Multiple Disk Setup

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kwat

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Apr 16, 2021
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I plan to install PVE 7.3 with 2 NVME drives for use in a home-lab environment. Here is what I want to do:

  1. Install PVE 7.3 on a 58GB Intel Optane SSD and use that drive for OS only.
  2. Use 1TB SSD for VMs & Containers (LVM thin provisioning). I also want to store ISO/container templates here. Finally, I plan to create a container to share files from a folder(s) on this drive also.
  3. A less preferred option would be to add a 500GB SATA SSD for ISO, container templates and file sharing and use the 1TB for VMs and containers only.

I prefer NOT to install Debian and PVE on top of it if possible. I also don’t want to use ZFS now but will possibly in the future.

How can I configure disks/storage using PVE installer and/or GUI to set this up?
 
kwat said:
How can I configure disks/storage using PVE installer and/or GUI to set this up?
Click to expand...
You can't do that. Installing PVE to the Optane using the installer isn't the problem. And after installation you could use the webUI to create a LVM-Thin storage with that 1TB SSD. Your problem is that LVM-Thin is a block storage without a filesystem. So you can`t store any files/folders on it.

Workaround would be to use the CLI to create a LVM thin-volume on that LVM-thin pool. Then use the CLI to format that thin-volume, mount that thin-volume on the PVE host, create a "Directory" storage pointing to the mountpoint of that filesystem.
That way you get a directory strage on top of that LVM-Thin pool where you could store your ISOs and files/folders you want to bind-mount into your LXCs.
 
Dunuin said:
You can't do that. Installing PVE to the Optane using the installer isn't the problem. And after installation you could use the webUI to create a LVM-Thin storage with that 1TB SSD. Your problem is that LVM-Thin is a block storage without a filesystem. So you can`t store any files/folders on it.

Workaround would be to use the CLI to create a LVM thin-volume on that LVM-thin pool. Then use the CLI to format that thin-volume, mount that thin-volume on the PVE host, create a "Directory" storage pointing to the mountpoint of that filesystem.
That way you get a directory strage on top of that LVM-Thin pool where you could store your ISOs and files/folders you want to bind-mount into your LXCs.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your help. I'm trying to follow your suggestions but I'm not very familiar with LVM concepts. I found the following youtube video that describes what you are saying. The video is a little hard to follow because of the presentation though.

Seems like I will be using commands like pvcreate, vgcreate and lvcreate. Can you provide any suggestions how to chose metadatasize and poolmetadatasize for a 1TB drive LVM thin-volume? Should I just take the defaults values for these?
 
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