Local ZFS pool after node installation (member of cluster)

[genesio]

Hello everyone,
I am experimenting with Proxmox, willing to switch from ESXi in SOHO environment.

I have a cluster set up with two nodes (pve1, pve2)
pve1 is the master of a cluster.

Everything works as expected, but I would like to set up replication and, if I understood correctly, I need local ZFS storage (zfspool) to make it work.

Unfortunately I didn't know this requirement during nodes installation, so I only have local-lvm storage with all space allocated.
I am thinking of removing /dev/pve/data logical volume from node pve1 and reuse that space for a local ZFS pool.
Then, if everything works as expected, do the same on pve2.

Another possible issue is that my machines have PERC 6i SAS RAID card.
I understand that ZFS doesn't play well with RAID cards, do I have other options?

 

[mailinglists]

PM crew will tell you that ZFS on top of HW RAID is not supported (by them).
ZFS developers say, that ZFS on top of HW RAID is as safe as any other file system.
However, there are cases where people experienced lockups (server stalls) when using ZFS on top of HW RAID.
It has something to do with command queue length of RAID cards. That is why people usually flash HD RAID to IT mode, so they use it just to reach disks and have much bigger queue depth.

I would advise you google for ZFS and your controller and decide for yourself.

Stating all that, I have a few PM servers which have ZFS on top of HW RAID, because I need pve-zsync and they work just fine. However they are not heavily used.

Now we wait for someone to say, ZFS should not be used on HW RAID....