1 include::attributes.txt[]
10 pvesm - Proxmox VE Storage Manager
16 include::pvesm.1-synopsis.adoc[]
27 The {pve} storage model is very flexible. Virtual machine images
28 can either be stored on one or several local storages, or on shared
29 storage like NFS or iSCSI (NAS, SAN). There are no limits, and you may
30 configure as many storage pools as you like. You can use all
31 storage technologies available for Debian Linux.
33 One major benefit of storing VMs on shared storage is the ability to
34 live-migrate running machines without any downtime, as all nodes in
35 the cluster have direct access to VM disk images. There is no need to
36 copy VM image data, so live migration is very fast in that case.
38 The storage library (package 'libpve-storage-perl') uses a flexible
39 plugin system to provide a common interface to all storage types. This
40 can be easily adopted to include further storage types in future.
46 There are basically two different classes of storage types:
50 Allows to store large 'raw' images. It is usually not possible to store
51 other files (ISO, backups, ..) on such storage types. Most modern
52 block level storage implementations support snapshots and clones.
53 RADOS, Sheepdog and DRBD are distributed systems, replicating storage
54 data to different nodes.
58 They allow access to a full featured (POSIX) file system. They are
59 more flexible, and allows you to store any content type. ZFS is
60 probably the most advanced system, and it has full support for
64 .Available storage types
65 [width="100%",cols="<d,1*m,4*d",options="header"]
66 |===========================================================
67 |Description |PVE type |Level |Shared|Snapshots|Stable
68 |ZFS (local) |zfspool |file |no |yes |yes
69 |Directory |dir |file |no |no |yes
70 |NFS |nfs |file |yes |no |yes
71 |GlusterFS |glusterfs |file |yes |no |yes
72 |LVM |lvm |block |no |no |yes
73 |LVM-thin |lvmthin |block |no |yes |beta
74 |iSCSI/kernel |iscsi |block |yes |no |yes
75 |iSCSI/libiscsi |iscsidirect |block |yes |no |yes
76 |Ceph/RBD |rbd |block |yes |yes |yes
77 |Sheepdog |sheepdog |block |yes |yes |beta
78 |DRBD9 |drbd |block |yes |yes |beta
79 |ZFS over iSCSI |zfs |block |yes |yes |yes
80 |=========================================================
82 TIP: It is possible to use LVM on top of an iSCSI storage. That way
83 you get a 'shared' LVM storage.
88 All {pve} related storage configuration is stored within a single text
89 file at '/etc/pve/storage.cfg'. As this file is within '/etc/pve/', it
90 gets automatically distributed to all cluster nodes. So all nodes
91 share the same storage configuration.
93 Sharing storage configuration make perfect sense for shared storage,
94 because the same 'shared' storage is accessible from all nodes. But is
95 also useful for local storage types. In this case such local storage
96 is available on all nodes, but it is physically different and can have
97 totally different content.
102 Each storage pool has a `<type>`, and is uniquely identified by its `<STORAGE_ID>`. A pool configuration looks like this:
111 NOTE: There is one special local storage pool named `local`. It refers to
112 directory '/var/lib/vz' and is automatically generated at installation
115 The `<type>: <STORAGE_ID>` line starts the pool definition, which is then
116 followed by a list of properties. Most properties have values, but some of them comes
117 with reasonable default. In that case you can omit the value.
119 .Default storage configuration ('/etc/pve/storage.cfg')
123 content backup,iso,vztmpl,images,rootdir
127 Common Storage Properties
128 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
130 A few storage properties are common among differenty storage types.
134 List of cluster node names where this storage is
135 usable/accessible. One can use this property to restrict storage
136 access to a limited set of nodes.
140 A storage can support several content types, for example virtual disk
141 images, cdrom iso images, container templates or container root
142 directories. Not all storage types supports all content types. One can set
143 this property to select for what this storage is used for.
151 Allow to store Container data.
159 Backup files ('vzdump').
167 Mark storage as shared.
171 You can use this flag to disable the storage completely.
175 Maximal number of backup files per VM. Use `0` for unlimted.
179 Default image format (`raw|qcow2|vmdk`)
182 WARNING: It is not advisable to use the same storage pool on different
183 {pve} clusters. Some storage operation needs exclusive access to the
184 storage, so proper locking is required. While this is implemented
185 within an cluster, it does not work between different clusters.
191 We use a special notation to address storage data. When you allocate
192 data from a storage pool, it returns such volume identifier. A volume
193 is identified by the `<STORAGE_ID>`, followed by a storage type
194 dependent volume name, separated by colon. A valid `<VOLUME_ID>` looks
197 local:230/example-image.raw
199 local:iso/debian-501-amd64-netinst.iso
201 local:vztmpl/debian-5.0-joomla_1.5.9-1_i386.tar.gz
203 iscsi-storage:0.0.2.scsi-14f504e46494c4500494b5042546d2d646744372d31616d61
205 To get the filesystem path for a `<VOLUME_ID>` use:
207 pvesm path <VOLUME_ID>
212 There exists an ownership relation for 'image' type volumes. Each such
213 volume is owned by a VM or Container. For example volume
214 `local:230/example-image.raw` is owned by VM 230. Most storage
215 backends encodes this ownership information into the volume name.
217 When you remove a VM or Container, the system also remove all
218 associated volumes which are owned by that VM or Container.
221 Using the Command Line Interface
222 --------------------------------
224 I think it is required to understand the concept behind storage pools
225 and volume identifier, but in real life, you are not forced to do any
226 of those low level operations on the command line. Normally,
227 allocation and removal of volumes is done by the VM and Container
230 Nevertheless, there is a command line tool called 'pvesm' ({pve}
231 storage manager), which is able to perform common storage management
240 pvesm add <TYPE> <STORAGE_ID> <OPTIONS>
241 pvesm add dir <STORAGE_ID> --path <PATH>
242 pvesm add nfs <STORAGE_ID> --path <PATH> --server <SERVER> --export <EXPORT>
243 pvesm add lvm <STORAGE_ID> --vgname <VGNAME>
244 pvesm add iscsi <STORAGE_ID> --portal <HOST[:PORT]> --target <TARGET>
246 Disable storage pools
248 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --disable 1
252 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --disable 0
254 Change/set storage options
256 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> <OPTIONS>
257 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --shared 1
258 pvesm set local --format qcow2
259 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --content iso
261 Remove storage pools. This does not delete any data, and does not
262 disconnect or unmount anything. It just removes the storage
265 pvesm remove <STORAGE_ID>
269 pvesm alloc <STORAGE_ID> <VMID> <name> <size> [--format <raw|qcow2>]
271 Allocate a 4G volume in local storage. The name is auto-generated if
272 you pass an empty string as `<name>`
274 pvesm alloc local <VMID> '' 4G
278 pvesm free <VOLUME_ID>
280 WARNING: This really destroys all volume data.
286 List storage contents
288 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> [--vmid <VMID>]
290 List volumes allocated by VMID
292 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --vmid <VMID>
296 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --iso
298 List container templates
300 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --vztmpl
302 Show filesystem path for a volume
304 pvesm path <VOLUME_ID>
306 // backend documentation
308 include::pve-storage-dir.adoc[]
310 include::pve-storage-nfs.adoc[]
312 include::pve-storage-glusterfs.adoc[]
314 include::pve-storage-zfspool.adoc[]
316 include::pve-storage-lvm.adoc[]
318 include::pve-storage-iscsi.adoc[]
320 include::pve-storage-iscsidirect.adoc[]
322 include::pve-storage-rbd.adoc[]
326 include::pve-copyright.adoc[]