New configuration help

[JNL]

Hello, total noob here and still i'm doing some research before going out to buy a new pc that is going to be using proxmox for:

A VM Windows 7 or 8 + SQL server with a 50GB database and 2 simultaneous users max.
&
A Ubuntu VM for OpenVPN and Samba.
or
2 Containers for TurnKey OpenVPN and TurnKey FileServer templates.

I found server hardware too expensive in Argentina (where i live) and sadly this build is mission critical for a small customer of mine...

HW:
4x Western Digital RED (RAID 10 onboard controller)
Intel I5-4690 3.50ghz
2x Corsair Value 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz
Mother Asus Sabertooth Z97-a (http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97AUSB_31/specifications/)
PSU Seasonic S12ii 520w

This HW was completely choosen arround the Asus Sabertooth Z97-a just becouse i found it listed here
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Mainboards
I can get a lot more value of a 1151 Skylake build with Z170 or H170 if someone has tested it with no problems with Proxmox ve 4.2 im scared of driver issues...

I'm totally open for any kind of advice, in the hardware specs,configuration and or what to install in order to provide SQL server, OpenVPN and Samba in the more stable configuration.

Plan c is to install ubuntu + VirtualBox and a windows VM as it is running right now...

Thx in advance for any advice and to "the team" for making this great software!

 

[udo]

...
HW:
4x Western Digital RED (RAID 10 onboard controller)
...

Hi,
that's an fake raid only!

Choose an real (fast) raid-controller (like areca), or perhaps use ZFS... but for ZFS you need more RAM and you should test it before (not fast enough on my tested hardware for me).

Udo

 

[JNL]

I don't call it fake... but still is better than no RAID imo... maybe im wrong?

 

[JNL]

so.. no one using Skylake+PMVE? i guess im better using older more expensive HW instead...

 

[proxtest]

Think about much more Ram (32+) and Softraid. I dont see it working with 2 x Windows AND MS SQL Server!

 

[JNL]

The config needs to run only one Windows VM with a small SQL DB and a Linux container/VM with OpenVPN and samba, i was thinking about using 2 containers for those last 2 services, Turnkey OpenVPN and Turnkey FileShare (Webmin).
Currently i have this running in an gen 6 proliant dl360 with 8G of ram and Raid 5, but with Ubuntu+VirtualBOX and no VirtIO drivers, so anything seems like an upgrade.

When you said Softraid you mean ZFS? and with that, should i avoid the chipset RAID 10 option? or can zfs and that be used together? i have almost 0 knowledge about ZFS, i only know FreeNAS is using it and with great reviews.

 

[udo]

The config needs to run only one Windows VM with a small SQL DB and a Linux container/VM with OpenVPN and samba, i was thinking about using 2 containers for those last 2 services, Turnkey OpenVPN and Turnkey FileShare (Webmin).
Currently i have this running in an gen 6 proliant dl360 with 8G of ram and Raid 5, but with Ubuntu+VirtualBOX and no VirtIO drivers, so anything seems like an upgrade.

Hi,
for virtualisation is IO and RAM normaly the first bottleneck...

When you said Softraid you mean ZFS? and with that, should i avoid the chipset RAID 10 option? or can zfs and that be used together?

I guess you don't see your "raid" with proxmox ve! Because it's not an Raid! I think the linux will show the single disks...

If you want software raid, go for zfs - because it's supported (and use enough ram). ZFS in combination with your raid is not an good solution - if your MB die, and you connect the disks to another motherboard you are perhaps in trouble... with plain zfs-disk not.

An remark about your MB: the normal server config use ecc-ram, which don't work with your MB... I guess that's the reason why no other people have experiences with that board (but it's should work).

Udo

 

[JNL]

In case the mother dies if i get the same as a replacement, i would be able to see the discs with no problem?
In this config im thinking about giving 8GB of RAM to the windows+SQL VM, 4 to the Linux and leave 4 for the host, in case i use ZFS, would this work? (4x2TB disks with at least 1 spare and at least 2x write read speed is what i need.) I readed somewhere that ZFS needs a lot of RAM.

 

[udo]

In case the mother dies if i get the same as a replacement, i would be able to see the discs with no problem?

Hi,
perhaps... but softwareraids are often not very smart... But again, I guess you can't see the softwareraid on your linux (but if you use it in your bios, it's perhaps pretend the disk to be reconised on an normal sata-controller (because the first block is used for the bios-raid...).

In this config im thinking about giving 8GB of RAM to the windows+SQL VM, 4 to the Linux and leave 4 for the host, in case i use ZFS, would this work? (4x2TB disks with at least 1 spare and at least 2x write read speed is what i need.) I readed somewhere that ZFS needs a lot of RAM.

4GB for ZFS sound not enough for me, but I'm no ZFS-expert (I have tried it two times and the performance was not good enough for me).
With 4 disks you don't get 2*write speed with an spare...

Udo

 

[JNL]

as far as i know, with normal raid 10 you get the 2*write speed an spare, and ZFS supports raid 10, but i coudnt find nothing about how this behaves in ZFS, can someone throw some light about this in here? I very little exp in hdd configurations.

 

[udo]

as far as i know, with normal raid 10 you get the 2*write speed an spare, and ZFS supports raid 10, but i coudnt find nothing about how this behaves in ZFS, can someone throw some light about this in here? I very little exp in hdd configurations.

Hi,
not realy spare but redundancy...
With raid 10 you have an raid-0 (fast, striped, no redundancy) with another raid-0 as redundance (raid-1). All 4 disks are in use - so this are not real spare disks (of course can fail up to 2 disks - if it's the "right" ones).
If you define another disk as spare disk (e.g. 5 disks) you have an real spare disk which will used if one of the four raid-disks fail.

Udo

 

[JNL]

That is what i think i need, does any of the ZFS configurations give the same benefits with ~50% of the disc space available as in RAID 10? no need for a spare as udo clarified, but with at least 1 redundant drive.

 

[JNL]

After the feedback I'm looking into 32 GB instead of 16GB in the host and ZFS with RAID 10 (from the PMVE Install menu). Someone recommended me to use ZFS RAIDZ instead, but afaik it would perform slower on writes and would be heavier for the system overall, so why should i consider it?

Also, any advice into what is best practice after doing a setup like this?
Thx again and in advance.