Proxmox server planning

[Mtobeery]

Hello , this is my first thread here , I did look around and didnt find anything related to hardware here ,

currently i have a data center with 27 physical running servers , and most of it are dual or quad core , running on DDr2 memory ( 15 years old ).

Im planning to build 1 server , install Proxmox and transfer all these servers.


I found this deal on ebay :
https://www.ebay.com/itm/126597808026

I can create up to 32 Virtual machine , 4 Cores , 16 GB Memory Each

now I would like to add 1 TB storage for each VMware , I would love to have my files on NVme Gen5 with Raid setup.

here some questions :

- what is the most secure , less fail , storage setup that is compatible with Proxmox.
- in case I bought 2 servers for backup , where do we store the VMs ?

im open for suggestions ,

thank you for your time .

 

[Daniel_Dog]

For storage options, it really depends on your setup and use case.
Given how old the current system are, I am assuming that your also new to Proxmox VE itself. (Since I guessing they also don't run Proxmox VE)
Proxmox VE has in general 3 options: just a disk, RAID and ZFS.

just a disk is as it already just 1 disk that you install Proxmox VE on with no redundancy.
RAID required a RAID card and allows you to combine multiple disks for redundancy.
ZFS is kinda like RAID but does not require a RAID card to do so. But since it does not use a RAID card it does use a bit of CPU and RAM.

Personally I always recommend to have at least a RAID/ZFS setup so that you can have disk fail without data loss.
Since Proxmox VE writes a lot of data (mostly logs) to the disks and possibly a lot of writes from your VMs it is really recommended to have enterprise disk or at least disks with a high TBW rating.

In my setup I use 6x 2TB SSDs on my production server. This is due to me wanting and needing to have redundancy in case a disk fails.
I have the disks configured the following ways and for the following reasons:

2x 2TB SSDs for Proxmox VE itself and my templates.
Then I create a ZFS RAID 0 via the Proxmox VE ISO installer so that I can have a 1 disk failure before I lose data and by extention Proxmox VE itself. (And since Proxmox VE writes a lot of log data to disk it is something to take into a count if you plan on using it long term.)
The disk size in my setup is total overkill since Proxmox VE does not need that much storage (64 to 256GB is in most case enough) if you have other disks for VMs and backups. (Since I prefere to have Proxmox VE on its own ZFS mirror and only have a couple of templates on it to prevent an accidental full storage situation on the Proxmox VE OS disk since Proxmox VE cannot function without available disk space.)

2x 2TB SSDs for VM disk (and Containers if you use that).
Then I create a ZFS mirror via the Proxmox VE GUI so that I can have a 1 disk failure before I lose data.
This is the storage where all my VM data is stored.

2x 2TB SSDs for backups.
I personally also use ZFS mirror here but do note that backups require a directory storage so ZFS is possible but not out-of-the-box and requires custom configuration for Proxmox VE itself. (I used this article to configure it but note that this is not supported by Proxmox VE itself.)

So my Proxmox VE setup is divided in 3 parts:
The Proxmox VE OS disk.
VM data disk.
backups disk.

 

[Mtobeery]

thank you for your response ,

How about this , I buy 2 servers for the VMs , another storage server for storage only (NVMe Gen 5 ) , i can install 100 GBe connection between all devices.

 

[Daniel_Dog]

On Proxmox VE it is REALLY IMPORTANT to have VM backups.
This is because Proxmox VE stores the VM configuration on the Proxmox VE OS disk.
If something happens to Proxmox VE and you do not have a VM backup then there is no way to restore the VM. (Since the only thing you have is the VM disk and nothing else.)

For backups there are 2 ways to do it:

Use the build-in backup function and store the backup files on a storage location. (And if you know how to make a script you have the option to also auto backup to a external location but there is no build-in option to do so.)

Use Proxmox Backup server.
This is a really good option if you plan on storing the VMs backup externally. (For exemple on a external VPS with a good amount of storage.)
It is however not recommened to do this when you only plan on running Proxmox Backup server as a VM on the host.
This is due to the fact that for restoring a VM it requires a working Proxmox VE with a working Proxmox Backup server VM. (So if something happens to Proxmox VE you still have no backups since there is no way to restore them.)

 

[Mtobeery]

what if on the storage server , I use the NVMe for VMs , and install HDDs for backup

I also have unlimited storage on google

 

[Daniel_Dog]

Using HDDs for backups is totally fine. (And possibly more cost effective.)
It will take longer to do the backups since it takes longer to write the backup file to a HDD disk but there is no reason to use SSDs for backup storage unless you have a use case where backup completion time matters.

 

[Mtobeery]

most of my VMs are windows server 2019 , do i ned TPM ? is there anything else (hardware) i need for a special feature in proxmix ?

 

[Daniel_Dog]

No not really.
Things like TPM are handled via Proxmox VE/Software.
In proxmox VE you use a virtual TPM for each VM that requires a TPM. (But do note that Virtual TPM are not real TPM)

W

Thread 'Is TPM in proxmox VE safe enough?'

Apr 4, 2023

Hello,
I want to install windows system in the virtual machine and activate bitlocker encryption.
If my computer is stolen, can the thief access the files in my windows VM?
I know the physical TPM module is safe enough, but is the virtual TPM module in proxmox VE safe enough?

• why-be-banned
• Replies: 1
• Forum: Proxmox VE: Installation and configuration

 

[Daniel_Dog]

And for your servers I would just see if you can get everything on 1 server at first and possibly add a second server if you find out you need more performance then a single server can give you.
The less servers you have, the less hardware problem and OS problems you can possibly have and (in my opinion) the easier to work with it is.

For backups, having multiple servers could have benefits and drawbacks at the same time.
It just really depends on your tolerance level of the possibly of losing data and the cost for storing and managing the backups.

 

[Mtobeery]

I can get everything on One server , the 2nd one is backup , we use redundant setup for everything .

if I built the server ( im good at it ) , is it gonna be cheaper ?

 

[Daniel_Dog]

I think that building you own servers/hosts is going to be cheaper then using prebuilds.
But this also depends on your country as parts are not the same price from country to country.

And also if you know how to build your own servers then it also allows you to select the parts yourself. (And thus giving you more choices.)
But prebuilds can also be relatively cheap depending on the hardware you need and you have a higher chance to have the same hardware and thus allow you to use the parts between the servers in case something breaks.