5 include::attributes.txt[]
10 pvesm - Proxmox VE Storage Manager
16 include::pvesm.1-synopsis.adoc[]
25 include::attributes.txt[]
28 The {pve} storage model is very flexible. Virtual machine images
29 can either be stored on one or several local storages, or on shared
30 storage like NFS or iSCSI (NAS, SAN). There are no limits, and you may
31 configure as many storage pools as you like. You can use all
32 storage technologies available for Debian Linux.
34 One major benefit of storing VMs on shared storage is the ability to
35 live-migrate running machines without any downtime, as all nodes in
36 the cluster have direct access to VM disk images. There is no need to
37 copy VM image data, so live migration is very fast in that case.
39 The storage library (package 'libpve-storage-perl') uses a flexible
40 plugin system to provide a common interface to all storage types. This
41 can be easily adopted to include further storage types in future.
47 There are basically two different classes of storage types:
51 Allows to store large 'raw' images. It is usually not possible to store
52 other files (ISO, backups, ..) on such storage types. Most modern
53 block level storage implementations support snapshots and clones.
54 RADOS, Sheepdog and DRBD are distributed systems, replicating storage
55 data to different nodes.
59 They allow access to a full featured (POSIX) file system. They are
60 more flexible, and allows you to store any content type. ZFS is
61 probably the most advanced system, and it has full support for
65 .Available storage types
66 [width="100%",cols="<d,1*m,4*d",options="header"]
67 |===========================================================
68 |Description |PVE type |Level |Shared|Snapshots|Stable
69 |ZFS (local) |zfspool |file |no |yes |yes
70 |Directory |dir |file |no |no |yes
71 |NFS |nfs |file |yes |no |yes
72 |GlusterFS |glusterfs |file |yes |no |yes
73 |LVM |lvm |block |no |no |yes
74 |LVM-thin |lvmthin |block |no |yes |yes
75 |iSCSI/kernel |iscsi |block |yes |no |yes
76 |iSCSI/libiscsi |iscsidirect |block |yes |no |yes
77 |Ceph/RBD |rbd |block |yes |yes |yes
78 |Sheepdog |sheepdog |block |yes |yes |beta
79 |DRBD9 |drbd |block |yes |yes |beta
80 |ZFS over iSCSI |zfs |block |yes |yes |yes
81 |=========================================================
83 TIP: It is possible to use LVM on top of an iSCSI storage. That way
84 you get a 'shared' LVM storage.
89 All {pve} related storage configuration is stored within a single text
90 file at '/etc/pve/storage.cfg'. As this file is within '/etc/pve/', it
91 gets automatically distributed to all cluster nodes. So all nodes
92 share the same storage configuration.
94 Sharing storage configuration make perfect sense for shared storage,
95 because the same 'shared' storage is accessible from all nodes. But is
96 also useful for local storage types. In this case such local storage
97 is available on all nodes, but it is physically different and can have
98 totally different content.
103 Each storage pool has a `<type>`, and is uniquely identified by its `<STORAGE_ID>`. A pool configuration looks like this:
112 NOTE: There is one special local storage pool named `local`. It refers to
113 the directory '/var/lib/vz' and is automatically generated at installation
116 The `<type>: <STORAGE_ID>` line starts the pool definition, which is then
117 followed by a list of properties. Most properties have values, but some of
118 them come with reasonable default. In that case you can omit the value.
120 .Default storage configuration ('/etc/pve/storage.cfg')
124 content iso,vztmpl,backup
129 content rootdir,images
132 Common Storage Properties
133 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
135 A few storage properties are common among different storage types.
139 List of cluster node names where this storage is
140 usable/accessible. One can use this property to restrict storage
141 access to a limited set of nodes.
145 A storage can support several content types, for example virtual disk
146 images, cdrom iso images, container templates or container root
147 directories. Not all storage types support all content types. One can set
148 this property to select for what this storage is used for.
156 Allow to store container data.
164 Backup files ('vzdump').
172 Mark storage as shared.
176 You can use this flag to disable the storage completely.
180 Maximal number of backup files per VM. Use `0` for unlimted.
184 Default image format (`raw|qcow2|vmdk`)
187 WARNING: It is not advisable to use the same storage pool on different
188 {pve} clusters. Some storage operation need exclusive access to the
189 storage, so proper locking is required. While this is implemented
190 within a cluster, it does not work between different clusters.
196 We use a special notation to address storage data. When you allocate
197 data from a storage pool, it returns such a volume identifier. A volume
198 is identified by the `<STORAGE_ID>`, followed by a storage type
199 dependent volume name, separated by colon. A valid `<VOLUME_ID>` looks
202 local:230/example-image.raw
204 local:iso/debian-501-amd64-netinst.iso
206 local:vztmpl/debian-5.0-joomla_1.5.9-1_i386.tar.gz
208 iscsi-storage:0.0.2.scsi-14f504e46494c4500494b5042546d2d646744372d31616d61
210 To get the filesystem path for a `<VOLUME_ID>` use:
212 pvesm path <VOLUME_ID>
217 There exists an ownership relation for 'image' type volumes. Each such
218 volume is owned by a VM or Container. For example volume
219 `local:230/example-image.raw` is owned by VM 230. Most storage
220 backends encodes this ownership information into the volume name.
222 When you remove a VM or Container, the system also removes all
223 associated volumes which are owned by that VM or Container.
226 Using the Command Line Interface
227 --------------------------------
229 It is recommended to familiarize yourself with the concept behind storage
230 pools and volume identifiers, but in real life, you are not forced to do any
231 of those low level operations on the command line. Normally,
232 allocation and removal of volumes is done by the VM and Container
235 Nevertheless, there is a command line tool called 'pvesm' ({pve}
236 storage manager), which is able to perform common storage management
245 pvesm add <TYPE> <STORAGE_ID> <OPTIONS>
246 pvesm add dir <STORAGE_ID> --path <PATH>
247 pvesm add nfs <STORAGE_ID> --path <PATH> --server <SERVER> --export <EXPORT>
248 pvesm add lvm <STORAGE_ID> --vgname <VGNAME>
249 pvesm add iscsi <STORAGE_ID> --portal <HOST[:PORT]> --target <TARGET>
251 Disable storage pools
253 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --disable 1
257 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --disable 0
259 Change/set storage options
261 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> <OPTIONS>
262 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --shared 1
263 pvesm set local --format qcow2
264 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --content iso
266 Remove storage pools. This does not delete any data, and does not
267 disconnect or unmount anything. It just removes the storage
270 pvesm remove <STORAGE_ID>
274 pvesm alloc <STORAGE_ID> <VMID> <name> <size> [--format <raw|qcow2>]
276 Allocate a 4G volume in local storage. The name is auto-generated if
277 you pass an empty string as `<name>`
279 pvesm alloc local <VMID> '' 4G
283 pvesm free <VOLUME_ID>
285 WARNING: This really destroys all volume data.
291 List storage contents
293 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> [--vmid <VMID>]
295 List volumes allocated by VMID
297 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --vmid <VMID>
301 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --iso
303 List container templates
305 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --vztmpl
307 Show filesystem path for a volume
309 pvesm path <VOLUME_ID>
311 // backend documentation
313 include::pve-storage-dir.adoc[]
315 include::pve-storage-nfs.adoc[]
317 include::pve-storage-glusterfs.adoc[]
319 include::pve-storage-zfspool.adoc[]
321 include::pve-storage-lvm.adoc[]
323 include::pve-storage-lvmthin.adoc[]
325 include::pve-storage-iscsi.adoc[]
327 include::pve-storage-iscsidirect.adoc[]
329 include::pve-storage-rbd.adoc[]
333 include::pve-copyright.adoc[]