noob questions: configuring storage for home server

[monkeyboy]

I recently bought an HP Proliant Microserver (n54l with 8GB RAM, 1 x 120GB SSD and 2 x WD 3TB HDD's) with the intention of learning about linux and virtualization. My intention was to use the SSD for running the operating systems and the HDD's forr storing music / films / photos / personal documents etc, but can't see which storage model would be appropriate. The first thing I'd like to be able to do is set up a media server (Plex) in one of the vm's so I can stream music and films when I'm away from home and further down the line I'd like to look at understanding how to set up web hosting and email servers etc. I installed proxmox to the SSD and have been able to create a couple of VM's without any issues. However, due to my inexperience with linux I'm having a lot of difficulty figuring out how to configure the 2 x 3TB HDD's. I want to have them set up in RAID1 and be accessible to any VM that I may run for now.

Should I mount these HDD's as directories in proxmox and then use mdadm to set up RAID? And then assign them as shared storage to VM's?

Or would it be better to create VM to use as an NFS server, mount the HDD's and configure RAID there, and then provide that VM's IP address to other VM's?

I'm struggling to follow the Storage Model page as I'm only planning on running a small home server with a few VM's so a lot of the stuff about backing up disk images seems to be way beyond what I'd need for now. Sorry for the noob questions. I know this is probably overkill for my requirements but I figured doing this would be a good way to get some experience with linux distros and virtualization!

 

[Mr.Holmes]

Hello monkeyboy

Should I mount these HDD's as directories in proxmox and then use mdadm to set up RAID?

That is the clearest solution. Define it as NFS share.

And then assign them as shared storage to VM's?

Access to the above mentioned share via internal virtual network from each VM. What you need in all VMs is an NFS client. For all linux distros packages are available, for windows see e.g. here: http://sagehacks.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/howto-mount-nfs-shares-under-windows-7/


Of course, there are a lot of other possibilities too. But as far as I understood it´s just for your own usage - I´d keep it simple like this.

Kind regards

Mr.Holmes

 

[monkeyboy]

Thanks Mr. Holmes, I'll give it a go once I'm back at the weekend!

Once I've mounted the HDD's and set up RAID, how do I think go about setting these up as an NFS share on the in the Proxmox host system? I was under the impression that I'd need to set up a dedicated VM as an NFS server, with all other VM's then being clients of this NFS server? Though maybe I've just over-complicated it in my head!

On a separate note - once I've configured the 2 HDD's in RAID1, if I then partitioned one of the HDD's would this be mirrored in the other? Or would it be better to partition them both before setting up RAID?

Many thanks.

 

[udo]

I recently bought an HP Proliant Microserver (n54l with 8GB RAM, 1 x 120GB SSD and 2 x WD 3TB HDD's) with the intention of learning about linux and virtualization. My intention was to use the SSD for running the operating systems and the HDD's forr storing music / films / photos / personal documents etc, but can't see which storage model would be appropriate. The first thing I'd like to be able to do is set up a media server (Plex) in one of the vm's so I can stream music and films when I'm away from home and further down the line I'd like to look at understanding how to set up web hosting and email servers etc. I installed proxmox to the SSD and have been able to create a couple of VM's without any issues. However, due to my inexperience with linux I'm having a lot of difficulty figuring out how to configure the 2 x 3TB HDD's. I want to have them set up in RAID1 and be accessible to any VM that I may run for now.

Hi,
I have an comparable setup at home - one N54L with 3 big disks - but in raid5 on an hw-raidcontroller. the system is on one raid-volume and other raid-volumes are for lvm-storage (kvm) and directory-mounts (openVZ).
The file-server is an openvz ct (due to io-performance).

Should I mount these HDD's as directories in proxmox and then use mdadm to set up RAID? And then assign them as shared storage to VM's?

shared storage?? you have only one server and the storage is local! There isn't shared storage...

Udo

 

[monkeyboy]

Hi,
I have an comparable setup at home - one N54L with 3 big disks - but in raid5 on an hw-raidcontroller. the system is on one raid-volume and other raid-volumes are for lvm-storage (kvm) and directory-mounts (openVZ).
The file-server is an openvz ct (due to io-performance).

So you assigned directory-mounts on the Proxmox system to an openvz container and then use that as the NFS Share / file-server? Also, are there any real benefits of LVM over regular partitioning of hard drives for the kind of basic home system I'm looking to set up?

shared storage?? you have only one server and the storage is local! There isn't shared storage...
Udo

My bad for using incorrect terminology! All I meant is that I want multiple VM's to have read/write access to the same directories on my hard drives!

Thanks