New to Proxmox—Can't Create Snapshots on ZFS RAIDZ-2 Storage

[klopasch]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to Proxmox and currently trying to set up a Windows 11 VM. My setup includes a RAIDZ-2 pool with 5 disks, which I understand is using ZFS.

In Proxmox, I created some directories in storage that point to directories on the RAIDZ pool. However, when I try to create a Windows 11 VM using raw disk files stored in those directories, I can't create snapshots.

Interestingly:

• If I create the VM on the local-zfs storage, snapshots work fine.
• But if I create another ZFS dataset on the RAIDZ pool and then create a VM there, I can't take snapshots either.

I'm feeling a bit lost here—what am I missing?

What is the best way to set up a Windows VM with raw disk files while maintaining the ability to take snapshots?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[mariol]

Hello @klopasch please post a bit more information for me:

cat /etc/pve/storage.cfg

pvesm status

zpool list

zpool status

In Proxmox, I created some directories in storage that point to directories on the RAIDZ pool. However, when I try to create a Windows 11 VM using raw disk files stored in those directories, I can't create snapshots.

This behavior is correct. To create snapshots in a directory storage, the format must be QCOW2. But on ZFS, you should always use ZFS as VM storage [1]. For easier administration, I would recommend not creating the VM store directly on the ZFS pool, but creating a ZFS dataset for it. For example:

zfs create <poolname>/VM-Store

[1] https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#storage_zfspool