[SOLVED] NAS + BitTorrent client

[Helio Mendonça]

Hi
I was trying to add to my Proxmox system the NAS + BitTorrent client functionalities.
After searching a bit I opted by the following:
- NAS: OpenMediaVault
- BitTorrent client: transmission

I found some tutorials to install OpenMediaVault in a Proxmox VM using an ISO which I did and had no problem at all.
To install transmission I found some suggestions to do it as a docker container inside the OpenMediaVault VM. But I think a double virtualisation level will probably not allow the best performance so I opted to install it inside a Proxmox CT which I did successfully.

Both VM and CT are installed in the local-lvm storage (located in a 500GB SSD) but now I need to place the main NAS storage in a 2TB HDD I also have in my system. I also need to share at least a folder of that storage space to be used by the transmission CT.

What are your suggestions to share the HDD to OpenMediaVault VM and transmission CT?

Regards

 

[mbosma]

I personally use a LXC container with transmission and every other service like plex in containers as well.
All the data is stored on a ZFS pool called tank, the way I share data is through mountpoints.
Here are two examples of my config files:

downloadserver:

mp0: /tank/data/downloads,mp=/mnt/downloads
mp1: /tank/data/video,mp=/mnt/video

Plex server:

mp0: /tank/data/video,mp=/mnt/video
mp1: /tank/data/photo,mp=/mnt/photo
mp2: /tank/data/music,mp=/mnt/music

Here is the documentation on mountpoints:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Linux_Container#_bind_mount_points

The catch to this is that the 2tb disk has to be mounted on your host and not a vm.

 

[Stefan_R]

But I think a double virtualisation level will probably not allow the best performance

Docker is a container manager, so just like LXC there is no hardware virtualization going on. You would not have to worry about nested virtualization.

What are your suggestions to share the HDD to OpenMediaVault VM and transmission CT?

If you opt for the LXC-only strategy mbosma mentioned above, you can use his approach using mount points. However, mountpoints are not supported for full VMs.

An option would probably be to expose the disk using some sort of network filesystem (NFS, CIFS, sshfs, etc...) from inside the OpenMediaVault and then mount that from the container (you will need the correct "features" flags set for the container in the PVE options).

Side-note: If you just want to move the OpenMediaVault disk image to the new disk, you can easily do so via the PVE hardware configuration GUI using the "Move Disk" button at the top.

 

[Helio Mendonça]

Thanks @mbosma!

I did something similar on a influxdb LXC. The database engine was installed in the container and the data was in a partition that I mounted in the host and passed to the LXC editing its conf file with a line similar with yours (mp0: ...).

But in the case of a OpenMediaVault VM I think the process is different. I edit the conf file with the following line:
qm set 103 -virtio2 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD...
But I believe that in this case the partition CAN NOT be mounted in the host, right?

Therefore I am stuck: To mount or not to mount the partition in the host? That is the question!

If I had an easy way to install the OpenMediaVault as a LXC intead of a VM...
That is, I presume that the ISO that can be downloaded from the OMV site can not be used for creating a Proxmox container (just a VM), right?

 

[Helio Mendonça]

Thanks @Stefan_R
As you remind "mountpoints are not supported for full VMs".
I also tried the NFS approach but I had problems in the recognition of the NFS share by the container.
Where can I find information about those "feature flags"?

 

[Stefan_R]

In your PVE instance, select your LXC container and go to the tab "Options". At the bottom you'll see a column "features".

You can always use the help button in the top right to learn more about the different options and features, but the one that's important for you is probably going to be the "NFS" flag. It's only supported on privileged instances, if you want your container to be unprivileged, you can mount the NFS share on the PVE host and use a mountpoint to LXC-mount the NFS-mounted folder from the host into the container.

 

[mbosma]

Thanks @mbosma!
Therefore I am stuck: To mount or not to mount the partition in the host? That is the question!

If I had an easy way to install the OpenMediaVault as a LXC intead of a VM...
That is, I presume that the ISO that can be downloaded from the OMV site can not be used for creating a Proxmox container (just a VM), right?

After being stuck on the same question I went for the lxc only solution.
At first I tried setting up vm's with smb or nfs though this caused unnecessary overhead and made file scans by services like plex and nextcloud very slow.

OMV uses block devices as its storage AFAIK so a LXC version would not be of much use.
Is there a specific reason you want to use OMV?
In case you do want to use OMV mounting nfs shares from OMV in your LXC containers might be your best bet.

For LXC there are turnkey container images available for media- and fileservers.
I chose to install the nfs and smb server straight on the host, even though this is not best practice I managed to squeeze a bit more performance out of this setup using 10gb ethernet.

 

[Helio Mendonça]

Is there a specific reason you want to use OMV?

Well, what I really need (as stated in the thread title) is some kind of NAS.

For LXC there are turnkey container images available for media- and fileservers.

Do you have any suggestion?

 

[mbosma]

Turnkey Fileserver is a good option for sharing files with smb and nfs.
Keep in mind that you need to set the nfs-flag like Stefan_r mentioned.
For browsing through files and more you could use nextcloud and for media a solution like openmediaserver, plex or emby.

 

[Helio Mendonça]

I marked this thread as SOLVED after following the suggestions I received here.
I ended using a Turnkey fileserver plus the transmission torrent client, each one installed in a separated LXC with mountpoints for a common disk partition created in Proxmox host.
Thanks for all the help.