Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab
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I plan to install Proxmox VE for the first time as a home lab.
I have HPE ML310 Gen8 tower server with 4 non-hotplug 1TB HDD drives on HPE's B120i RAID controller (supports RAID 0,1 and 1+0).
I would like to install on it: Nextcloud, Meshcentral, maybe Photoprism, maybe Kodi, some Docker apps...Proxmox's system requirements say:
For local storage use a hardware RAID with battery backed write cache (BBU) or non-RAID for ZFS. Neither ZFS nor Ceph are compatible with a hardware RAID controller.Would you recommend that I setup disks as RAID10, or to use ZFS on non-RAID disks (or something else) for my non-production use?
Edit: Size of storage is not so important now - 2TB in RAID10 is enough for now, I think
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@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
Neither ZFS nor Ceph are compatible with a hardware RAID controller.
This is bullshit. Yes, a RAID controller defeats the purpose of most of the features of ZFS, but it works just fine.
Proxmox requires ZFS if you are going to use the built in replication. So I simply setup ZFS on top of my RAID controller.
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@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
Would you recommend that I setup disks as RAID10, or to use ZFS on non-RAID disks (or something else) for my non-production use?
For home use, assuming you have your backups, and such as if real production, go ahead and use WTF ever you want.
But this:
@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
with 4 non-hotplug 1TB HDD drives on HPE's B120i RAID controller
This means you need to just use the controller. Why waste it? I mean I am not as familiar with HP's lineup as I am with Dell, but as long as that is a real RAID controller, just use it.
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@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
I would like to install on it: Nextcloud, Meshcentral, maybe Photoprism, maybe Kodi, some Docker apps...
@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
Edit: Size of storage is not so important now - 2TB in RAID10 is enough for now, I think
I think these two statements are at odds with each other. 2TB is not as much as your think once you add images and docker creep (oh it is jsut one more app).....
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@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
For home use, assuming you have your backups, and such as if real production, go ahead and use WTF ever you want.
Do you mean, it's OK to use RAID 0, so I have more space, and I can normally use ZFS on it?
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@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
I think these two statements are at odds with each other. 2TB is not as much as your think once you add images and docker creep (oh it is jsut one more app).....
I agree
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@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
with 4 non-hotplug 1TB HDD drives on HPE's B120i RAID controller
This means you need to just use the controller. Why waste it? I mean I am not as familiar with HP's lineup as I am with Dell, but as long as that is a real RAID controller, just use it.
From what I can gather B120i is not a real RAID controller. It just a SATA HBA with LSI chipset. It needs OS software drivers to do RAID.
The lack of RAID5 and RAID6 kind of gives it away.
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@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
For home use, assuming you have your backups, and such as if real production, go ahead and use WTF ever you want.
Do you mean, it's OK to use RAID 0, so I have more space, and I can normally use ZFS on it?
I mean it is home use and you have backups, so you decide what your risk level is and design appropriately.
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@Pete-S said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
with 4 non-hotplug 1TB HDD drives on HPE's B120i RAID controller
This means you need to just use the controller. Why waste it? I mean I am not as familiar with HP's lineup as I am with Dell, but as long as that is a real RAID controller, just use it.
From what I can gather B120i is not a real RAID controller. It just a SATA HBA with LSI chipset. It needs OS software drivers to do RAID.
Okay, if this is not real RAID on the controller, then I would pass the disk through and use ZFS. I have no issues with ZFS itself. I have issues with the Cult of ZFS asshats.
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@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@Pete-S said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
with 4 non-hotplug 1TB HDD drives on HPE's B120i RAID controller
This means you need to just use the controller. Why waste it? I mean I am not as familiar with HP's lineup as I am with Dell, but as long as that is a real RAID controller, just use it.
From what I can gather B120i is not a real RAID controller. It just a SATA HBA with LSI chipset. It needs OS software drivers to do RAID.
Okay, if this is not real RAID on the controller, then I would pass the disk through and use ZFS. I have no issues with ZFS itself. I have issues with the Cult of ZFS asshats.
Some of the recommendations to avoid RAID controllers and use pure HBA with different forms of software RAID/RAIN stems from problems and overhead with pass-through on RAID controllers.
VSAN for example wasn't certified with any Dell RAID controller, only HBA330 last time I looked.
Since B120i is a LSI HBA it will probably work great with ZFS.
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@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
Proxmox requires ZFS if you are going to use the built in replication.
Don't you need more than one server to have any use for replication?
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@Pete-S said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
From what I can gather B120i is not a real RAID controller. It just a SATA HBA with LSI chipset. It needs OS software drivers to do RAID.
The lack of RAID5 and RAID6 kind of gives it away.I created RAID0 array on B120i, and Proxmox installer still sees individual drives.
It seems like you're right - it is not real RAID controller.Edit: After Proxmox install on it, system reports "unknown filesystem". I will try with "non-RAID" setup
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@Mario-Jakovina said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@Pete-S said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
From what I can gather B120i is not a real RAID controller. It just a SATA HBA with LSI chipset. It needs OS software drivers to do RAID.
The lack of RAID5 and RAID6 kind of gives it away.I created RAID0 array on B120i, and Proxmox installer still sees individual drives.
It seems like you're right - it is not real RAID controller.Edit: After Proxmox install on it, system reports "unknown filesystem". I will try with "non-RAID" setup
It's your homelab so the whole point is to try things and see what happens!
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@Pete-S said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
@JaredBusch said in Recommended storage setup for Proxmox VE homelab:
Proxmox requires ZFS if you are going to use the built in replication.
Don't you need more than one server to have any use for replication?
I have the specified setup at two clients. Dell hardware RAID with a ZFS RAID 0 on top of it to get replication working.
