SSD with LXC's

[jok3r]

Hello,
im completely new to proxmox/linux but I have to set up a new home network and I think my start is quiete okay.

Im running Proxmox on a M900 Tiny (i5 6500T, 8 GB RAM, 256GB NVMe SSD + added 1 TB NAS SSD) with 2 LXC's which are Pi-Hole and tvheadend.
I managed to USB-Passthrough an USB DVB-C Stick to the tvheadend LXC and can watch TV, so its working. Not the final setup but yeah.

Now the problem: I want to timeshift and store recordings on the 1 TB NAS SSD which i added, but i read that I am able to use the SSD for only for one LXC ?
1 TB is a bit overkill for some recordings and timeshift, i wanted to store some other data aswell and maybe get access in a new LXC (for example openmediavault).

For now I installed ALL, means proxmox + PiHole + tvheadend on the NVMe SSD. IS this the correct way or should I Install tvheadend on the NAS SSD so I have more easier access to it? I want to get tid of those easy questions before I take any further steps and not be able to undo it.

Maybe one more important information: To include the NAS SSD I ran some commands (which I cant remember really) and added the device as ZFS - I dunno if this is correct, but I saw it on a tutorial...

It would be great do get some answers, I just want to know if Iam doing something wrong until here (installation on wrong SSD, some config issues, whatever).

Regards

 

[Dunuin]

First keep in mind that NAS SSDs are just consumer SSDs and therefore shouldn't be used with ZFS as ZFS will have alot of overhead and can very quickly wear your SSD. For ZFS its recommended to buy proper datacenter/enterprise grade SSDs with powerloss protection and a way better DWPD/TBW rating. ZFS also needs alot of RAM. So 4GB of your 8 GB will just be used by ZFS itself.
If you don't need the ZFS features I would recommend to format that SSD with LVM-Thin and use it as a VM/LXC storage. Then you can store multiple virtual disks there and attach those virtual disks to your different VMs/LXCs. No problem to store data of multiple VMs/LXCs on that single disk. What you can not do is access the same data with multiple VMs/LXCs.
If you want that you should create a NAS VM/LXC that uses the whole SSD and shares it with other VMs/LXCs using NFS/SMB. That way multiple VMs/LXCs could access the same data over the network shares.
Another option would be to format that SSD with something like ext4 and use it as a directory storage. With that multiple LXCs (but not VMs) could share the same data by using bind-mounts. See for example here for bind-mounts: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Unprivileged_LXC_containers

 

[jok3r]

Thank you for your answer, I always need some time to (try) understanding all those linux things.

I deleted the ZFS and formated the NAS SSD via LVM-Thin.
But I just want to understand the general basics from LXC's/Proxmox OS: Is it just important to install Proxmox on the "main" NVMe SSD and the rest doesnt matter?
I have cloned the LXC with tvheadend to the NAS SSD (LVM-thin now) and I am able to save recordings and so on - all I wanted. But tvheadend itself is now on the NAS SSD and not on the NVMe where is proxmox - which I thought would be better?

So the way I thought with all LXC's on NVMe and recordings/data/etc on NAS SSD isnt the correct one? Who tells me which program has to run on which internal SSD ? Or ONLY proxmox on NVMe and ALL the rest like LXC's, storage, movies and so on on the NAS SSD? Just want to understand so I know what to do with future LXC's.

Thank you and regards

 

[Dunuin]

You have to decide where to store what. Only thing that limits you is the type of underlaying storage you have chosen.

LVM-Thin by default can only store vitual disks of LXCs/VMs because it is a block storage (like your "local-lvm" storage on the NVMe or your newly created storade on the NAS SSD).
To store files and folder you need a storage that offers a filesystem, like the "local" directory storage on your NVMe.

A LXC is also not limited to a single storage. You can attach 2 virtual disks to a LXC, one on the NVMe SSD and one on the NAS SSD. The stuff that needs to be fast you can then put on the one virtual disk stored on the NVMe and for data that won't need to be that fast you put it on the virtual disks on your NAS SSD.

And inside the guest you can use symlinks to link folders between the virtual disks or use mountpoints.