Tips on Upgrading SSDs for my Proxmox lab

If you could update as to the performance/endurance of those D3 S4610 over time, I'd really appreciate it - as I am astounded by the price.

Maybe you want to make a general pre-use capacity/bandwidth test/s. f3, fio etc.
 
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That would work, but is not the best solution. Two things to consider:
Proxmox itself has a certain IO load (more when updates are running), which is very low compared to the load of VMs, but it is there (which is why I literally burn up cheap SSDs for this, they are good enough for this). If you only have VMs on one mirror, then they have the full performance for themselves. This is the weaker argument, but it explains the principle. The stronger argument is that you might want a second 512G cheap/medium. Then you can make two mirrors. The 2x512G <- on it Proxmox, 2x2T <- VMs.
This way you have it cleanly separated and if something breaks at some point during an update or operating error in Proxmox, then you don't have to restore everything at once or laboriously take it apart. You then just delete the 2x512G mirror, reinstall Proxmox and import the 2x2T again. This means you have distributed the IO load sensibly (and the endurance as well), a disk can fail in both mirrors, both are cleanly separated and if something really bad goes wrong, you only have to restore one ZFS pool from your backup (time saving).
So that would be my tip... get another 512G (always check the firmware there too), then install proxmox fresh and then set it up accordingly.
Of course, you can also use each disk individually as storage. This gives you more available storage overall, but then no redundancy. It's never enough... :)
Very good tips! Thanks so much! I think this is indeed a solid plan and i will go straight to researching on how exactly i need to accomplish all of this. :)
 
If you could update as to the performance/endurance of those D3 S4610 over time, I'd really appreciate it - as I am astounded by the price.

Maybe you want to make a general pre-use capacity/bandwidth test/s. f3, fio etc.
Aboslutely I don't mind. However I never did this before but I can try. Is this purely to understand whether SSDs are legit/not deffective in some way or you just want to understand how S4610 performs in general?

Just keep in mind, I am pretty new to Proxmox world and only have like ~10VMs, so barely even using my single 512Gb SSD. So it would take some time before they all get some proper use and get filled up
 
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Is this purely to understand whether SSDs are legit/not deffective in some way or you just want to understand how S4610 performs in general?
It is always good practice (and especially when purchasing from an unknown second-hand source) to test-drive the medium you will be becoming to rely on in the future. It is better to discover now something isn't right with that medium, than later. Trust me! Initial testing probably won't cover eventual long-time endurance, but it will cover the basics. All professional system admins perform some form of testing before committing medium to production use. You may be running some home lab, but in light of the price you paid, I personally would not use those disks until I tested them.

I run the smartctl on unsealed one and it showed latest firmware, Power on Hours = 0 and Power Cycle Count = 4
I don't want to cause unnecessary caution, and smartctl data can be a mixed bunch (& usually unreliable) but I've never seen a disk that has 4 power cycles but no power on hours. New disks usually have some power on hours, this comes from the regular factory testing & setup. Possibly this disk was tested for under an hour (under 30 mins?) - IDK. Probably ignore this concern if the above testing I suggested goes through without a hitch.

You possibly could lookup these disks with their serial numbers to at least see if they were legitimately produced by the manufacturer/vendor & when. You wont be able to rule out the fact that they may have been "fw wiped".
 
It is always good practice (and especially when purchasing from an unknown second-hand source) to test-drive the medium you will be becoming to rely on in the future. It is better to discover now something isn't right with that medium, than later. Trust me! Initial testing probably won't cover eventual long-time endurance, but it will cover the basics. All professional system admins perform some form of testing before committing medium to production use. You may be running some home lab, but in light of the price you paid, I personally would not use those disks until I tested them.


I don't want to cause unnecessary caution, and smartctl data can be a mixed bunch (& usually unreliable) but I've never seen a disk that has 4 power cycles but no power on hours. New disks usually have some power on hours, this comes from the regular factory testing & setup. Possibly this disk was tested for under an hour (under 30 mins?) - IDK. Probably ignore this concern if the above testing I suggested goes through without a hitch.

You possibly could lookup these disks with their serial numbers to at least see if they were legitimately produced by the manufacturer/vendor & when. You wont be able to rule out the fact that they may have been "fw wiped".
Good to know! What tools would you recommend me to run? Is there a good guide to follow to perform these initial tests?
 
What tools would you recommend me to run?
I posted above f3 & fio, probably enough for your job. Search online on how to use.
I searched apt & on my current, fully updated Proxmox node they both exist (although you may have to install):
Code:
f3/stable 8.0-2 amd64
  test real flash memory capacity

fio/stable 3.33-3 amd64
  flexible I/O tester

# See also:

fio-examples/stable 3.33-3 all
  flexible I/O tester - example job files
 

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