"Real" VMware ESXi Replacement with Shared Storage -> Snapshots

[inbyteswetrust]

IMHO PVE and Block level storage is a hit and miss. It works with LVM-Thin over iSCSI but you lose out on snapshots (this affects backup growth and the ability to freeze VM states). But also you could front load your block storage with a filer and export NFS/SMB to PVE and have the "best of both worlds" while maintaining that block storage investment, but you do introduce a middle-failure-point. However, the likes of TrueNAS scale supporting a HA config plays nice in this space. Just spin up the filers, build the HA pair, attach them to your Block storage, build the LUNs and format them and export them via NFS. Then you connect that up to your ProxmoxVE cluster.

I also thought about "frontloading" the storages with a storage-filer NFS/ZFS/iscsi.

But I don't like the idea of adding devices and complexity, because most of our storages already have active/active dual-controller heads.

 

[Falk R.]

You have mixed up a lot of information. We are not talking about the qemu disk format (qcow), we are talking about the qemu virtualization/emulation layer.
Yes, you can use LVM RAW disks without snapshot support and can use PBS snapshot backups. These snapshots are one level higher than the storage layer.

 

[bbgeek17]

But there is no QEMU functionality when i use 2 Proxmox Hosts attached to a shared-block-storage with LVM Thick?

Imagine the following setup: SQL database, running on Windows, running on VMFS, running on NFS datastore, running on enterprise storage. You can have snapshots at the following levels:
- SQL / application
- Windows / VSS / OS
- VMFS / Virtual Disk
- NFS / backend filesystems
- Backend storage / i.e Snapvol

The QEMU snapshot utilized for backup is roughly at the Windows level.
Thinking a bit more about it, the proper way to illustrate it is : QEMU snapshot is at HyperV/ESXi level. Above Windows, yet below Application.

It's completely independent of the underlying storage or upper level application. So it is available with any type of storage. However, it is expensive processing-wise, inefficient space-wise can only be held while QEMU is powered on, etc. So it is unsuitable for long-term recovery. But works great for short-term processes, i.e. backup.

There are many avenues that VEEAM can take, but given a relatively quick delivery window, they probably took the easiest one and not the "best". Did they announce anything yet?

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Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[inbyteswetrust]

@Falk R. @bbgeek17
Thank you for your inputs!

So for now I think: It's lab time

Will test out every layer and use case one by one.

Feeling like I started with VMware 15 years ago haha

Of course I will report my conclusions here!

 

[Falk R.]

@Falk R. @bbgeek17
Thank you for your inputs!

So for now I think: It's lab time

Will test out every layer and use case one by one.

Feeling like I started with VMware 15 years ago haha

Of course I will report my conclusions here!

I was also a VMware fanboy from 2006 to 2019.

 

[alexskysilk]

Did they announce anything yet?

announce, yes. but its not GA and the beta is behind NDA. wink wink.

 

[Falk R.]

announce, yes. but its not GA and the beta is behind NDA. wink wink.

GA is scheduled to 3. quarter 2024

 

[Abend1]

announce, yes. but its not GA and the beta is behind NDA. wink wink.

Alex, can you please post the URL to where this was announced?

 

[bbgeek17]

Alex, can you please post the URL to where this was announced?

https://www.veeam.com/company/press...or-customers-with-support-for-proxmox-ve.html

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Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[ksb]

Veeam released version 12.2 which supports Proxmox (single and cluster)