Recommended Hard Drive Configuration?

[begleysm]

Hello,

I'm putting together a Dell R510 as my first Proxmox server. I've been looking around (on the forums and Google) for recommendations on the Configuration of the Hard Drives in the system and have been coming up fairly empty handed.

For instance, the FreeNAS Community recommends the OS be put on a pair of mirrored USB Thumb Drives and the Data be a ZFS Software RAIDed set of HDDs.

I understand the Proxmox isn't suitable for the above configuration.

I have 4 450GB 5k RPM Seagate Cheetah SAS drives to create a 900GB RAID 10 Array. Should I use this for the OS and VMs? Should I purchase a pair of Mirrored SSDs to put the OS on and then use the HDD RAID for the VMs?

Also, I found a few references to people talking about putting the OS and "VM Images" on a pair of mirrored SSDs and "data" on an HDD RAID. What, exactly do they mean by "VM Images" in this context? Does this mean that the VM "OS" is on the SSDs and there is a mapped volume pointing to the HDDs for the "data" within the VM?

Thanks,
begleysm

 

[Andrew Hart]

Hi,

Here is my opinion:

For your "first Proxmox server", just grab any old disk and install it. Have a play and see all the amazing possibilities.
For a standalone first live server, I'd go for mirrored Proxmox/OS disks 2x450G, and 2x450G mirrored for VMs to Run on. Note, there will be plenty of space for VMs on the OS disks spare space too. The reason: you can upgrade the second pair with less worry if you need to later.
Proxmox/OS itself does not need an SSD.

Your last paragraph, You can allocate disks to your VMs from more than one storage area. They would appear in your VMs as sda, sdb (or c:, d: in windows or however you configure it) You only really need your OS on SSD if you are doing windows updates. Maybe you would want a database on SSD? A build server? If you think your VM needs an SSD then you will get an SSD...

Andrew

 

[bobmc]

For a single proxmox host, my preference would be to use the Raid Array for Data Storage, either as 'Virtual' Disks for VM's or as shared storage from the host to VM's and/or external network clients. The Proxmox OS could be on USB drives or a small HDD off the internal SATA ports, whichever meets your preference. For VM usage I would install one or two SSD's if I had a couple of 6Gbps ports to use.

 

[Hollis]

Any tip - install Debian OS on RAID-5 from all disks and next step https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Stretch

 

[begleysm]

Thanks for all of the replies.

It sounds like having SSDs available for the OS or VMs gives you "standard SSD read/write speed improvements" but that this would primarily be geared toward applications with lots of users and a need for quick I/O. I plan on running a web server and few other applications, but I'm used to this server running on an old crummy laptop with a slow 5400 RPM HDD. I expect this to be a big improvement even in the absence of SSDs.

It also sounds like some people prefer to have the OS and VM Images on one logical drive and the VM data on another logical drive to facilitate upgrading/replacing/managing the DATA and DATA DRIVES themselves, but not so much as a performance enhancement. It sounds like having everything on a single Logical Volume (ie: RAID) with the OS, VM Images and VM Data all residing together doesn't present any significant problems and that it is (of course) a simpler architecture.

Any tip - install Debian OS on RAID-5 from all disks and next step https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Stretch

Hollis, why do this instead of using the "Bare-metal_ISO_Installer" as recommended in the link you provided?

Thanks,
begleysm

 

[Hollis]

In earlier versions of Proxmox, it was not possible to create software RAIDs at ISO installation. Maybe this limit does not exist anymore. I do not know now

 

[begleysm]

I had intended on using a HW RAID w/ a DELL H700. Still not 100% decided yet based on reading about difficulty of extending arrays in this environment. Looks like the H700 can't extend RAID 10 but can extend RAID 5 using Dell OMSA.

I had been planning on a RAID 10 array but may switch to RAID 5 to support extending the array. Will probably try RAID 5 and Proxmox and experiment with OMSA before committing.

In earlier versions of Proxmox, it was not possible to create software RAIDs at ISO installation. Maybe this limit does not exist anymore. I do not know now

Any particular reason you advise SW RAID over HW RAID?

 

[Hollis]

If the server is under warranty / support, there is no problem with HW RAID damage. If HW is not serviced, HW RAID can cause many problems when the controller is corrupted