Image or LVM?

kvman

New Member
Apr 29, 2014
2
0
1
I'm wondering is there much of a performance difference between the host using a disk image and the host using LVM for KVM virtual machines? Disk images seem to be easier to use and the virtual disk can be backed up simply by copying a single file but does LVM have better disk i/o performance?

Also I have a server with hardware raid and when I install Proxmox VE it seems to partition the whole disk which then doesn't leave me any space to create LVM storage. Is there a way of specifying how much disk space Proxmox should use so I can leave space to create an LVM group for VMs after installation? Or do I need to create two hardware raid containers before installing so Proxmox only uses one and I can then add an LVM group on the other after installation?
 
In my comparison the difference was between 5-10%, not a big deal for me. But i was comparing iscsi+lvm vs nfs+image, so maybe on local storage there will be bigger performance boost.

It would be better to use separate disks for data and proxmox. Anyway, you can resize your data partition, then decrease that lv and add the volumegroup with free space to storages.
 
Thanks liska_

I might do some tests on a dummy system before changing our existing setup!
 

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!