Help deciding how to share ZFS pools across my home network?

nertskull

New Member
Sep 13, 2020
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I have two ZFS pools with multiple mount points for various datasets. I want to share those across my home network. In reading around there seem to be a lot of ways to do that and no consensus so I thought I'd try to explain my use case and get advice.

I mainly run linux machines, but I do have one windows laptop.

Option 1 seems to be to use Proxmox itself to share the drives using NFS and Samba to my network. Proxmox is already the ZFS mount point because I use some of the pools to hold my ISOs and other data. Pro to this option is I can use ZFS built in NFS directly. And it's seems pretty straightforward. Cons are I (think) have to open up my proxmox to more of my network. Right now I'm trying to use VLANs to keep proxmox on a separate network with my VMs/LXCs on separate VLANs. Also, i don't get snapshot backups of VMs. Also I then have to run all my backup scripts (I use duplicity) to handle backups as well as moving backups offsite (backblaze b2). That seems like a lot of work for Proxmox that should just be doing my VMs (at least in my mind).

Option 2 is to setup a VM/LXC. This way I have the VM do all the 'work' like backups, and uploads, and snapshots, etc. But I'm not sure the best way to mount the drives in. Storage pools that I mount? Bind mounts if I use LXC? NFS from proxmox still and then just use the VM to run the backup stuff? But for that then I also have to set up Samba on proxmox I guess?

A related question: how do I deal with file permissions? I have 6 users in my home. Is it best to just sync a /etc/passwd file across all machines to keep UID/GID the same? I looked a little into FreeIPA, but it seemed pretty intense for my needs. But I also like learning stuff if it really is that useful.

What would be a good route for sharing these pools across my home network? Thanks everyone!
 

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