Proxmox suggestion

[matahari]

Hi all, I am a newbie with very little knowledge on coding and IT stuffs...
however I am very eager to learn it. I want to set up a proxmox on a Dell Optiplex 7440 AIO (salvaged from neighbor's e-waste). Right now I have upgraded the machine so it has:
- core i5-6500
- 20GB RAM (4GB + new 16GB)
- 1 HDD 2.5" -> 500GB
- 1 NVME m.2 -> 500GB

Right now I only use Ubuntu on bare metal and use it as a file server at home between me and my family (using nextcloud), a vaultwarden server, and pihole.
I'm sure I can install proxmox on my machine, however my question is:
1. I am still not capable understanding the concept of ZFS, NFS, LVM... I read alot but still found no explanation in layman's term. How can I set up that the 500GB HDD be the storage for data and that the files in it can be accessed from and by other services, say I want to change nextcloud to seafile or host both on VMs or CTs?
2. Do I need additional hardware if I want backups for my servers and data?

I guess that's all...
Thank you

 

[Philipp Hufnagl]

Hello

LVM is (simplified explained) a way to partition a hard disk (or further partition a partition). By default Proxmox will use LVM to make 1 Partition for your System and a 1 Partition for your swap and 1 (sizeable) partition for your data. For a file system by default Proxmox uses ext4

ZFS is a file system that is made for configurations where you save the same data redundant on multiple hard disks. For this partitioning it uses a build in feature called zpools

NFS is a storage shared over the network and connected to your computer later on. Its a great way to share data to multiple systems but not a good option for booting from it

LVM vs ZFS:

LVM/ext4 configurations tend to be a bit faster in terms of storage access, however they can not mirror the data redundant to other drives. ZFS will allow you that. You can even start with 1 drive and plug another in later to mirror. However its slower in terms of storage access


Backups:

At least you need a 2nd Storage device where you backup to. How you do your backups is up to you. You can simply backup the hard drive with something like Rescuezilla, you can set up a Proxmox Backup server, you can rent backup space online. You can also make a RAID configuration so your server keeps running when a drive fails. I recommend asking yourself follwing questions:

Is it ok if the server is down a little bit if the storage/motherboard/power supply fails?
Is it ok if some data is lost because your backup is a little older?
Do you still have or need a backup if your house burns down? If your City gets destroyed (for example environmental disaster)?

More security in any direction will probably mean your solution gets more expensive

 

[Admiral Awesome]

NFS is a storage shared over the network and connected to your computer later on. Its a great way to share data to multiple systems but not a good option for booting from it

Please correct me if I'm wrong (or missing something from ver.8) - but you are not able to create NFS directly from Proxmox? You can only do it by running OMV/True Nas/whatever on top of Proxmox and then create NFS share that you can mount.

 

[Maximiliano]

Proxmox VE is a complete operative system on top of Debian, that means that you could, for example, setup samba on top of it. You will have to weight in your resources and needs to decide if you want to set a NFS directly on the Proxmox VE server or in a guest VM.

 

[Admiral Awesome]

Thank you for your reply @Maximiliano. To be honest - I think that it would be a good idea just to add this possibility out of the box for maybe version 8.5?

 

[matahari]

Thank you all for your reply and suggestions. Now I have installed proxmox so that I can learn by doing it. thanks all @Philipp Hufnagl @Maximiliano @Admiral Awesome