Proxmox vs Win Server / HyperV 2019

[Binary Bandit]

Hi All,

I could use some advice / pointing in the correct direction for a potential new project using Proxmox.

We've had great success running a 3 node cluster with Proxmox and Ceph (in a DC) for more than a year now and are starting to think about using this to replace HyperV at a client's site.

Two questions have come up.

1) How do we confirm hardware comparability? We'll be using a new Dell T440. I see some threads on this forum where folks seem to have success but is there a best practice way to do this?

2) Assuming that we get past the hardware comparability issue, what controller do we use for the storage? The initial thought is to go after a Perc h730p with 2GB of write back cache. Forum posts point to issues with ZFS and this configuration though. Do we need to go after the HBA 330? We definitely want the ability to create VM snapshots. Does this mandate ZFS?

thanks in advance for the feedback,

James

 

[aaron]

1) How do we confirm hardware comparability? We'll be using a new Dell T440. I see some threads on this forum where folks seem to have success but is there a best practice way to do this?

The PVE Kernel is based on the Ubuntu Kernel, currently 5.4 from Ubuntu 20.04. If the hardware is compatible with that Ubuntu version it should work with PVE as well.

2) Assuming that we get past the hardware comparability issue, what controller do we use for the storage? The initial thought is to go after a Perc h730p with 2GB of write back cache. Forum posts point to issues with ZFS and this configuration though. Do we need to go after the HBA 330? We definitely want the ability to create VM snapshots. Does this mandate ZFS?

ZFS has other features beside snapshots. Just the fact that it checksums everything and knows when a bit on one of the disks flipped and repairs it as long as there is a good copy on another disk is worth a lot. Should you ever intend to use the replication feature you will need to use ZFS.

The one thing though is that ZFS, like Ceph, likes access to the disks as raw as possible. The ideal way to do this is with simple SATA controllers or HBA controllers in IT mode. It can work with RAID controllers if they allow passing through disks directly without interfering or using their own caches.

ZFS is not the only storage that can do snapshots. See https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#_storage_types for a full list. LVM-Thin and a directory storage with qcow2 files can do snapshots as well.

 

[Binary Bandit]

@aaron, thank you for replying.

I found this today:
https://certification.ubuntu.com/server/models?query=&vendors=Dell+EMC&release=20.04+LTS
to help with certified hardware.

 

[apoc]

The H730 does support JBOD mode. So you should be fine running ZFS or Ceph on top of it. Just make sure to enable it in the RAID controller settings.
HTH