SSD Configuration for Proxmox in a Home Lab - Need Advice and Feedback

[issa2020]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently setting up a Proxmox server for personal use at home, primarily for testing and experimenting in a labHome environment. However, I have some concerns regarding the configuration of my disks, especially the SSDs.

Here is my current configuration:

• Disks:
  • 1 x CT200P5PSSD8 2TB SSD for Proxmox system and main VMs
  • 1 x SAMSUNG SSD 860 QVO 1TB for VM data storage

After reading several discussions, I understand that using consumer-grade SSDs can pose problems, particularly rapid wear due to the intensive writing operations that Proxmox can generate. My questions are as follows:

1. SSD Durability: Has anyone had experience with consumer-grade SSDs under Proxmox? What are the real risks of rapid wear, and are there measures to minimize this?
2. Optimization: What would be the best practices to optimize disk configuration to extend the lifespan of the SSDs?
3. Ideal Setup: Is my current setup adequate for a home lab, or are there any adjustments you would recommend?

Thank you in advance for your advice and feedback!

Best regards,

 

[justinclift]

Are you intending on doing clustering? ie using multiple Proxmox servers networked together then combined into a single cluster

Asking that because the clustering software (corosync) sends traffic between the Proxmox servers to make sure everything is up and running, share config changes, and that kind of thing. That generates a (small) stream of writes to the OS disk. If you leave that for a few years and have the OS on a small consumer SSD... I could see it starting to go badly.

Haven't personally used Proxmox for long enough to see any long term (or medium term ) issues though.

---

What kind of home server are you using? Is it a brand new self-built thing, or a nuc, or 2nd hand enterprise gear, or something else?

Asking because being the cheap-arse that I am for homelab stuff, I'd tend to recommend getting an old Dell tower or similar then chucking some Ebay SAS SSDs in it. They're super cheap, and have huge amounts of durability.

Random examples (I don't know the sellers):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176381306485 (data sheet)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364424109377 (data sheet)

I've never had a SAS SSD (bought from various Ebay sellers) with more than 6% of their durability used when I got it. So, close to brand new. I've only bought about 20 of the things (total) though, but that's probably heaps for a home lab.