30 year computer guy has spent weeks playing and reading the fine manual and still has virtualization questions for people a whole lot smarter than I am:
Short version - I need help sharing hardware (details below): ZFS to containers, Optical drives to any guest os (VM or LXC), dogging down hardware errors displayed on server boot, enabling drive health monitoring and admin notification, process to virtualize windows 10, and considerations of docker (pros and cons) -- I know, just a few newbie lightweight questions (ha-ha).
Trying to do a multi-use home server using proxmox instead of Windows 10 that was doing raid, file serving, content creation, etc.. Have seen others doing same (servethehome is one site), but NO ONE has a full writeup on the whole thing nor do they deal with some of the thorniest issues. Mine are all hardware passthrough related:
1. Proper way to share a zfs raid array defined in proxmox itself with containers?
I settled on using mountpoints (mp0, etc) in the LXC definition -- is this the best way? (I read dozens of pages with a half-dozen different ways). I want my FileServer that runs SAMBA to run in a container so there is some isolation from the host -- using TKL fileserver -- but should I be using some NAS image or Rockstor? Had issues with OMV and FreeNAS because of hardware assumptions.
2. How to automount and share a CD/DVD/BluRay drive -- I've got this working on the host (kind of -- had to put some entries in fstab that I think work right -- not sure of the parameters to use. I have 2 drives and they basically are mounting when I insert disks (x-systemd.automount comes into play). But now I want them shared with containers again -- Ubuntu in a container that I want to use as a workstation. Share as a block device? Use nbd? Samba share them? Tried some stuff in the LXC definition and container wouldn't start if no disk in the drive so that's out -- tried block device and mp. Solution has to be able to support insertion/removal while the package is up and running.
3. How to resolve hardware errors -- I was getting some strange stuff -- pata_jmicron had 2 devices on it, only one mounted. Couldn't figure that out and had to move the drive to a different interface -- worked fine in windows and bios. Still getting lots of random ata timeout errors that I can't trace down. Just too involved -- what I read says "linux hw drivers are just supposed to work" -- but that probably isn't true on a system where the MOBO alone has 3 different scsi controllers and I've got a third plugged in as a PCI card -- it's a Gigabyte MOBO with 8 SATA connectors onboard 6 to intel, 2 to jmicron and the pata bus. Some basic step-by-steps for me to read more on would be appreciated -- I've spent weeks scrounging and not getting a process to pin them down and I need RELIABLE not FLAKY. Pretty sure I still have quirks waiting to bite me later.
4. How to enable auto-notification of some sort when ZFS and/or drive SMART becomes an issue -- the whole idea is to have things be bullet proof -- but you have to be able to get emailed or notified somehow when thing start getting corrupt not AFTER it all fails. Having trouble figuring this part out. Example: Booting proxmox off mirrored flash drives was serious bad mojo -- one or the other was always going offline and showing a corrupt mirror array, but now I am booting off a single HD that at some point I need to mirror for security. Dreading it and need something solid with an easy failover -- nice to clone proxmox itself to a flash drive as a failsafe to mirrored hard drives.
5. Trying to run Windows 10 in a VM and have it be able to access advanced stuff like NVidia CUDA, sound cards, the aforementioned ZFS raid drive, USB hot-insertions, DVD/BD -- you know, pretty much what hardware DOES. And part of this is being able to virtualize an existing install such that windows can re-detect hardware and NOT have to re-register the OS from the old hardware to the new virtualization. Seen lots on VirtIO that I can't quite pin down a process, and about 10 other partial writeups -- nothing really definitive. Again, any help even general direction rather than specifics really appreciated.
6. Lastly -- to Docker or not to Docker? Have seen pros and cons -- and yes, I understand the basic differences with containers, but it is just so darned convenient compared to having to create your own due to the limited containers currently released -- but do you bugger up the security of the main proxmox install or try to fight to get docker into a VM or on an LXC or just give up altogether because the performance might be horrible due to all the layers and passthroughs? Thoughts?
Short version - I need help sharing hardware (details below): ZFS to containers, Optical drives to any guest os (VM or LXC), dogging down hardware errors displayed on server boot, enabling drive health monitoring and admin notification, process to virtualize windows 10, and considerations of docker (pros and cons) -- I know, just a few newbie lightweight questions (ha-ha).
Trying to do a multi-use home server using proxmox instead of Windows 10 that was doing raid, file serving, content creation, etc.. Have seen others doing same (servethehome is one site), but NO ONE has a full writeup on the whole thing nor do they deal with some of the thorniest issues. Mine are all hardware passthrough related:
1. Proper way to share a zfs raid array defined in proxmox itself with containers?
I settled on using mountpoints (mp0, etc) in the LXC definition -- is this the best way? (I read dozens of pages with a half-dozen different ways). I want my FileServer that runs SAMBA to run in a container so there is some isolation from the host -- using TKL fileserver -- but should I be using some NAS image or Rockstor? Had issues with OMV and FreeNAS because of hardware assumptions.
2. How to automount and share a CD/DVD/BluRay drive -- I've got this working on the host (kind of -- had to put some entries in fstab that I think work right -- not sure of the parameters to use. I have 2 drives and they basically are mounting when I insert disks (x-systemd.automount comes into play). But now I want them shared with containers again -- Ubuntu in a container that I want to use as a workstation. Share as a block device? Use nbd? Samba share them? Tried some stuff in the LXC definition and container wouldn't start if no disk in the drive so that's out -- tried block device and mp. Solution has to be able to support insertion/removal while the package is up and running.
3. How to resolve hardware errors -- I was getting some strange stuff -- pata_jmicron had 2 devices on it, only one mounted. Couldn't figure that out and had to move the drive to a different interface -- worked fine in windows and bios. Still getting lots of random ata timeout errors that I can't trace down. Just too involved -- what I read says "linux hw drivers are just supposed to work" -- but that probably isn't true on a system where the MOBO alone has 3 different scsi controllers and I've got a third plugged in as a PCI card -- it's a Gigabyte MOBO with 8 SATA connectors onboard 6 to intel, 2 to jmicron and the pata bus. Some basic step-by-steps for me to read more on would be appreciated -- I've spent weeks scrounging and not getting a process to pin them down and I need RELIABLE not FLAKY. Pretty sure I still have quirks waiting to bite me later.
4. How to enable auto-notification of some sort when ZFS and/or drive SMART becomes an issue -- the whole idea is to have things be bullet proof -- but you have to be able to get emailed or notified somehow when thing start getting corrupt not AFTER it all fails. Having trouble figuring this part out. Example: Booting proxmox off mirrored flash drives was serious bad mojo -- one or the other was always going offline and showing a corrupt mirror array, but now I am booting off a single HD that at some point I need to mirror for security. Dreading it and need something solid with an easy failover -- nice to clone proxmox itself to a flash drive as a failsafe to mirrored hard drives.
5. Trying to run Windows 10 in a VM and have it be able to access advanced stuff like NVidia CUDA, sound cards, the aforementioned ZFS raid drive, USB hot-insertions, DVD/BD -- you know, pretty much what hardware DOES. And part of this is being able to virtualize an existing install such that windows can re-detect hardware and NOT have to re-register the OS from the old hardware to the new virtualization. Seen lots on VirtIO that I can't quite pin down a process, and about 10 other partial writeups -- nothing really definitive. Again, any help even general direction rather than specifics really appreciated.
6. Lastly -- to Docker or not to Docker? Have seen pros and cons -- and yes, I understand the basic differences with containers, but it is just so darned convenient compared to having to create your own due to the limited containers currently released -- but do you bugger up the security of the main proxmox install or try to fight to get docker into a VM or on an LXC or just give up altogether because the performance might be horrible due to all the layers and passthroughs? Thoughts?
