Proxmox VE production cluster with HPE MSA 2072 FC SAN — compatibility and multipath considerations

[Piet De Roeck]

Hello everyone,

We are evaluating a three-node Proxmox VE cluster to replace an existing VMware environment.

Proposed hardware:

• 3 × HPE ProLiant DL320 Gen12, Xeon 6515P, 256 GB RAM
• HPE SN1620E dual-port 32Gb Fibre Channel HBA per host
• HPE MSA 2072 with dual 32Gb FC controllers
• Redundant direct-attached FC connections, without SAN switches
• Shared LVM with Linux dm-multipath/ALUA
• HA and live migration for predominantly Windows Server workloads

We understand that Proxmox VE supports Fibre Channel SAN storage with shared LVM and Linux multipathing.

Before committing to production, we would appreciate technical feedback on:

1. Has anyone successfully deployed Proxmox VE with an HPE MSA 2070/2072 and similar FC HBAs?
2. Are there any known driver, kernel, firmware or multipath compatibility concerns?
3. What would be the recommended multipath/ALUA configuration for this topology?
4. Are there any particular HA, failover, live migration or snapshot limitations we should consider?

We are particularly interested in operational experience and any known issues with this architecture.

Thank you for your insights.

 

[angry_beaver]

Hi,
I deployed 3 HP gen 10 with HP SAN 1040 and HP SAN 2050
You need configure multipath (like this https://medium.com/@mts.saygin/proxmox-9-how-to-add-define-fc-luns-with-lvm-1727b0d74463)

 

[LnxBil]

What would be the recommended multipath/ALUA configuration for this topology?

Ask the storage vendor, only he can give you that information. If it's not available use Ubuntu or RHEL suggestions or any other Linux suggestion if that's also not available.

Are there any particular HA, failover, live migration or snapshot limitations we should consider?

You will not have snapshots if you're not also using the new and AFAIK still technology preview volume chains.
You will have however HA, failover and live migration and it is battle proved for over a decade.

We are particularly interested in operational experience and any known issues with this architecture.

FC on Linux is a nobrainer. I've been using it for decades with various HBAs, storage vendors and SAN boxed without any problem. FC is easy and just works. Plug in the storage vendor supplied options and it will run until the boxes retire.