Thin Provisioning and Fragmentation

cshill

Member
May 8, 2024
70
8
8
Hi Everyone,

I've been reading several forum posts in regards to Thin Provisioning and Fragmentation of the disks and I have several questions below.
1. What is the BEST METHOD for preventing Fragmentation while keeping Thin Provisioning. Is there a specific file system and VM file format that works best?

2. I originally wanted to work with only ZFS file system and the raw format for the quickest speeds and snapshot capability. I believe this to be the ideal format to work with Proxmox but open to suggestions. With this layout I believe I just turn on Discard option and the more modern PVE versions have it work natively within Windows and Linux VMs to remove excess discarded files from the VM. This sounds like an effective method of removing unused files but how does the fragmentation work? Is there something that can work towards preventing fragmentation?

3. As of now my boss specifically wants the EXT4 file system, I suggest QCOW2 for at least we can have snapshots for the developers. Originally these VMs were all thin provisioned and work fine but my boss wants thick provisioning. I have switched it to thick but now I have no snapshot options. With a DIR file system how do I continue to use thin provisioning and prevent fragmentation?
 

About

The Proxmox community has been around for many years and offers help and support for Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server, and Proxmox Mail Gateway.
We think our community is one of the best thanks to people like you!

Get your subscription!

The Proxmox team works very hard to make sure you are running the best software and getting stable updates and security enhancements, as well as quick enterprise support. Tens of thousands of happy customers have a Proxmox subscription. Get yours easily in our online shop.

Buy now!