LVM vs LVM-Thin backup size and time

Sep 28, 2020
99
6
13
Hello,

I have an HDD as LVM which I use on a server for my next cloud files.
Now I wanted to know if an LVM-thin would take less memory and time when I backup the machine.
 
The difference between LVM and LVM-thin is that the latter is thin-provisioned. That means that you can overcommit storage: I.e. on a 100 GB disk you could have two VMs with 80 GB virtual disks each - as long as both combined are only using up to 100 GB of course.

If you're talking about backing up VMs using the built-in tooling, there is no difference however. That is because the internal view of the drive to back up (in QEMU) can not consider what LVM has allocated or not, meaning it still has to scan everything (80 GB twice in above example if you back up both VMs).

Memory (as in RAM) is entirely unaffected by this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neke and Tealk

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!