Up To Date Installation, Planning Guide For Deployment?

[iamsparticus]

Hey guys/gals!

I've been running Proxmox for years, but I haven't made any major changes to how my set up is, and haven't taken advantage of ZFS. That's all about to change.

I'm looking to purchase hardware in the coming months to upgrade our entire systems, and I'm wondering if there are any great guides on what to look for in hardware, what configurations work best, etc?

Currently I have 5 servers in a cluster, with each server using local RAID10 storage. I use a third party backup system to an external device. I'm running about 14 Windows Servers, and 3 LXCs. This is primarily internal network usage, data and software solutions.

Here are some of my questions, forgive any ignorance:

• Do I centralize storage on one NAS (would use FreeNAS), or use ceph/zsync? I've not used HA, but interested in this.
• With local storage/ceph/zsync, what's the best drive structure for performance? Currently thinking 2xSSD for core install, then SATA 4-8TB drives for pve storage. But I've read zfs needs SSD logging drives (it's all greek to me)?
• Also what are my needs on memory/CPU for parity/zfs usage? Is there a basic xGB Ram/ xGB storage?
• If I centralize storage, can that run well on 1Gb network, or do I need a 10Gb conneciton on the data backend?
• What am I missing? What questions do I need to ask to ensure I'm making the best choices?

I have a colleague who moved from Proxmox to hyper-V and saw major gains in performance. I want to stay with Proxmox, as I love it, but I want to know that the configuration I choose is going to give me the best bang for our buck. We aren't in a place to spend a lot of money on this stuff, so I want to do this right the first time. I don't know when more funding will come around.

Again, correct any of my incorrect assumptions, or just tell me I'm flat wrong if I am. I'm looking for resources to do this right.

Thanks!

 

[6uellerbpanda]

I can only share my experience from freenas/nexenta/zfs storage vmware/proxmox view

if you want to go with freenas or any other zfs appliance you need to build knowledge of zfs
without that you will fail sooner or later

Do I centralize storage on one NAS (would use FreeNAS), or use ceph/zsync?

freenas/zfs has inbuilt replication

With local storage/ceph/zsync

with 5 servers I wouldn't go with local storage but that's just my opinion

If I centralize storage, can that run well on 1Gb network, or do I need a 10Gb conneciton on the data backend?

of course it can but it always depends on your setup

What am I missing? What questions do I need to ask to ensure I'm making the best choices?

analyze your current IO workload - just google it
this will basically tell you what you need then for zfs

I have a colleague who moved from Proxmox to hyper-V and saw major gains in performance

no comment

 

[iamsparticus]

Thanks! Are there any great guides on best practices or a centralized how to? Or should I just default to the wiki?

 

[guletz]

Hi,

Any possible solution has up and down as you know. I will speak only about storage.
- local storage is the best for performance
- but you also need some kind of remote backup, so zsync is a very good choice
- ceph is a cluster file-system/block-device, but sometime you will think that (asynchronous replication + snapshots) real-time replication (ceph) is not so good (a crypto-locker virus).
So in the end you need to analyse what is the optimal solution for you. If you ask me, I would go with zfs only, or with zfs and ceph if I will have a 10 Gb storage and at lest 5 nodes.