Partitioning for m.2 boot drive

[kappclark]

Going to assemble a new proxmox host soon and am planning to use a 256GB m.2 drive for booting system. Will have 4x1TB HDs for VM's (raid 10 zfs) . Will use ext USB drive for VM backups..

I have read that you should setup the system first, then connect the hds, reboot and configure storage ... does this seem like a reasonable idea ?

Also - I was hoping to use the m.2 drive to store ISO's -.. Do not know if this is acceptable -- .. or should I set aside space on the spinning drives ?

So, basically looking for an acceptable partitioning scheme when system installer launches, given the size of the m.2..

As always, many thanks for any direction you may provide..

 

[wolfgang]

Hi,

I have read that you should setup the system first, then connect the hds, reboot and configure storage ... does this seem like a reasonable idea ?

You can connect all Disks before installation. But you can only configure the root partition at Proxmox VE installation.

Also - I was hoping to use the m.2 drive to store ISO's -.. Do not know if this is acceptable --

Sure you use an M.2 as ISO storage. If it is wast depence on what quality your M.2 Disk is.
M.2 is just the form factor.

So, basically looking for an acceptable partitioning scheme when system installer launches

I would use the M.2 disk with a default partition layout (LVM, ext4). After the installation, I would remove the data LVM partition to extend the root partition.
So you have plenty of space for ISO.

 

[kappclark]

Thank you, Wolfgang. I will follow your advice ...

I also want to be sure I know which physical hd is connected to which sata port...if I connect all 4 (sata 1 - 4), and start up the system, does Debian assign the devices strictly by sata port #, (SATA1 = /dev/sda SATA2=/dev/sdb etc) or is it a timing/random event...I say this because I want to be able to label each physical disk during the build..

 

[LnxBil]

does Debian assign the devices strictly by sata port #, (SATA1 = /dev/sda SATA2=/dev/sdb etc) or is it a timing/random event...I say this because I want to be able to label each physical disk during the build..

If not otherwise configure, Linux finds them as they come. First, the chip is detected and then the order of the connected drives will be as the ports say:

SATA1 empty
SATA2 plugged -> sda
SATA3 empty
SATA4 plugged -> sdb

Going to assemble a new proxmox host soon and am planning to use a 256GB m.2 drive for booting system.

Keep in mind that you will have a system that is unbootable if the wrong disk in your system fails, the M.2. If you don't want that, install PVE on the spinners or add another SSD to accompany the M.2 into a RAID1.

 

[kappclark]

THX for reply - isn;t there a way to backup the proxmox that is on the m.2 ? Or are you saying if I do the raid10 and put pve on the spinners, if 1 drive fails, I still have a working system with time to replace the single failed drive ..and I know raid is not a backup solution !

The disaster recovery risk does seem higher with the m.2 as the boot drive ...

but in my little world, it doesn't matter at this point, because the new MSI AM4 board was DOA on its maiden voyage ! -- colossal waste of time trying to get the hw to operate...after many builds in the past, this is the first time a MB has not worked on first launch...pulled PSU from working system, replaced...still nothing ...even tried jumping the start pins on the MB with flathead screwdriver ... , but no joy...RMA'ing the MSI motherboard...real disappointment but the tech support said the board needs to go back, so waiting for email back w/RMA info..

Sorry for MSI rant ..

 

[LnxBil]

Or are you saying if I do the raid10 and put pve on the spinners, if 1 drive fails, I still have a working system with time to replace the single failed drive

Yeah, that is the power of RAID :-D

If you install via PVE, there will be a small boot partition on the first two drives that have the bootloader/EFI on board and PVE will synchronise them after each update so that one of those two disks fail, you will be able to boot your system. If the M.2 is a good SSD, you can still configure SLOG and SWAP on it (after installing zram, so that the "real" swap is only a second layer).