Storage configuration for consumer SSDs (ZFS vs LVM)

[Santig]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to set up a new Proxmox server, but the last installation failed because one of the drives in my ZFS pool corrupted.
With this in mind, I researched ZFS a bit more and started hearing talk about write amplification in consumer-grade SSDs.
I don't fully understand how write amplification occurs. I seem to understand that 1 write to ZFS can be amplified into many writes to the physical disks.
A friend also said he heard something about write amplification being mitigated by using raw image instead of qcow2 (I don't fully understand what he meant; he just referenced this video)

So my question is, what would be the best way to configure storage on my server?
I have:
4x SSDs (Samsung 850 PRO 256GB) (one I intend on using for the OS)
4x HDDs (Seagate 500GB)
Should I use ZFS, thin-LVM, or LVM?
I will be setting up my disks in RAID5, and another consideration is that I have a PERC RAID controller in front of them.

 

[fstrankowski]

Which CPU, how much RAM, how many VMs, workload on the VMs, etc. Please provider a bigger picture. By just naming 2 type of drives there is no way to provide a proper answer to your (very broad) question

 

[Santig]

Sorry, I will try to provide as much info as I can.
CPU : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5630@2.53GHz (2 Sockets)
RAM: 144 GB
In my previous setup, I used 5/6 VMs, but I'm intent on having about 8
Regarding the VM workload, I intend on using this machine to run OpenCloud, Opensense, and some Docker containers on a Ubuntu VM (like Linkwarden)
Probably some automation like n8n and Jenkins
It is mostly a machine to run services for myself
My main goal is to minimize physical contact with the machine, given that I don't have 24/7 access to it

Also, thank you for dedicating your time to helping me with what I believe is a very broad and complex question.
I've been having a hard time committing to any decision over the last week, because I don't fully understand the trade-offs and keep getting conflicting information.
Hardware, ZFS, and low-level is not really a specialty for me, so I feel a be a bit out of my depth
So once again, thank you, and don't hesitate to ask for more info.