How to configure proxmox for storwize v5000

[M.J.]

Hi all, I am newcomer in proxmox, I installed proxmox ve 8.0.4 on the system and connected IBM storwize v5000 to it.
I created iscsi on IBM and now I want to add partition for backup and snapshot on proxmox.
I could just create lvm but it can't take snapshot .
How can I do it?
Thank you in advance.

 

[bbgeek17]

More information is needed to provide any advice.

I installed proxmox ve 8.0.4 on the system and connected IBM storwize v5000 to it.

What do you mean here - physically connected, ie cabled? Fully connected, ie LUNs are visible inside the host? Something else?

I created iscsi on IBM

Is that part of the above "connected", ie you configured iSCSI target and Initiator (PVE) and iSCSI session is now active? If you did - did you use PVE iSCSI infrastructure, or configured it manually?

I want to add partition for backup

When adding iSCSI storage, you are adding a LUN/disk that you can further optionally partition. When your disk is properly configured - partitioning it is no different than doing so on any locally attached disk.

snapshot on proxmox.

snapshot with SAN storage can only be supported in two cases: a) there is a native Plugin that implements snapshot API on the backend, b) Utilizing filesystem or supported volume manager. First one is out with your storage, so your only option is (b).

I could just create lvm but it can't take snapshot .

You would only be restricted from taking snapshot is you used Thick LVM, ie for shared storage. You didnt mention anything about cluster, so if you have a single system then you need to re-LVM the disk as Thin to gain snapshot capability.

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

 

[M.J.]

Hi bbgeek17

What do you mean here - physically connected, ie cabled? Fully connected, ie LUNs are visible inside the host? Something else?

I connected v5000 to proxmox server with 2950g switch in the same vlan and it is visible inside the host.

Is that part of the above "connected", ie you configured iSCSI target and Initiator (PVE) and iSCSI session is now active? If you did - did you use PVE iSCSI infrastructure, or configured it manually?

I configured iscsi in datacenter storage, I mean that I added iscsi with storage ip address to datacenter

When adding iSCSI storage, you are adding a LUN/disk that you can further optionally partition. When your disk is properly configured - partitioning it is no different than doing so on any locally attached disk.

After your guide I was able to create new filesystem partition and mounted to the first machine in the cluster and everything sounds good but Now I have a new problem, other systems in the cluster can not access to v5000 host, would you please lead me.

 

[bbgeek17]

After your guide I was able to create new filesystem partition and mounted to the first machine in the cluster and everything sounds good but Now I have a new problem, other systems in the cluster can not access to v5000 host, would you please lead me.

You stopped quoting my reply just when it started to concern clustering ;-)

- Now that we know you have a cluster, ie more than one node is trying to access the storage, we can eliminate LVM Thin as a valid option for volume management.
- You did not mention what file system you used. In fact, most file system are NOT cluster compatible. There is a very small list of file systems that can be used with Shared Storage. Some of them are proprietary : VMFS, NTFS/CSV. A few are freely available, ie OCFS2.

None of the Cluster Aware Filesystems are directly supported by Proxmox. Their configuration and maintenance is completely up to you. There are a few threads in forum that may help, ie https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/md3200sas-proxmox-ocfs2-not-supported-by-the-proxmox-team.129156/
The prerequisite to using CAF is that your storage is fully configured and visible on all nodes as raw disk, with Multipath if necessary. The best guides on configuring your Commercial storage product are provided by your storage vendor. Remember that PVE suite is based on Debian Linux.

If you are set on using CAF approach, then your VM storage will need to be File Based, ie QCOW. This will be the only way to gain snapshot functionality.

Your other option is to use LVM Thick, however there will be no snapshot capability with it.

Good luck

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