[SOLVED] Moving to Proxmox, wanting some guidance

[lilCDNnrg]

I am in the process of moving my 2 dedicated server from windows boxes with various services running on them (think http, ftp, smtp, and the like) to a more flexible virtual environment. I would love some guidance and make sure I have all my ducks in a row before I take both servers offline and start my rebuild marathon in the middle of the night.

Hardware:

Motherboard: Asus P8H61-M LX PLUS R2.0
Processor: Intel Core i3 3320 - 3.30 GHz (Cores: 2, Threads: 4) (64 bit)
Physical Memory: 16GB
Network Cards: 3 X gigabit (1 on board Realtec and 2 Intel pci-e cards)
​

Planned Virtual Servers:

Primary Node:

Web Server
Email Server
Cloud Server
Experimental Server
​

Secondary Node:

Communication Server
Conversion Server
Media Server
Backup Server
​

Where I am sorta stuck, I plan to install 2 x 4TB NAS drives and using LVM to make them into one large drive for the VM data. I will then use some D-Link NAS boxes to provide NFS storage for the actual VM operating drives. I would ideally like to be able to move VMs between nodes if needed to keep the important ones running if a problem or maintenance is needed on a node. I have limited Linux experience and this is going to be my first time dedicating myself to Linux servers with the exception of the email server which will me a windows VM to run hMailServer.

Have i got the best plan for the hardware I have and for how I plan to use it? I know that it is not ideal hardware but it my tests on the hardware with testing configurations and load they seem to function better than a bloated windows install.

Thanks so much in advance for all your help, input and guidance.

 

[RedneckBob]

You best bet is to do a lot of throw away experiments because you'll need to be super familiar with your setup in case you need to recover.

You'll quickly find out what is possible and what isn't possible while gaining the valuable linux/proxmox experience you'll need to run and maintain your setup.

 

[lilCDNnrg]

I have done even more testing and have been making notes and sort of a setup guide, here i what I have so far. though how the extra HDDs are setup will probably change.

1) Setup as per installer on each server
*No extra NICs
*No extra HDDs

2) login to each server with SSH

3) Setup PVE Repository on each server
1) CD /etc/apt/
2) CD sources.list.d/
2) nano pve-enterprise.list
3) Change line to read: deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian jessie pve-no-subscription
4) Save file

4) login to each server with the web admin

5) Update Packages List on each server
1) Select node
2) Change to updates tab
3) refresh

6) Update System on each server
1) Select node
2) Change to updates tab
3) Upgrade

7) Confirm update on each server
1) Select node
2) Change to updates tab
3) Refresh
4) confirm no updates left to do

8) Logout of the web admin on each server

9) login to each server with ssh

10) Update Hosts file on each server
1) Open /etc/hosts
2) Add Line for other server IE: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx "FULL HOSTNAME" "NAME"
3) Remove IP6 references
4) Save file

11) Build the cluster
1) on Primary server
1) pvecm create "CLUSTER NAME"
2) pvecm status
3) confirm running with 1 node

2) on Secondary servers
1) pvecm add "PRIMARY NODE NAME"
2) pvecm status
3) confirm running with total number of servers added to cluster

12) shutdown each server

13) Install extra HDDs & NIC cards

14) Configure extra HDDs on each server

(Check Commands)
lvdisplay = logical volume display
vgdisplay = Volume group display
pvdisplay = physical volume display
fdisk -l = disk display
df -h = check mounting information

1) Create Partition for each disk
1) fdisk "DISK NAME"
1) n = new partition
2) p = primary
3) 1 = partition number
4) <ENTER> = first sector default
5) <ENTER> = last sector default
6) t = chage partition system id
7) 8e = Linux LVM
8) w = write and quit

2) Prepare partitions for LVM
1) pvcreate "PARTITION NAME" "PARTITION NAME" ....

3) Create each volume group as needed
1) vgcreate "GROUP NAME" "PARTITION NAME" "PARTITION NAME" ....

4) Create each logical volume as needed

1) lvcreate --name "VOLUME NAME" --side ##G "VOLUME GROUP NAME"

5) Create file system for each logical volume
1) mkfs.ext3 "FULL VOLUME NAME"

6) Create mounting directories for each volume
1) mkdir "NAME or PATH&NAME"

7) Mount each created volume in the created directory
1) mount "LOGICAL VOLUME NAME" "MATCHING DIRECTORY"

8) Make each mount permanent
1) Open //etc/fstab
2) add the following line for each volume to be persistent -> "LOGICAL VOLUME NAME" "MATCHING DIRECTORY" ext3 rw,noatime 0 0
4) Save file

9) Reboot

10) login to the master server for the cluster on the web admin

11) Add created directories to Proxmox on web interface on each server with added volumes

16) Create required NFS shares (ISO, VM Storage, Data Storage)

17) Configure required Linux Bridges and Interface Cards

18) Create Required VMs

19) Configure & test each VM

20) Test and confirm inter VM connections and setup functionality

21) make a system backup for each VM and Host.

 

[lilCDNnrg]

To update the community and maybe help someone else that is starting with Proxmox, I must say it a fabulous software and once I took the plunge yesterday to rebuild both my home servers with it I could not be happier. I have finally converted a setup with 2 windows 7 installs running a number of free services(Apache, HmailServer, MySQL, UMS and the like) to running a total Linux shop and it only took me a day to get things running smoother and more effectively than on windows. I learned a lot about Linux as I setup the nodes and documented the setups that I took and once it is organized I plan to post for feedback and also to maybe help another user.

I eneded up with 2 nodes and using 4 NFS server on separate NAS devices I have NFS storage for the ISOs, backups and all the running VM images. I also have 4TB of storage in the nodes with LVM support to use for secondary backups and also secondary image use if I loose the already 2 separate NFS storages for the images. I know I am by no means a expert now or that I would feel comfortable setting up in a true production environment but it has been my goal for the better part of a few years not to move from the comfort of windows and play in the Linux word, where i my opinion unless you have to run windows servers should be.