM-guests should not change often and doesn't need to be updated that frequently. I currently installed CentOS 6.4 as host-os for kvm-virtualisation but realized, that the available tools (kvm, qemu, libvirt) in the repo doesn't support that feature.

But: How is this realised generally? Create qcow (or whatever format)-images and link them to the VMs?

2.
I would like to have the ability to copy VMs from my server to my notebook so I can use them on longer trips etc. - is this also possible with proxmox? Can I export XML-specifications (like with virsh) + the virtual-hdd-image and run them correctly?

THANK YOU very much!
Fred
 
...my 2 cents:

With a real Fileserver (being virtualized or not) you want a RAID-like setup with your disks....otherwise you possibly just need a Filesharing solution, like install SAMBA on the host and you're done.
Using virtual filesystems to tunnel all that to the VM is IMHO not a good idea...you are employing a lot of extra SW layers and maybe loose some features (like S.M.A.R.T data from your disks).
Also reconstructing the array in case of disk failure could be a nightmare.
The best option to do this kind of setup is using vt-d capable hardware with a real controller passed through to the VM.
 
Last edited:

About

The Proxmox community has been around for many years and offers help and support for Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server, and Proxmox Mail Gateway.
We think our community is one of the best thanks to people like you!

Get your subscription!

The Proxmox team works very hard to make sure you are running the best software and getting stable updates and security enhancements, as well as quick enterprise support. Tens of thousands of happy customers have a Proxmox subscription. Get yours easily in our online shop.

Buy now!