Proxmox Deployment – Advice Needed (DL380 Gen10, ZFS Pools, PBS, Disk Strategy, Quorum, No Ceph)

[Jolof_IT]

Hello everyone,
I’m currently working on building a hybrid virtualization environment using Proxmox for internal tooling and Hyper-V for production workloads. I’d love to get the community’s advice on ZFS best practices, disk setup, quorum, and PBS architecture, especially given the hardware I already own.

​

I manage IT for a mid-sized retail business with multiple remote shops and a central HQ.


At HQ, I currently have:

• 4 × HPE DL380 Gen10 servers (each with 2× Xeon Gold 6138, 64–128 GB RAM, 8-bay 2.5" backplane)
• Each came with 4 × 2.4 TB 10K SAS HDDs
• I also have a few Dell R610/R620 servers available
• Networking: planning for 10GbE via Intel X520-DA2 connected to a MikroTik CRS317 and later to a Cisco C9200L

​

• Hyper-V (on 2x DL380s): for critical VMs – POS application servers, SAGE, AD/DNS, file servers.
  
  • I got cheap Windows Datacenter licenses so this stack is safe and well-supported internally.
• Proxmox VE (on the remaining 2x DL380s): for SOC & internal tooling
  
  • VMs include: Zabbix, GLPI, Wazuh, Velociraptor, Grafana, test containers.
  • Nothing critical — just value-added services.

​

Each Proxmox node will have:

​

I’m hesitating between the following:

• 2 × Micron 5300 PRO 480 GB SATA (1 DWPD) preferred for endurance and cost
• 2 × HPE 480 GB SAS RI (P04516-B21) – SAS dual-port, more expensive
• 2 × HPE SATA Read Intensive (P18424-B21) – If I must go NVMe (not preferred)

I don’t care about OEM compliance — I just want long-lasting, reliable disks.

​

I want to avoid putting ZFS pools behind the SmartArray.

• Planning to use a LSI 9300-8i (IT Mode) HBA for disk passthrough.
• Still unsure about disk type — I want to avoid NVMe unless really necessary due to:
  
  • Backplane/PCIe complexity
  • Cost and compatibility concerns

Options I’m considering:


If I go NVMe (U.2):

• 4 × Micron 7450 PRO 1.92 TB (U.2 NVMe, 1 DWPD)
  
  • Layout: 2 mirrors (RAID10 ZFS) → ~3.8 TB usable

If I stay with SAS SSD (preferred):

• 4 × HPE 1.92 TB SAS RI (P07922-B21)
  
  • Same layout: 2 × ZFS mirrors

Questions:

• Between Micron NVMe vs HPE SAS SSD, what’s more reliable and manageable under Proxmox ZFS?
• Are Micron 7450/5300 known to work well on DL380 Gen10 + ZFS?
• Is ZFS on SAS SSDs a solid long-term solution in Proxmox?

​

• I plan to reuse 2–3 x 2.4 TB SAS HDDs per node for:
  
  • Logging / long retention data
  • Passthrough to PBS or NAS VM (ZFS RAIDZ2 maybe)
  • Scratch disks

---

​

I’ll be clustering the 2 Proxmox nodes (the Hyper-V ones are separate).


I know 2-node clusters require a QDevice for quorum.


Questions:

• What’s the best option? Raspberry Pi? Intel NUC?
• Where should the QDevice ideally be placed (separate VLAN? same switch?)?
• Can a VM on another host (e.g., Hyper-V) work as a QDevice?

​

I still haven’t decided where to place PBS.


Options I’m considering:

1. As a VM on one of the Proxmox nodes
2. As a standalone server on a spare R610 or R620

What’s safer and more practical?

• I’m leaning toward PBS on separate hardware to avoid recovery dependency.
• But a VM is easier to manage and backup internally.

Any pros/cons for long-term setups?

​

I’m aiming for a setup that is:

• Stable and clean (no Ceph, no shared SAN)
• ZFS-based, well-tuned for VM storage
• Low-maintenance and easy to recover
• Avoiding NVMe unless truly necessary
• Long lifespan disks (enterprise SSDs, high DWPD)
• Simple 2-node clustering with proper quorum

​

• Which disks would you choose in my situation?
• Best practices for ZFS pool layout and tuning in a light workload setup?
• Suggestions on boot disk strategy and HBA passthrough reliability?
• Where/how to deploy PBS for long-term stability?
• Tips on configuring a quorum device in a hybrid Proxmox/Hyper-V network?

---

Thanks in advance! I’ve done a lot of reading, but would really appreciate feedback based on your real-world experience with DL380 Gen10, ZFS tuning, and Proxmox setups.