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[[chapter_hyper_converged_infrastructure]]
Hyper-converged Infrastructure
------------------------------

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{pve} is a virtualization platform that tightly integrates compute, storage and
networking resources, manages highly available clusters, backup/restore as well
as disaster recovery. All components are software-defined and compatible with
one another.

Therefore it is possible to administrate them like a single system via the
centralized web management interface. These capabilities make {pve} an ideal
choice to deploy and manage an open source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-converged_infrastructure[hyper-converged infrastructure].

Benefits of a Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) with {pve}
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is especially useful for deployments in
which a high infrastructure demand meets a low administration budget, for
distributed setups such as remote and branch office environments or for virtual
private and public clouds.

HCI provides the following advantages:

- Scalability: seamless expansion of compute, network and storage devices (i.e.
  scale up servers and storage quickly and independently from each other).

- Low cost: {pve} is open source and integrates all components you need such as
  compute, storage, networking, backup, and management center. It can replace
  an expensive compute/storage infrastructure.

- Data protection and efficiency: services such as backup and disaster recovery
  are integrated.

- Simplicity: easy configuration and centralized administration.

- Open Source: No vendor lock-in.


Hyper-Converged Infrastructure: Storage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{pve} has tightly integrated support for deploying a hyper-converged storage
infrastructure. You can, for example, deploy and manage the following two
storage technologies by using the Webinterface only:

- *ceph*: a both, self-healing and self-managing shared, reliable and highly
  scalable storage system. Checkout
  xref:chapter_pveceph[how to manage ceph services on {pve} nodes]

- *ZFS*: a combined file system and logical volume manager with extensive
  protection against data corruption, various RAID modes, fast and cheap
  snapshots - among other features. Find out
  xref:chapter_zfs[how to leverage the power of ZFS on {pve} nodes].

Besides above, {pve} has support to integrate a wide range of
additional storage technologies. You can find out about them in the
xref:chapter_storage[Storage Manager chapter].

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See Also
~~~~~~~~

* xref:chapter_pveceph[pveceph - Manage Ceph Services on Proxmox VE Nodes]

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