General Proxmox Setup Advice Needed

[sagelike]

Hello,

I am starting to setup Proxmox for testing and am relatively new to this and have a few questions about how to best proceed.

I am using 3 x DL360 G6 with 1 TB WD Velocirapor drives to store VMs and Samsung 120GB Enterprise SSDs for the OS.

1. I am trying to decide whether it's best to setup my system as Cluster or HA using local drives or DAS?

Right now, I want to go with Cluster since it's seems easier to setup and manage and potentially more reliable. HA introduces added complexity and if I use bacula4hosts incremental backup then I believe I can create a system which will allow me to restore VMs quickly and thus build reliability and as close to HA as I can get.

Additionally, cluster provides greater storage capacity since I don't have to use disks to store copies of all running VMs across all nodes.

2. Is HA more complex than Cluster configuration and if so, less reliable?

Any feedback or insights on the above would be greatly appreciated.

3. Should I raid the SSDs storing the Proxmox/Debian OS?

4. Should I raid my storage drives?

5. Is proxmox robust enough to handle retail VPS hosting?

6. Has anyone used bacula4hosts for incremental backup? What has your experience with b4h been like?


Thanks in advance!
G

 

[m.ardito]

this slightly seems like a disguised spam post for this bacula4hosts, maybe I'm wrong, but I can't resist an ordered list of questions...

Hello,
1. I am trying to decide whether it's best to setup my system as Cluster or HA using local drives or DAS?

DAS? sorry did you mean NAS? Or?

Right now, I want to go with Cluster since it's seems easier to setup and manage and potentially more reliable.

if you ask me, without a cluster, using more than 1 pve node is meaningless.

HA introduces added complexity and if I use bacula4hosts incremental backup then I believe I can create a system which will allow me to restore VMs quickly and thus build reliability and as close to HA as I can get.

sorry? can't get the relation between a commercial backup system and pve HA.

Additionally, cluster provides greater storage capacity since I don't have to use disks to store copies of all running VMs across all nodes.

mmm really? and where are they stored?into bacula4hosts?

2. Is HA more complex than Cluster configuration

yes, it is a cluster + HA

and if so, less reliable?

...why? if done properly (and this could be tricky, needs good plan and lots of testing) its only purpose is to add reliability to a cluster's VMs.

3. Should I raid the SSDs storing the Proxmox/Debian OS?

I guess so. 120GB is way much though for storing OS.

4. Should I raid my storage drives?

you have options, some need redundant drives, others have redundancy built in (ceph), but that depends a lot on your whole hw setup, knowledge, scope and plans...

5. Is proxmox robust enough to handle retail VPS hosting?

ask simmcom about this (short answer: yes, but has no "customer panels" of its own, some commercial solution exists, afair)

6. Has anyone used bacula4hosts for incremental backup? What has your experience with b4h been like?

never heard here of anyone using it.
Pve has built in very good backup of itself (not incremental, but there is unofficial patch that someone uses, search forums)

Marco

 

[sagelike]

this slightly seems like a disguised spam post for this bacula4hosts, maybe I'm wrong, but I can't resist an ordered list of questions...

haha, no this isn't disguised advertising for bacula4hosts (B4H) but I was trying to being organized They provide an incremental backup solution which backs up on a daily schedule which would provide me with the ability to quickly recover from a node going down in a cluster. The problem with PVE snapshot backup is the amount of local network traffic to take daily snapshots not to mention the workload on the systems.

DAS? sorry did you mean NAS? Or?

I mean local Directly Attached Disks (DAS).

if you ask me, without a cluster, using more than 1 pve node is meaningless.

I would be setting up a 2 or 3 node cluster with an additional backup server using B4H backup software.

sorry? can't get the relation between a commercial backup system and pve HA.

I would be using B4H for an incremental backup solution which backs up on a daily schedule which would provide me with the ability to quickly recover from a node going down in a cluster.

mmm really? and where are they stored?into bacula4hosts?

Local backup server.

yes, it is a cluster + HA



...why? if done properly (and this could be tricky, needs good plan and lots of testing) its only purpose is to add reliability to a cluster's VMs.

I'm new to this so trying to keep it as simple as possible with sacrificing reliability and more importantly, the ability to recover in less than 2 hours.

I guess so. 120GB is way much though for storing OS.

I got a good deal on these Samsung Enterprise SSDs. Only $75 which was less expensive than other smaller SSDs and extra space doesn't hurt

you have options, some need redundant drives, others have redundancy built in (ceph), but that depends a lot on your whole hw setup, knowledge, scope and plans...

I know I don't need RAID with HA but if I go with cluster then RAID provides disk redundancy. RAID 1+0 typically provides better read performance. Would I see better VM performance with RAID 1+0 in PVE Cluster?

ask simmcom about this (short answer: yes, but has no "customer panels" of its own, some commercial solution exists, afair)

There are some modules for Proxmox that work with WHMCS.

never heard here of anyone using it.
Pve has built in very good backup of itself (not incremental, but there is unofficial patch that someone uses, search forums)

The problem with PVE snapshot backup is the amount of local network traffic to take daily snapshots not to mention the workload on the systems. I did see an unofficial patch that seems to work but there was some problems with it. No interface and I think you need to reinstall after each PVE upgrade.

Marco

Thanks!