Proxmox/pfSense storage setup questions for redundancy

[gijobin]

Hello! I currently have two SSD's that I can use for Proxmox/pfSense (can buy more if necessary). I would like to have redundancy for Proxmox and the pfSense VM.

Would it be best to do one of the following:

• Set Proxmox target disk as ZFS Raid 1, then set the pfSense VM as ufs2. In this setup, would it mean that pfSense would run in its own volume (local-lvm) on top of the ZFS Raid1 setup? Wondering the best way to back up the VM in this scenario in case it dies.
  
  OR
  
  
• Use one SSD as ext4 for Proxmox target disk and put pfSense VM on ufs2 storage on top of that. In this case there is no redundancy, and I would probably have to back up the config file and clone the VM somewhere.

Happy to hear any feedback or suggestions - thank you in advance!

 

[wolfgang]

Hi,

A backup does not replace Raid1, and a Raid 1 does not replace a backup in any other way.
These two different use cases.
A backup is mainly focused on saving/restore data.
A RAID1 serves primarily to maintain the service and secondly to ensure data protection.

So I would use a ZFS mirror with external backups.

 

[gijobin]

Hi,

A backup does not replace Raid1, and a Raid 1 does not replace a backup in any other way.
These two different use cases.
A backup is mainly focused on saving/restore data.
A RAID1 serves primarily to maintain the service and secondly to ensure data protection.

So I would use a ZFS mirror with external backups.

Hi @wolfgang - thank you for your help! I installed Proxmox on root on ZFS as RAID1 in UEFI mode. When rebooting I'm brought into the systemd-boot bootloader. The problem is, I'm stuck there and receive the following image here.

I disabled UEFI boot option in the BIOS and was able to get into the GRUB boot menu and command line login (where I'm told to go to my Proxmox IPort for GUI access. Is there a reason why it's not bringing me to the same login page upon landing at systemd-boot menu?

 

[wolfgang]

I guess you installed PVE in Bios mode?
You have to install PVE when the Bios is set in UEFI and choose the UEFI install.

 

[gijobin]

I guess you installed PVE in Bios mode?
You have to install PVE when the Bios is set in UEFI and choose the UEFI install.

Weird thing is I installed Proxmox in UEFI mode (Version 6.2), have UEFI mode in BIOS and noticed the "No root device specified. Boot arguments must include a root= parameter".

I have this gallery which shows the zpool (called rpool with mirror-0 vdev and 2 physical SSD's), lsmod to verify zfs module is in kernel, and zfs list to list all the filesystems available.

Are there any other commands I should try to run?