Is possible to make raid software in Proxmox VE 2.x ?

[cesarpk]

Hi all

Is well known that Proxmox natively does not include sotware RAID. And from Proxmox VE 2.x is included Proxmox Cluster file system (pmxcfs). So do a software RAID in Proxmox is more complicated.

It is also known that RAID 1 software will save us many unpleasant situations by disk breakdown where you can not have a RAID Hardware.

Due to this, I would ask all members of this forum a contribution to our community: make a "Mini How To" software-based RAID 1 and report here, or you submit a link to another website.

Please, for best performance, the "Mini How To" based on a previous installation of Proxmox VE 2.x and not based on Debian Squeeze. To whom answered me, I apologize if I not did this clarification, but equally I think that to other will help them, Thanks.

Thank in advance those who can help do that. And on my part the commitment to check in within 48 Hrs. and report here the results.

Best regards
Cesar

 

[GT1]

here's your mini howto:
-install debian squeeze with software raid
-add proxmox depositories to apt
-install proxmox
done.

go read the wiki tbh. software raid have been discussed over and over again countless times.

 

[cesarpk]

here's your mini howto:
-install debian squeeze with software raid
-add proxmox depositories to apt
-install proxmox
done.

Thanks John for your "mini how to" is a simple way, but not the best for performance gain.

When you install debian squeeze also includes other files that take up more space on your hard disk, and other services that are raised up with that system. And for those who want to have the minimum necessary for virtualization will perform better using the "ISO" of Proxmox. For this reason it is preferable to software RAID 1 on "Proxmox" installed.

Best regards
Cesar

 

[taspenatu]

This is how we installed Proxmox with RAID10 to our test lab.
Change the device filenames according to your hardware setup.

All systems have 4 disks.

- start the debian squeeze installer
- activate the console ALT+F2
- create partitions on /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc and /dev/sdd

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0003b8e5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          61      489951   fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2              62       38913   312078690   fd  Linux raid autodetect

- create /dev/md0 as RAID1 with 4 disks and a size of 100MB

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1

- create /dev/md1 and /dev/md2 as RAID1 with 2 disks each and the remaining space

mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2
mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sdc2 /dev/sdd2

- create the volumegroup pve and the logical volumes root, data and swap; don't use the whole remaining diskspace for data. You need some Gigs for LVM snapshots.

pvcreate /dev/md1
pvcreate /dev/md2
vgcreate pve /dev/md1 /dev/md2
lvcreate -i 2 -L 16G -n swap pve
lvcreate -i 2 -L 100G -n root pve
lvcreate -i 2 -L 450G -n data pve

- create filesystems on it (we saw best performance with ext3)

mkfs.ext3 -E stride=32,stripe-width=64 /dev/pve/root
mkfs.ext3 -E stride=32,stripe-width=64 /dev/pve/data

- proceed with the installer, set the mountpoints:
RAID1 md0 -> /boot
LVM VG swap -> swap
LVM VG root -> /
LVM VG data -> /var/lib/vz

- after reboot install Proxmox as described here
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Squeeze

After the Proxmox installation edit /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage.pm, /usr/share/perl5/PVE/VZDump/QemuServer.pm and /usr/share/perl5/PVE/VZDump/OpenVZ.pm and add the options "--stripes 2" to every "lvcreate" command.
You have to to this last step every time you update Proxmox.

Please do NOT use this in production environment.
Though software raid is a cheap solution but it is not reliable.


Good luck
Frank

 

[cesarpk]

Thank you very much taskpenatu, is very interesting make "RAID 10"

trying to be more demanding in the previous post I said that the best is over Proxmox installed to make better use of resources. And for me or for those wishing to do over "debian squeeze" installed, it is a very good choice.

I think I must stress that this is based on a Proxmox VE 2.x Installed.

Though software raid is a cheap solution but it is not reliable.

Frank

I work with software RAID 1 long time ago, and has always given me greats satisfactions. Could you substantiate it?

Best regards
Cesar

 

[mir]

This is how we installed Proxmox with RAID10 to our test lab.

Where in your setup does you configure a RAID10? From what I can read it looks more like a broken RAID1 setup.

 

[taspenatu]

I work with software RAID 1 long time ago, and has always given me greats satisfactions. Could you substantiate it?

A system for production use should run for month or years without interruption. It should be stable and fast even under heavy load.
You can't do that with software raid.

We used hardware raid systems for years without problems.
But we couldn't overcome the temptation to buy such a cheap fake ide raid that only runs as software raid under Linux and the trouble began.
Rebuild of the raid nearly every two months, two times a recovery were needed and so on.

However for our test lab we have software raid installed but don't do any performance tests and it works.


Frank

 

[taspenatu]

Yes, it's a LVM RAID0 on top of two Linux RAID1.

LVM on a Linux RAID10 wasn't stable enough.

 

[cesarpk]

Yes, it's a LVM RAID0 on top of two Linux RAID1.

LVM on a Linux RAID10 wasn't stable enough.

Do you has turned off the write cache LVM? and if is mounted, the file fstab with the option "sync"?.
Only to ensure that the data is written to disk, it is known that the performance no is the better.

 

[taspenatu]

Do you has turned off the write cache LVM? and if is mounted, the file fstab with the option "sync"?
Only to ensure that the data is written to disk, is known that the performance no is the better

I didn't reach the point to do any performance tests.
After some kernel panics during the installation I gave up RAID10.