Only 2x SATA3 Ports: Options?

[eduncan911]

So one of my servers has a limitation of only 2 SATA ports (it's a stripped down Supermicro mobo). I may end up buying 2 more of these servers as well.

What is the optimum way to setup Proxmox for:

* Only 2 SSDs, or maybe a single SSD and an HDD
* Storage and OS for Proxmox
* Possibly HA (w/Ceph), or at least the ability to move things around

I would prefer to use mdadm and setup a raid0 or raid1, with two partitions. I'm thinking to do that, I would install Ubuntu and Proxmox ontop.

I would prefer to use a large HDD if at all possible for storage, and a tiny SSD for boot. Another possibility is to dedicate the SSD as an LVM caching disk, and boot from the HDD as well as serving storage from it (requiring an Ubuntu-first install, partitioning, and then Proxmox install - I'm guessing). Disk speed is not critical for these apps.

Is there a way to do these things from the Proxmox installation ISO? I didn't see it when testing in Virtualbox. I would prefer minimizing the overall footprint of the host OS.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Proxmox does not officially supports mdraid, rather try an actually safe approach like ZFS or BTRFS.

Proxmox does not supports to be installed on Ubuntu. Its prefered to use the ISO, and as alternative one can install it on the matching Debian version - but Ubuntu is not supported and you may run into various issues and dependency mismatches.

 

[eduncan911]

Sorry, I meant Debian not Ubuntu.

The point I was asking was, is it ok to setup Debian and build out my own partitions?

"Proxmox does not officially support mdraid." This is an interesting statement, and playing with the cluster I setup in virtualbox I see some LVM support.

Where can I read more about how Proxmox partitions and handles the underlying disk, and/or existing partitions?

I mean, I could throw in an 4TB HDD and an SSD as an LVM cache drive into a single LVM container, that would be exposed to Proxmox.

Maybe I am mis-understanding how Proxmox wants to control LVM?

 

[t.lamprecht]

The point I was asking was, is it ok to setup Debian and build out my own partitions?

Debian is fine https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Buster

Where can I read more about how Proxmox partitions and handles the underlying disk, and/or existing partitions?

With not support we rather mean: we heavily advise against using a soft-raid solution with zero data/bitrot checks and is often a trap as it seems so cheap/simple to do, but the cost is actually quite high once you run into trouble, and the chance that one does sooner or later is just too high to not take that into account.
You can use it, if you want it, and there are definitively some people doing that with Proxmox VE, so if you know the risks and are experienced with md-raid and do data consistency checks on another level, sure go for it.

Maybe I am mis-understanding how Proxmox wants to control LVM?

No, that works quite fine, as said it not a technical or design limitation.