Question about choosing Proxmox (API + Shared storage)

[kedare]

Hello.
We are in the process of rebuilding our virtualization infrastructure to 4 servers and a SAN shared storage (iSCSI over 10Gbps) but we are not sure of what to use, we are hesitating between Hyper-V (Without SCCM) or Proxmox VE.
We will have a mix of Windows and Linux virtual machines (mostly Linux)

One thing we want to implement on this system is the ability to automatically provision a full infrastructure on demand (Typically a developer want to test a new feature or some changes and need a new infrastructure to be provisioned, new backend VM, reverse proxies, etc...), it looks like Proxmox is very capable of that with the REST API, Hyper-V looks more limited on that
The thing not very clear is how Proxmox manage shared volumes? From what I have read we have to use LVM mapping and it will miss some features like snapshots? Is the automated backup feature still available? Are there any other big limitations ? For example can we increase the size of volumes without issues ? What would you recommend?

Thanks

 

[Alwin]

The thing not very clear is how Proxmox manage shared volumes? From what I have read we have to use LVM mapping and it will miss some features like snapshots?

Correct. While you could do snapshots with LVM (don't mix it with LVM-thin), the volume would need to go offline and a full copy would be made. If you depend on snapshots, then you can reside to local storage (zfs/lvm) or use Ceph (hyper-converged on PVE). A third way would be to use the functionality from the SAN and pass through the LUN to the VM directly, instead of using LVM on top. This means more administrativ work, as PVE can't create new disks, but with the advantage of snapshots from the SAN.

Is the automated backup feature still available?

Yes, you can still do backups, they are done through qemu. This way the backup is storage agnostic.

Are there any other big limitations ?

Not sure how to answer this, but if the SAN supports the built-in Linux iSCSI, it should work.

For example can we increase the size of volumes without issues ?

The LV can be increased.

What would you recommend?

OFC, Proxmox VE.