Proxmox as high performance RDMA ZFS NAS and VM Server

[gea]

How to use Proxmox as ZFS Storage and VM Server

There are not too many Linux distributions that include ZFS per default. The two main options are TrueNAS Scale and Proxmox.
One is a NAS distribution where you should not do anything outside the web-gui and the other has a strong focus on virtualisation.

While I would not suggest to install complex applications on Proxmox directly, I see no problem to enable the two kernelservices kernel-smbd and kernel-nfs. This allows Proxmox to act as NFS and SMB server, with the RDMA capable ksmbd even much faster than the usual SAMBA SMB server. For a typical Storageserver you mainly need NFS and SMB.

Steps to use Proxmox as NAS after installing a default Proxmox

1. Setup kernelbased ksmbd SMB direct server at console as root (high performance, RDMA capable)
apt install ksmbd-tools
modprobe ksmbd

Then create /etc/ksmbd/ksmbd.conf (SAMBA smb.conf alike settings, anonymous access), use WinSCP

[global]
unix charset = UTF-8
workgroup = WORKGROUP
server string = SMB-Server
guest account = nobody
create mask = 0775
directory mask = 0755
browsable = yes
map to guest = bad user

# optionally add shares

[share_example]
guest ok = yes
path = /tmp

Start/Stop ksmbd SMB server

systemctl stop ksmbd
systemctl start ksmbd
systemctl restart ksmbd

remove SAMBA if installed:
systemctl stop samba
apt remove samba


1. Setup kernelbased NFS server at console as root
apt install nfs-kernel-server

Configure NFS share in /etc/exports (for folder /tmp)
/tmp ´*(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

Start NFS Server
systemctl start nfs-kernel-server
systemctl enable nfs-kernel-server

restart on new settings in /etc/exports
systemctl restart nfs-kernel-server

1. Web-Gui
Proxmox comes with a web-Gui with advanced VM options but with only very basic ZFS management options.
For advanced ZFS managent you can add one of the web-gui add-ons like my napp-it or Poolsman

Napp-it is a web-gui that runs on Windows 11/Windows Server without installation.
download https://www.napp-it.org/doc/downloads/xampp.zip and unzip \xampp to c:\xampp (free for noncommercial use)
and start the web-gui „C:\xampp\__start_zfs-gui_as_admin.bat“ as admin, connect via browser and https://localhost

To manage Proxmox remotely from Windows
Use WinSCP to upload „C:\xampp\web-gui\data\cs_server\“ to /var/web-gui.
Add the remote Server in the web-gui in menu ZFS Servergroup with an access key
Enter access key to /var/web-gui/cfg/server.auth
Start remotecontrol app as root on console: perl /var/web-gui/cs_server/start_server_as_admin.pl

In napp-it cs, you can now select the Proxmox server and manage just like the local Windows ZFS and Storage Spaces server.

Napp-it can manage ZFS, snaps, replications and NFS or SMB shares

 

[Dnezar]

Will this setup still work after a major Proxmox upgrade?

 

[gea]

On current Proxmox there seems to be a problem (files not visible) with ksmbd shares on ZFS.
Until fixed, you must revert to SAMBA.

 

[vxspiritxv]

A solution to "files not visible":

echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-backports.list
apt install -t bookworm-backports ksmbd-tools

 

[gea]

A solution to "files not visible":

An additional apt update is needed, now ksmbd works

echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-backports.list
apt update
apt install -t bookworm-backports ksmbd-tools

If only SMB Direct RDMA would work too like it does on Windows Server