Why does no guide exist for this basic "getting started" task?

[bwestrup777]

I've got a fresh install of Proxmox 5.1 and I am trying to add a storage drive for VMs that didn't get setup by the installer. I've been searching the forums and have found quite a few "just search the forum" responses but no definitive guide on how to actually do this "the right way".

I'm on my 2nd install of Proxmox as the first "helpful guide" I followed in the forums trashed my installation and burned about a week of time with all the weird errors that Proxmox was generating. (Expanding the default thin pool was a VERY bad idea!)

So why doesn't this exist and how do I perform what should be a simple task? (and no, I don't want to "expand an existing pool". I just want to add a separate storage pool with the one SSD provisioned as thin storage for the VMs.)

Thanks!

 

[bwestrup777]

Did I stump you guys? Maybe it's not just me? I just finished rereading the storage guide in the docs and still have no idea how to proceed... I guess everyone just installs to one drive and lives with it. Not a very robust product anymore! Sure do wish the boss would have bought vmware...escalating to my management team. With any luck I may get vmware out this. So, in a weird way, Thanks!

 

[Tapio Lehtonen]

What is the Proxmox VE Administration Guide saying about that?

 

[bwestrup777]

Not much. A lot of "what you can do" but no "how". Seems like simple task, but I've already been burned once. Will not proceed without an authoritative answer.

 

[bwestrup777]

I've search the installation forum for "add a hard drive", "add a ssd", "add storage". Nothing.

Apparently you either can't search for a phrase or that phrase doesn't exist in the forum.

I know I'm not the only one, I did find numerous people asking the same question but the response was always "Search the forums"

 

[Milkwyrm]

I'm guessing here you are talking about extra local hdd's (second raid set maybe?). You would be better off with a simple goggle search for adding a new HDD to Debian. how to mount a second drive on boot etc.. this is plain old Linux stuff. once you have a mounted (and formatted?) drive you can add it very easily from the Proxmox GUI. debiantutorials.com

 

[Tapio Lehtonen]

I used internet search engines with

site:forum.proxmox.com add a hard drive

 

[Milkwyrm]

I used internet search engines with

site:forum.proxmox.com add a hard drive

Ignore the Proxmox component of your search until you have a mounted drive. look at the link in my previous post.
The underlying operating system (Debian) must be able to "see and use" your disks before P-VE can add them as storage.

 

[Tapio Lehtonen]

True. I added storage, if my memory is not failing, by mounting the NFS drive and adding it in Proxmox GUI.

 

[fireon]

@bwestrup777 What you ask are linuxbasics. Mount a disk, format it... this not depending with the pve-admin-guide. For example:

Basic ext4 storage:

sgdisk -Z -o /dev/disk/by-id/XXX
cfdisk /dev/disk/by-id/XXX
mkfs.ext4 /dev/disk/by-id/XXX

After that look for the UUID by using "blkid". The ID is to set in the fstab and mount it with "mount -a".
After that you add the Storage via Webgui.

Another example with LVM-Thin Storage:

sgdisk -Z -o /dev/sdb
vgcreate pve1 /dev/sdb1
lvcreate -L 100G -n data1 pve1
lvconvert --type thin-pool pve1/data1

After that you add the Storage via Webgui.

For NFS you need no CMD. NFS can mounted directly in Webgui.

 

[bwestrup777]

Thanks for the confirmation! I thought it was just a matter of getting the OS to see the drive. Just needed to be sure. Doing this for work have already burned WAY too much time with Proxmox and simply don't have endless hours to spend "figuring things out"!

The only thing that I've found in the docs regarding this is this :

"You can mount additional storages via standard linux /etc/fstab, and then define a directory storage for that mount point. This way you can use any file system supported by Linux."

Which does imply that having the drive usable by the OS is necessary. But why not just spell it out in plain language, instead? "You have to be able to see the drive in the OS, first, before Proxmox will see it and you can managed it." Would have been far more useful and saved me a lot of grief. This seems like a common "out of the box" task and I found many other posts in the forums asking similar questions.

Thanks, again!

 

[GadgetPig]

https://proxmox.weebly.com/blog/add-additional-local-storage-in-proxmox-ve

or you can follow my notes below:

Proxmox : Add a 2nd hard drive to ProxMox node for iso/images/templates/backups

1. Backup your existing VM’s/VM Data outside of the ProxMox node just in case
   
   
2. Install the 2nd Hard Drive into the ProxMox node machine
   
   
3. Putty into the ProxMox node as “root” and find the device name for the disk:

1. fdisk -l or lsblk

If it’s the first disk added after installation, it’s most likely /dev/sdb (but not always the case!) verify first!


Now partition the disk:

cfdisk /dev/sdb

[delete any previous partitions on /dev/sdb first and then “Write>yes”]

After all previous partitions on /dev/sdb are erased (and still within cfdisk) select the following options:

New>Primary>Enter (use the size in MB already specified), Write,Quit

Now we format the disk to the ext4 or ext4 filesystem:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

Now we mount the drive to a new folder via symbolic link:

1. mkdir /mnt/disk2
2. mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/disk2

Next we add the disk to /etc/fstab so it auto-mounts when we reboot the machine:

nano -w /etc/fstab


(add the following text below, then hit CTRL+O to save, then “ENTER”,then CTRL+X to exit)

/dev/sdb1 /mnt/disk2 ext4 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

or

/dev/sdb1 /mnt/disk2 ext4 defaults 0 1

or

UUID=xxxx /mnt/disk2 ext4 defaults 0 1 [preferred method]


Finally we can add the 2nd drive in ProxMox Storage Gui:

1. Click “Datacenter”, then “Storage” Tab, Click “Add” then ”Directory”. For ID input “backups” (or whatever you want), for Directory input “/mnt/disk2”,for content, choose multiple items “Images,ISO,Backups,Containers”, then hit “OK”
   
   
2. You can now backup your VMs to this new drive, or use it for storing ISOs or Images

 

[GadgetPig]

If you have a lot of memory (at least 16gb), another way is to create a ZFS pool. However expect 50% of your memory to be dedicated to ZFS, with the rest allocated for VM's

https://www.servethehome.com/add-raid-1-mirrored-zpool-to-proxmox-ve/