Proxmox with only 1 drive

Operating Systems & Open Source Virtualization
1

Hi everyone,

I am very new to proxmox. I have recently build a system for the sole purpose of having a proxmox server. My problem is that when I try to create a directory ( to upload images, templates, etc ), it asks me for a drive! Not a partition or a directory, but an actual drive. This seems odd to me. So I am wondering if I am missing something here, or it is not just possible to have a proxmox server with only one drive? as in drives that would be exclusively used by proxmox. I have like 8 other drives on that server, but I want to use them exclusively for NAS. Also I know that I can mount a network share into proxmox for this purpose, but that is not a preferred option here. Any feed back would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

2

How exactly did you set it up? Proxmox runs on Debian so “file system” rather than drives should be the storage unit it is concern with. I have servers with Proxmox running on a pair of drives as a single ZFS mirror vdev so it is equivalent to “one” drive. No problems with uploading stuff on it so there must be some info missing here.

3

Proxmox supports a wide variety of different storage backends. You should be able to use block devices, NFS, Ceph, ZFS etc. In your case you should be able to use the local storage (which is based on ZFS) for your VM’s/containers.

4

So, I used this page to install proxmox on a very fresh install of debian

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Buster

I have a 256GB nvme on which I created an EFI, a boot, swap, and a PV partition ( > 200GB ) for LVM. I then created a 20GB LV which was used for the root filesystem on which Proxmox ( debian ) is installed. I was planning to create other LV partitions for proxmos specific storage needs as they become necessary.

I then tried to follow the following video, and it said that I need to create a “Direcoty” to be able to upload my ISOs, templates, etc.

and this is what I have when I log in to proxmox. Here is my one disk ( nvme ):

pm_disks
pm_disks1533×1007 169 KB

and this is what I see when I go to Disks → Directory:

pm_directory
pm_directory1540×1055 133 KB

As you can see the disk field is empty as I don’t have another disk. What do I need to do to use a partition ( LVM LV to be exact ) instead of a disk?

Can’t tell you how much I appreciate your replys BTW. I have been searching and can’t find anything.

Thank you,

5

I’m assuming apart from your 20GB root LV, you didn’t use any of the remaining 180GB on the PV? In this case, I would assume (again) that you just need to create another logical volume to use as a “disk”.

6

Well, that was the plan, but it didn’t work. It ( Disks → directory → create ) doesn’t show partitions, or at least LV partitions; only disks. That is exactly my problem here, and the whole point of this post.

Since this is my first time with proxmox, I don’t know if it is normal? or maybe has something to do with LVM? should I just wipe everything and create a bunch of normal partitions and try with them? I can, but It looks like that that interface is very specific about wanting disks although that makes no sense. Maybe it is an old design and at the time, they didn’t wanted to be IOPs limited?

This was, BTW, my backup plan. My original plan was to use BTRFS and sub volumes instead of LVM which didn’t work either as proxmox, it seems, has no understanding of sub volumes. There are posts that mentions people doing similar thing on ZFS in passing (like your first post here) , but I can’t find any actual documentation or howto for it.

How did you do it? :slight_smile:

(Again, thanks for replying)

7

What’s the output of the command lvs ?
Have you tried Datacenter → Storage → Add Directory ?

8

lvs output: ( yes, the root partition is 10G, I thought I made it 20)

root@amphora:~# lvs
  LV           VG     Attr       LSize  Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  proxmox_root nvme_1 -wi-ao----  9.31g                                                    
  vmstorage    nvme_1 twi-aotz-- 20.00g             0.00   10.57                           
root@amphora:~#

pm_datacenter_storage
pm_datacenter_storage2371×1098 109 KB

Yes, and I can create a directory there and I have, but I can’t upload anything from there, and they don’t show up in the (node->disks->directory) as you can see from the previous screenshots.

“local” came with the installation, and I created the “vmstorage” which is the PV partition. I tried it after I saw that the PV partition wasn’t in the ‘disks’ dropdown in the node directory.

9

Can you expand the amphora node navigation menu on the left?
Also have you tried looking at “LVM” instead of “Directory”

1 Like
10

Ok, don’t know how I missed that but, yea I can see my directories there and I can upload from there :slight_smile:

This interface has left me speechless.
Thanks

11

I have to agree the directory/uploading content part is not very intuitive. Every time I install a new Promox host, admittedly not that often, I need to remind myself of this by getting it wrong the first time :smiley:

12

To say that this has been a learning experience is unfortunately really not an exaggeration anymore :slight_smile: