Re: New Mini-itx Proxmox Build
Hi Ivan,
well a few, if not many, things worry me.
1. Don't u ever use USB! No, the "home server" argument isn't one, at all! Do you want to rebuild from backups (which doesn't always work smoothly) in your sparetime, weekends? No you don't. USB thumb drives are the worst crap (silicon wise, firmware wise, chipset wise). They're affected by temperature very much, they often just die after a powerloss, they phantom write, they bitflip and the list goes on...
I can elaborate two hours on that topic, but I hope you get the point.
2. Why RAID? Why not just use one SSD as a boot medium, which also serves as a VM/container medium. Think of these commands at proxmox setup:
linux ext4 maxroot=6 swapsize=4
Swap needs to be created, and you definitely don't want it on spinning rust (HDD). You can specify how much the root partition allocates and the rest goes to your local storage lvm2.
3. Don't u ever save money on a PSU! I see this all the time, every day, esp. with not so experienced home users. And I don't get it, every day. People are so accustomed to brand names when it comes to HDDs/SSDs, Mainboards, RAM. But the most important component (I mean it) is the PSU. Because if the PSU is of bad quality, it could f*** up your whole build. It could even cause data loss you don't recognize until it's too late (think of backups and restore).
To me, the priority goes like this: PSU ---> RAM (ECC) ---> normal RAM ---> mainboard (redundant NICs, good BIOS, brands like Supermicro) ---> HDD (Enterprise) ---> HDD (normal) ---> rest is details mostly.
But I realize we have to cut somewhere since it's your personal budget:
- Use normal RAM, since for ECC you need a compatible (server) mainboard and compatible CPU (XEON is).
- Use a properly sized SSD for boot + local lvm as mentioned above
- Use one good HDD (Western Digital Velociraptor preferred or any RAID WD) and use a backup strategy
- Do not use Hardware RAID. The mobo's RAID is most likely a fakeraid, meaning it's sending the commands to the CPU instead of using a dedicated processor for the calculation. Well, in your RAID 1 case it doesn't cause measurable CPU load. But what if your mainboard dies? Believe me, I've been there a few times: The RAID dies too! If you absolutely must use RAID at some point, build a software RAID mirror with mdadm, mount it as a directory and be happy for the next ten migrations.
- Quality PSU!
- Intel NIC preferred, avoid Realtek if you can. Broadcom is also o.k.
And did I mention a backup strategy? I want to elaborate on the "home" argument a bit since I don't know you. Home users often make these conceptional mistakes you're likely about to run into, saving money on the wrong end. I then ask them: Do you want to be happy in your sparetime or do you want to live through the nightmares of rebuilding/restoring, finding the correct snapshot, finding out the backups were broken for weeks due to bad RAM, bad blocks on HDD, PSUs and so forth? No you don't! You want to enjoy your sparetime / project / learning.
Cheers,
Jo
Hi Ivan,
well a few, if not many, things worry me.
1. Don't u ever use USB! No, the "home server" argument isn't one, at all! Do you want to rebuild from backups (which doesn't always work smoothly) in your sparetime, weekends? No you don't. USB thumb drives are the worst crap (silicon wise, firmware wise, chipset wise). They're affected by temperature very much, they often just die after a powerloss, they phantom write, they bitflip and the list goes on...
I can elaborate two hours on that topic, but I hope you get the point.
2. Why RAID? Why not just use one SSD as a boot medium, which also serves as a VM/container medium. Think of these commands at proxmox setup:
linux ext4 maxroot=6 swapsize=4
Swap needs to be created, and you definitely don't want it on spinning rust (HDD). You can specify how much the root partition allocates and the rest goes to your local storage lvm2.
3. Don't u ever save money on a PSU! I see this all the time, every day, esp. with not so experienced home users. And I don't get it, every day. People are so accustomed to brand names when it comes to HDDs/SSDs, Mainboards, RAM. But the most important component (I mean it) is the PSU. Because if the PSU is of bad quality, it could f*** up your whole build. It could even cause data loss you don't recognize until it's too late (think of backups and restore).
To me, the priority goes like this: PSU ---> RAM (ECC) ---> normal RAM ---> mainboard (redundant NICs, good BIOS, brands like Supermicro) ---> HDD (Enterprise) ---> HDD (normal) ---> rest is details mostly.
But I realize we have to cut somewhere since it's your personal budget:
- Use normal RAM, since for ECC you need a compatible (server) mainboard and compatible CPU (XEON is).
- Use a properly sized SSD for boot + local lvm as mentioned above
- Use one good HDD (Western Digital Velociraptor preferred or any RAID WD) and use a backup strategy
- Do not use Hardware RAID. The mobo's RAID is most likely a fakeraid, meaning it's sending the commands to the CPU instead of using a dedicated processor for the calculation. Well, in your RAID 1 case it doesn't cause measurable CPU load. But what if your mainboard dies? Believe me, I've been there a few times: The RAID dies too! If you absolutely must use RAID at some point, build a software RAID mirror with mdadm, mount it as a directory and be happy for the next ten migrations.
- Quality PSU!
- Intel NIC preferred, avoid Realtek if you can. Broadcom is also o.k.
And did I mention a backup strategy? I want to elaborate on the "home" argument a bit since I don't know you. Home users often make these conceptional mistakes you're likely about to run into, saving money on the wrong end. I then ask them: Do you want to be happy in your sparetime or do you want to live through the nightmares of rebuilding/restoring, finding the correct snapshot, finding out the backups were broken for weeks due to bad RAM, bad blocks on HDD, PSUs and so forth? No you don't! You want to enjoy your sparetime / project / learning.
Cheers,
Jo
.