Hardware requirements / System recommendations?

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229Mick

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Jun 28, 2020
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I have a client that is looking to move an old physical Windows XP system that hosts an old FoxPro database critical to their business, to a VM on a proxmox server. I tried the setup on an old dell I have lying around, and it worked quite well.
Problem now is they want to buy a new system to run proxmox on, that has mirrored SSDs. Is there anything special I need to look for? I recall years back trying to install VMWare on something and ran into trouble with the raid drivers or something like that, so I don't want to recommend a system until I'm sure that proxmox will run on it properly. I offered to build something for them, but they want something from Dell or HP that meets the requirements, they can readily get replacement parts for and has a warranty.
Again, all they really need is the mirrored drives, so they don't want to spend the money required for a server, but just something solid and reliable.

If anyone has any suggestions or specific systems that meet the requirements I'd appreciate the recommendation. Thanks!
 
Proxmox doesn't have any major hardware requirements - the cpu and bios should support Intel VT or AMD-V but that's pretty standard these days. Memory requirements will depend on how many VM's will be running as will the number of CPU cores you need. I haven't ever installed Windows XP on Proxmox, but it sounds like you've tested that in your lab and it worked OK.

You can boot Proxmox from a ZFS mirror and there's no need for a RAID controller - just use the standard SATA ports on the motherboard. The only recommendation here is that you use Enterprise-grade SSD's like the Samsung PM893 or Intel D3 S4520 in preference to consumer-grade drives.

Personally, for a business customer, I'd lean towards a small Supermicro server such as this
https://www.broadberry.co.uk/xeon-e5v3-rackmount-servers/cyberserve-xe5-104s-v3
 
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229Mick said:
offered to build something for them, but they want something from Dell or HP that meets the requirements, they can readily get replacement parts for and has a warranty.
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If you go with Dell, just pick whatever server fits and make sure it has BOSS. Its a great purpose built raid controller, fully supported by Dell, easy to swap and provides excellent redundancy. ZFS is nice, but for a managed customer who is not technical - they are better off with vendor support.

Blockbridge: Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
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Thanks, yea, I'm not using proxmox because I'm a Linux guy who has a clue about how to setup a 'zfs mirror', but because it works and I'd rather not use VMWare or windows, so I appreciate your input!
Is the BOSS controller an alternative to their other raid controllers, or an addon? I tried doing a config in their portal but it says it still needs a harddrive, so I'm not sure if I forgot to remove something or if it still requires a drive. It only offers (one or two) 240G ssds, but with their small system that we want to virtualize, that's plenty of storage. Previously I've either tested on whatever with a standard drive or SSD, or built on something with raid one and standard drives.
Thanks again and if you have any more info I appreciate it!
 
OK, so proxmox would go on the SSDs connected to the BOSS, and then the VMS would go on a regular mirror? That makes senses. I've never built a 'mission critical' server with it, so I've always booted form a (good) USB stick with the VMs on a raid 1.
 
229Mick said:
OK, so proxmox would go on the SSDs connected to the BOSS,
Click to expand...
thats how I would do it
229Mick said:
and then the VMS would go on a regular mirror?
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sure, least amount of layers, most vendor support coverage for casual admin.
229Mick said:
That makes senses. I've never built a 'mission critical'
Click to expand...
That's how we would build a critical server.


Blockbridge: Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
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