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RAW Storage
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RAW Storage

tester4tester4 Member
edited November 2019 in Help

Hi there,

I was just wondering if some of you may be able to clarify something when it comes to file based storage (qcow2/RAW).

I've noticed that when you use a RAW storage file on thick LVM, it creates a file that's quite small but has a maximum size of what you specify. As you add files, the raw file continues to grow. When you then delete those files off the VM using the RAW storage, it remains the same size but the actual data inside the VM is reduced as expected.

What happens when the RAW file eventually hits max size? For example it was 2TB but inside the actual VM it's only using 50GB. Would it continue to work as expected?

Summoning resident file based storage advocate @AnthonySmith

Thanks

Comments

  • In your example, the file would remain at 2TB. It would then start to reallocate some parts that are unused to make way for new files, up to the 2TB limit - after which you can then extend the size if you wish.

    Thanked by 1tester4
  • I see, okay - just I had researched online and seen most peoples go up and down so I was wondering if mine was broken or not. Phew, had thought I'd be working on this all night as I've tried a few different configs and could only ever get it to basically forever grow.

  • Sometimes it will shrink itself which is seemingly random and unexpected, in a good way. I try not to dwell on the how or why, it sometimes sends me down rabbit holes for hours determined to find answers.. lol

    Thanked by 1tester4
  • Thanks for your advice @dahartigan - I tested the theory by just creating a 10GB server and maxing out the disk space. The RAW file got to 10GB, it then let me delete the 10GB file on the server and then re-download 10GB without the RAW file getting any bigger.

    Case closed, thank you!

    Thanked by 1dahartigan
  • No worries! :-)

  • Thought I'd post an update here case someone else comes across this thread researching the same issue, Virtualizor will be deploying an update shortly that allows for use of SCSI drive storage and automatic fstrim inside VM's that will stop this issue occurring.

  • Have been given beta access to this functionality, is working as expected. Doesn't work with RAW though, has to be qcow2 or thin LVM but other than that - it's all working fine!

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