Installing on USB stick

[deangreen4]

Hi,
I wish to install proxmox on a USB stick and run all VMs from network storage. (Im aware this is not supported)
It seems proxmox install is looking for a certain amount of space to be free after install on the machines 'hard drive'
Is there a way to disable this disk size check so it can be run/installed that way?

I have tried installing lenny then adding the packages which does work but the NIC card drivers for the BL:490s Im using are a pain and Id sooner install the whole ISO rather than packages so its easily done on the other blades in the chassis.

Any help apreciated.

Thanks

 

[tom]

use a bigger USB stick?

 

[deangreen4]

heh yeah thought of that but machines in a datacentre a long way away. Also will be swapping from vmware to proxmox so would like to empty one blade remotely, then reinstall proxmox over hypervisior via onboard administrator.

 

[tom]

how big is your USB stick?

 

[deangreen4]

how big is your USB stick?

4 gig. It may of course that proxmox is trying to make a swap file too big. The blades have 48 gig of RAM

 

[tom]

quite small. and the Lenny method does not work because the default 2.6.26 kernel does not have the drivers for your nic?

 

[deangreen4]

Yes correct. At present I have proxmox 1.7 packages running on squeeze but Id like it standard. I presume there is something in the installer that checks for disk and I could possibly hack the perl for that, then make an ISO from that for installs

 

[tom]

you can try the following, at lease the installation should run:

on the boot prompt of the installation ISO just type the following:

linux maxroot=1 swapsize=1

installation should run, but I assume sooner or later you will run into other issues due to the limited size - so do testing and keep an eye on the disk space.

 

[tom]

here the results from a test install with a 4gb disk using the boot parameters.

lvdisplay
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/pve/swap
  VG Name                pve
  LV UUID                bJV9l0-TGf3-1P4g-Y23i-c6jW-bGjj-OO1a33
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                1.00 GB
  Current LE             256
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           254:0

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/pve/root
  VG Name                pve
  LV UUID                BchH0E-gSIG-kPvI-yPF5-580x-Jboa-fvoQeW
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                1.00 GB
  Current LE             256
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           254:1

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/pve/data
  VG Name                pve
  LV UUID                ST1HZh-kSTB-0out-gg8n-sO70-LFFi-q4bDRn
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                1.00 GB
  Current LE             256
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           254:2

 

[deangreen4]

Thanks very much for your help. I will try this now

 

[deangreen4]

Hi,
just trying this with 1.8 and its saying cannot find kernel maxroot=1 Do I need more info on the boot line?
Thanks

 

[deangreen4]

OK sussed it linux maxroot=1 maxswap=1

 

[udo]

OK sussed it linux maxroot=1 maxswap=1

Hi,
is there a typo? it should be swapsize instead of maxswap, or not?

Udo

 

[deangreen4]

Hi,
is there a typo? it should be swapsize instead of maxswap, or not?

Udo

Hi,
not sure whats going on but Tom originally posted maxswap=1. I did try the other way as I read the other threads. Maybe he edited it?

 

[deangreen4]

Actually looking back, it might just be me being a n00b heh..Long day!

 

[knireis]

As a side note to this, i use a 500GB disk to install proxmox. It uses the whole disk which for my use is not necessary. Any options to leave space available for another parttion on the disk? Maybe by telling the installer not to use more then a certain amount of GB's?
Or is it possible to limit the 'HD size for root', which at the moment is 95GB and it uses less then 1GB.

 

[udo]

As a side note to this, i use a 500GB disk to install proxmox. It uses the whole disk which for my use is not necessary. Any options to leave space available for another parttion on the disk? Maybe by telling the installer not to use more then a certain amount of GB's?

unfortunality it's not possible with the standard installer. But you can install proxmox ontop of lenny, or create your own layout (with one temp disk and handwork).

Or is it possible to limit the 'HD size for root', which at the moment is 95GB and it uses less then 1GB.

Yes - read the post before in this thread - maxroot is your friend.

Udo

 

[tarax]

Hi all,

As eventual solution(s) to my issue(s) may complete informations already in this thread, let me share my troubles here...

I've now been fighting for hours trying to install PVE 1.8 on USB sticks (4 and 8 GB). Like recommended in previous posts, I used maxroot and swapsize/maxswap boot options... to absolutly no luck :'(
Every try (different USB key, internal/external USB port, change root/swap size, clear key boot sector, create new partition table...), the installer creates a new partition table with a 500MB (!) /dev/sdb1 partition and a /dev/sdb2 partition with the remaining space, then installation keeps failing with the following error(s):

Successfully wrote new partition table

Re-reading the partition table ...

sfdisk: ERROR: sector 0 does not have an msdos signature
  /dev/sdb: unrecognized partition table type
No partitions found
Warning: partition 1 does not end at cylinder boundary

If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1)
to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1
(See fdisk(8).)
  Physical volume "/dev/sdb2" successfully created
  A volume group called 'pve' already exists.
unable to create volume group at /usr/bin/proxinstall line 537

Any help would greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance

PS: I'm doing the installs on a HP MicroServer with 1GB RAM (more RAM to come), tried with 4GB PNY and 8GB Sandisk keys

 

[deangreen4]

Hi,
I have proxmox running on a HP microserver from a USB stick (albeit a 16gb). The only problem I saw is you need to boot with rootdelay=120 to let the LVM subsystem build.
It looks like proxmox is trying to boot from you hard disk not your pendrive, unless your pendrive is on /dev/sdb1?
It might be timing out on the pendrive so skipping to next hard drive?

 

[tarax]

hi,
Thank you for the tip !
Actually, I finally managed to install PVE on USB stick but going the Debian way... to discover that the PNY key was just a damned piece of sh!ù$* to the point that I couldn't make an upgrade without write errors :-(
I have now to buy (again) a handful of sticks so, if any one of you all have any recommandation on fast AND reliable gears... they'd be gratefully appreciated.
I'll try again when I'll have the HW, eventually leveraging your advise.
I'll update this thread...

Thanks in advance