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OVH HDD vs NVME / RAID / Proxmox
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OVH HDD vs NVME / RAID / Proxmox

Hi guys,

I've just ordered a server at OVH (16GB RAM, 2x450GB NVME drive) but having second doubts and would prefer more storage space.

The same OVH server is also available in 2x4TB HDDs.

The server I will be using for hosting no more than 6 VMs (or perhaps LXC containers, I'm thinking Proxmox).

The use will be mainly for web/database hosting but may also want to have 1-2TB worth of static mp3s for streaming to the public potentially utilising the 500Mbit connection.

I don't have a lot of experience with RAID arrays and hosting VMs on HDD.

Can I trust OVH's HDD's to handle this load including VMs and streaming? Will the hard drives be slowing down things for me to an unacceptable level?

In case one drive failed, what are the chances of rebuilding the software raid? I've been researching a bit into RAID rebuilds and found a lot of discussions about URE (unrecoverable read errors) during rebuilds on large (2TB+) drives due to the predicted URE rates.

How are OVH HDDs in terms of reliability?

Of course, I would be utilising the OVH 500GB backup space for essential backups. Also, I'm thinking about getting Pcloud's 2TB lifetime offer for backups.

What I realise is that it is fairly easy to spin up another server at OVH (120 second delivery!) so restoring from backups does not seem too bad if it came to it).

Alternatively, another option is to get two servers and have Proxmox's storage replication so nearly realtime backups would be available (https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Storage_Replication). As I understand a complex setup for this is not needed (no GlusterFS etc.), however I am a cheapskate and would like to save some money here.

I'm sorry I am touching a few subjects here in my ramble - but would appreciate any help on any of the points or suggestions for a better setup with backups etc.

Thank you,

Anonymous

Comments

  • niknik Member, Host Rep

    If you have 2TB worth of static mp3s, how do you plan on hosting them on 2x450GB NVMe?

    Thanked by 1Aidan
  • Hi Nic, The first setup would not include the mp3s of course. I was looking at SoYouStart provider potentially getting a few cheap storage servers 1x2TB (250mbit) for £5.99 inc VAT. They seem to be out of stock at the moment though.

    However I'd like to look at the option of having it all in one server which is also in my preferred DC in the UK.

  • AFAIK, Proxmox doesn't support soft RAID.

  • niknik Member, Host Rep
    edited September 2018

    @Anonymous said:
    Hi Nic, The first setup would not include the mp3s of course. I was looking at SoYouStart provider potentially getting a few cheap storage servers 1x2TB (250mbit) for £5.99 inc VAT. They seem to be out of stock at the moment though.

    However I'd like to look at the option of having it all in one server which is also in my preferred DC in the UK.

    You could look into hosting your assets on OVHs object storage solution, while taking the 2x 450GB NVMe server. This way you are not limited by disk space and have the good performance NVMe offers.

  • @AlwaysSkint said:
    AFAIK, Proxmox doesn't support soft RAID.

    Yes it does.

  • letboxletbox Member, Patron Provider

    @imok said:

    @AlwaysSkint said:
    AFAIK, Proxmox doesn't support soft RAID.

    Yes it does.

    Only if you installing it above Debian

  • jaypeesmithjaypeesmith Member
    edited September 2018

    @key900 said:

    @imok said:

    @AlwaysSkint said:
    AFAIK, Proxmox doesn't support soft RAID.

    Yes it does.

    Only if you installing it above Debian

    If you use ZFS, it supports software RAID from the installer.

  • letboxletbox Member, Patron Provider

    @jaypeesmith said:

    @key900 said:

    @imok said:

    @AlwaysSkint said:
    AFAIK, Proxmox doesn't support soft RAID.

    Yes it does.

    Only if you installing it above Debian

    If you use ZFS, it supports software RAID from the installer.

    It complex to installing main Promox files using ZFS I believe some people got their system damaged later so it better of installing normal Promox then create ZFS later.

  • @key900 said:

    @jaypeesmith said:

    @key900 said:

    @imok said:

    @AlwaysSkint said:
    AFAIK, Proxmox doesn't support soft RAID.

    Yes it does.

    Only if you installing it above Debian

    If you use ZFS, it supports software RAID from the installer.

    It complex to installing main Promox files using ZFS I believe some people got their system damaged later so it better of installing normal Promox then create ZFS later.

    It's not complex at all. In fact, the installer lets you select ZFS and your RAID level. I am not sure where you are getting your information but the 5.x series has long been able to do this.

  • letboxletbox Member, Patron Provider

    @jaypeesmith said:

    @key900 said:

    @jaypeesmith said:

    @key900 said:

    @imok said:

    @AlwaysSkint said:
    AFAIK, Proxmox doesn't support soft RAID.

    Yes it does.

    Only if you installing it above Debian

    If you use ZFS, it supports software RAID from the installer.

    It complex to installing main Promox files using ZFS I believe some people got their system damaged later so it better of installing normal Promox then create ZFS later.

    It's not complex at all. In fact, the installer lets you select ZFS and your RAID level. I am not sure where you are getting your information but the 5.x series has long been able to do this.

    Well maybe they improved the installation area, Last i did was 4.xx we now using Debian it better and give us more options.

    Thanked by 1vimalware
  • Hmm, think I better take another look at the Proxmox docs.

  • @AlwaysSkint said:
    Hmm, think I better take another look at the Proxmox docs.

    From the install doc (https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Installation):

    "If you have more than one disk, you can also use ZFS as file system. ZFS supports several software RAID levels, so this is specially useful if you do not have a hardware RAID controller. The Options button lets you select the ZFS RAID level, and you can choose disks there."

    Thanked by 1AlwaysSkint
  • Do not host mp3s on same server with web/database server. I did that 4-5 years ago and failed completely

  • msg7086msg7086 Member
    edited September 2018

    And to be honest I always install proxmox upon a debian installation for maximum flexibilities. ZFS, raid, customized lvm settings and luks, and I even managed to run a samba share on the host. Using a soft RAID like linux MD is unsupported in a way that their team would not extensively test their system against this configuration, not meaning that the OS will blow up or refuse to work etc. And I've been using MD RAID10 for most of my setup with no issues.

    Back to the topic. NVMe provides super low latency and high random I/O. We know that you have 6 VMs, but not sure how heavy they are consuming the I/Os. A light load website that has less than 100,000 page views per day doesn't really demand a SSD. A heavy one that has more than 1 million pvs will run much better on a SSD, and even better if it's on NVMe protocol.

    Having a soyoustart ARM storage server at $6/month, or having a google drive with unlimited space at $10/month, are also good options for you to mount on that server as a storage vault.

    Thanked by 1vimalware
  • Thank you all for your involvement and responses. The VMs I am planning to transfer are not very IO demanding and I have to admit the mp3 project is something that is only a collection at the moment and the project is only in development.

    I will take Harud's advice. As a programmer, I always try to apply the principle of 'separation of concerns'. I see it as somewhat applicable in this situation.

    I am thinking of getting a couple of cheap storage servers for the mp3s. Possibly a server in Europe and a server in the US. The same data may be synced between the two (or more) servers to provide a form of backup at the same time serving as production servers based on geo-location (looks like Geo-DNS/Geo database is something I will be looking into although so far I not convinced of their accuracy). Non-realtime synchronisation may be handled by the application perhaps checking availability across the server 'cluster' using file checksum.

    Aside from that, I am still somewhat interested in possibly switching to HDD for the VMs.

    NVME has been good so far but I'm trying to figure out how storage works in LXC/ZFS. One thing I have noted is that it seems that LXC container's zfs volume only takes up what it uses. So for example, if I create a 100GB volume and fill it with 5GB of data, the zfs pool only reports 5GB being used.

    Does this mean I can 'overcommit' on disk space? e.g. have six 100GB volumes when I only have a 400GB pool (overcommit by 200GB)? Is anyone experienced enough to confirm this?
    I should have more time this weekend to test this (would be super good on tight-ish SSD space).

    Also, OVH have a template of Proxmox+ZFS (Debian) that installs Debian based version on server so that was easy to setup.

    Thanks

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