Question on having a m.2 drive for boot

[scopedberg]

Afternoon everyone, so I have a question which is if it’s alright to install the base proxmox OS and node on a m.2 SATA SSD Won’t be running anything heavy just some home stuff.) I will use an enterprise grade SATA drive for the VMs but for the main OS I plan on getting a cheap 128gb m.2 ssd or maybe a bit larger. Would it be ideal to have it run like that? And if so which SATA M.2 should I buy? I seen online that Micron, Samsung etc.. thanks. The computer supports a 2.5 SATA drive and a SATA M.2. So I plan on using the m.2 for boot

 

[UdoB]

Would it be ideal to have it run like that?

Ideal? No!

Acceptable? Maybe! It always depends on your expectations!

I have some nodes (in a cluster) which boots from a single device. (Because of the restrictions of a Mini-PC in a $Homelab.) But the hosted VMs live on a redundant one.

What do you require? What do you on expect when (not: if!) a device (be it a disk or a computer!) fails? It is completely up to you...

The computer supports a 2.5 SATA drive and a SATA M.2.

You can build a (sub-optimal, but working!) mirrored ZFS pool during installation with this...

Of course: ymmv! But personlly I am in team ZFS ;-)

 

[scopedberg]

Ideal? No!

Acceptable? Maybe! It always depends on your expectations!

I have some nodes (in a cluster) which boots from a single device. (Because of the restrictions of a Mini-PC in a $Homelab.) But the hosted VMs live on a redundant one.

What do you require? What do you on expect when (not: if!) a device (be it a disk or a computer!) fails? It is completely up to you...


You can build a (sub-optimal, but working!) mirrored ZFS pool during installation with this...

Of course: ymmv! But personlly I am in team ZFS ;-)

Thanks for the info! Now if a drive did fail I would have backups since I usually backup my VMs on an external SSD weekly. I currently plan having a single mini pc which is why I’m limited to the m.2 and the SATA. Also what SSD would be a good choice for it?

 

[UdoB]

Also what SSD would be a good choice for it?

For me? Any device with PLP.

Via a German search engine: https:// geizhals.de/?cat=hdssd&xf=7156_Power-Loss Protection~7525_SATA

Most of my SSDs are "Enterprise class". Most of my NVMe are not. This make no sense, necessarily. But especially the Homelab requires compromises...

 

[DerekG]

Thanks for the info! Now if a drive did fail I would have backups since I usually backup my VMs on an external SSD weekly. I currently plan having a single mini pc which is why I’m limited to the m.2 and the SATA. Also what SSD would be a good choice for it?

I have QTY7 Proxmox nodes running on single SSD/NVMe drives in my Homelab, for approx. 4 years now. I do keep meticulous triple PBS backups of the guests, and figure that if the Proxmox host drive fails it's simple enough to rebuild, with the only issue being iGPU etc passthrough.

I wouldn't recommend 128GB drives, as the SSD/NVMe drive endurance increases with capacity (more space mean more capacity for wear levelling), so the min I have are 256GB drives. However, if the drive is used for boot only, then you might get away with a low capacity drive.

 

[scopedberg]

I have QTY7 Proxmox nodes running on single SSD/NVMe drives in my Homelab, for approx. 4 years now. I do keep meticulous triple PBS backups of the guests, and figure that if the Proxmox host drive fails it's simple enough to rebuild, with the only issue being iGPU etc passthrough.

I wouldn't recommend 128GB drives, as the SSD/NVMe drive endurance increases with capacity (more space mean more capacity for wear levelling), so the min I have are 256GB drives. However, if the drive is used for boot only, then you might get away with a low capacity drive.

Alright, yeah I decided I might use a used Micron SSD or similar for boot. Think the capacity might be 256 minimum. Thanks for the info! And also if I were to use a single SSD would a 480gb Micron 5100 eco be alright? I’ll be making backups so if it fails I’ll have backups.

 

[DerekG]

And also if I were to use a single SSD would a 480gb Micron 5100 eco be alright? I’ll be making backups so if it fails I’ll have backups.

Yeah, that will be fine for the boot drive.

Not sure what system you'll be running the setup on, but for a homelab, you really want to be running the VM's / CT's guest on SSD or better NVMe drives, SATA drive are just too slow for anything apart from media data storage. How many drives can you fit into the system? If you can only install 1 SSD or NVMe drive, I would use that both for boot and VM/CT store, just make sure that those are backed up.