Need advice on storage - directory in zfs pool or just zfs for vm

[pvanthony]

I am newbie and need advice on storage.

What I have done is to create zfs mirror pool with two 14tb sata hard drives. (datamirror)
Then I created two directories in proxmox. One for vm and another for ISOs and backups.

Is this the correct way to manage storage?
Should I even use directory or I should use zfs directly like what was setup during installation. (local-zfs)

Here is the screenshot of the storage.

 

[Johannes S]

Usually you won't need an own directory or dataset for vm/lxc storage. Instead you would add the ZFS pool as Block storage, afterwards create a dataset on it for the template/snippet and isofiles.

Block storage has less overhead and thus the recommended variant but directory would work too.

Please keep in mind that hdds are great for bulk data but not so great for vm/lxc performance. So I would setup vm system and App virtusl disks on a ssds and add hdds m-based virtual disc for data storage

 

[pvanthony]

Usually you won't need an own directory or dataset for vm/lxc storage. Instead you would add the ZFS pool as Block storage, afterwards create a dataset on it for the template/snippet and isofiles.

Block storage has less overhead and thus the recommended variant but directory would work too.

Please keep in mind that hdds are great for bulk data but not so great for vm/lxc performance. So I would setup vm system and App virtusl disks on a ssds and add hdds m-based virtual disc for data storage

Thank you very much for the advice. Phew. Directory is also ok.
Having said that I will try to do the recommended way with block storage.
Need to learn how to create dataset for iso.

 

[pvanthony]

Just found out how to create dataset in zfs.
It is done at datacenter > storage > click on "Add" > select "ZFS"
See the screenshot. Hope it helps other newbies.


Please note dataset in zfs is for containers and vm.
Looks like have to use directory for ISO, templates and backups.

 

[Johannes S]

Please note dataset in zfs is for containers and vm.
Looks like have to use directory for ISO, templates and backups.

Not directly. ZFS is a combination of file system and volume manager, you can think of a dataset as something like a partition although more flexible.
You can save zfs volumes on it (that's the thing ProxmoxVE uses for vm images) but also usual directorys (ProxmoxVE uses this for lxcs). You can do a zfs list or df -h in the shell, you should see the disc images of your vms without any mountpoint and the datasets of the lxcs mounted to a directory on your ProxmoxVE host. To use a dataset as storage for ISO, templates etc you would add it as directory.


Jim Salter did a piece about the different concepts behind ZFS you might want to read:
https://arstechnica.com/information...01-understanding-zfs-storage-and-performance/

ZFS also has it's own documentation: https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/man/
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Storage:_ZFS
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/ZFS_on_Linux