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 A number of storages, and the Qemu image format `qcow2`, support _thin
90 provisioning_. With thin provisioning activated, only the blocks that
91 the guest system actually use will be written to the storage.
93 Say for instance you create a VM with a 32GB hard disk, and after
94 installing the guest system OS, the root filesystem of the VM contains
95 3 GB of data. In that case only 3GB are written to the storage, even
96 if the guest VM sees a 32GB hard drive. In this way thin provisioning
97 allows you to create disk images which are larger than the currently
98 available storage blocks. You can create large disk images for your
99 VMs, and when the need arises, add more disks to your storage without
100 resizing the VMs filesystems.
102 All storage types which have the 'Snapshots' feature also support thin
106 Storage Configuration
107 ---------------------
109 All {pve} related storage configuration is stored within a single text
110 file at '/etc/pve/storage.cfg'. As this file is within '/etc/pve/', it
111 gets automatically distributed to all cluster nodes. So all nodes
112 share the same storage configuration.
114 Sharing storage configuration make perfect sense for shared storage,
115 because the same 'shared' storage is accessible from all nodes. But is
116 also useful for local storage types. In this case such local storage
117 is available on all nodes, but it is physically different and can have
118 totally different content.
123 Each storage pool has a `<type>`, and is uniquely identified by its `<STORAGE_ID>`. A pool configuration looks like this:
132 NOTE: There is one special local storage pool named `local`. It refers to
133 the directory '/var/lib/vz' and is automatically generated at installation
136 The `<type>: <STORAGE_ID>` line starts the pool definition, which is then
137 followed by a list of properties. Most properties have values, but some of
138 them come with reasonable default. In that case you can omit the value.
140 .Default storage configuration ('/etc/pve/storage.cfg')
144 content iso,vztmpl,backup
149 content rootdir,images
152 Common Storage Properties
153 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
155 A few storage properties are common among different storage types.
159 List of cluster node names where this storage is
160 usable/accessible. One can use this property to restrict storage
161 access to a limited set of nodes.
165 A storage can support several content types, for example virtual disk
166 images, cdrom iso images, container templates or container root
167 directories. Not all storage types support all content types. One can set
168 this property to select for what this storage is used for.
176 Allow to store container data.
184 Backup files ('vzdump').
192 Mark storage as shared.
196 You can use this flag to disable the storage completely.
200 Maximal number of backup files per VM. Use `0` for unlimted.
204 Default image format (`raw|qcow2|vmdk`)
207 WARNING: It is not advisable to use the same storage pool on different
208 {pve} clusters. Some storage operation need exclusive access to the
209 storage, so proper locking is required. While this is implemented
210 within a cluster, it does not work between different clusters.
216 We use a special notation to address storage data. When you allocate
217 data from a storage pool, it returns such a volume identifier. A volume
218 is identified by the `<STORAGE_ID>`, followed by a storage type
219 dependent volume name, separated by colon. A valid `<VOLUME_ID>` looks
222 local:230/example-image.raw
224 local:iso/debian-501-amd64-netinst.iso
226 local:vztmpl/debian-5.0-joomla_1.5.9-1_i386.tar.gz
228 iscsi-storage:0.0.2.scsi-14f504e46494c4500494b5042546d2d646744372d31616d61
230 To get the filesystem path for a `<VOLUME_ID>` use:
232 pvesm path <VOLUME_ID>
237 There exists an ownership relation for 'image' type volumes. Each such
238 volume is owned by a VM or Container. For example volume
239 `local:230/example-image.raw` is owned by VM 230. Most storage
240 backends encodes this ownership information into the volume name.
242 When you remove a VM or Container, the system also removes all
243 associated volumes which are owned by that VM or Container.
246 Using the Command Line Interface
247 --------------------------------
249 It is recommended to familiarize yourself with the concept behind storage
250 pools and volume identifiers, but in real life, you are not forced to do any
251 of those low level operations on the command line. Normally,
252 allocation and removal of volumes is done by the VM and Container
255 Nevertheless, there is a command line tool called 'pvesm' ({pve}
256 storage manager), which is able to perform common storage management
265 pvesm add <TYPE> <STORAGE_ID> <OPTIONS>
266 pvesm add dir <STORAGE_ID> --path <PATH>
267 pvesm add nfs <STORAGE_ID> --path <PATH> --server <SERVER> --export <EXPORT>
268 pvesm add lvm <STORAGE_ID> --vgname <VGNAME>
269 pvesm add iscsi <STORAGE_ID> --portal <HOST[:PORT]> --target <TARGET>
271 Disable storage pools
273 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --disable 1
277 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --disable 0
279 Change/set storage options
281 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> <OPTIONS>
282 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --shared 1
283 pvesm set local --format qcow2
284 pvesm set <STORAGE_ID> --content iso
286 Remove storage pools. This does not delete any data, and does not
287 disconnect or unmount anything. It just removes the storage
290 pvesm remove <STORAGE_ID>
294 pvesm alloc <STORAGE_ID> <VMID> <name> <size> [--format <raw|qcow2>]
296 Allocate a 4G volume in local storage. The name is auto-generated if
297 you pass an empty string as `<name>`
299 pvesm alloc local <VMID> '' 4G
303 pvesm free <VOLUME_ID>
305 WARNING: This really destroys all volume data.
311 List storage contents
313 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> [--vmid <VMID>]
315 List volumes allocated by VMID
317 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --vmid <VMID>
321 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --iso
323 List container templates
325 pvesm list <STORAGE_ID> --vztmpl
327 Show filesystem path for a volume
329 pvesm path <VOLUME_ID>
336 * link:/index.php/Storage:_Directory[Storage: Directory]
338 * link:/index.php/Storage:_GlusterFS[Storage: GlusterFS]
340 * link:/index.php/Storage:_User_Mode_iSCSI[Storage: User Mode iSCSI]
342 * link:/index.php/Storage:_iSCSI[Storage: iSCSI]
344 * link:/index.php/Storage:_LVM[Storage: LVM]
346 * link:/index.php/Storage:_LVM_Thin[Storage: LVM Thin]
348 * link:/index.php/Storage:_NFS[Storage: NFS]
350 * link:/index.php/Storage:_RBD[Storage: RBD]
352 * link:/index.php/Storage:_ZFS[Storage: ZFS]
359 // backend documentation
361 include::pve-storage-dir.adoc[]
363 include::pve-storage-nfs.adoc[]
365 include::pve-storage-glusterfs.adoc[]
367 include::pve-storage-zfspool.adoc[]
369 include::pve-storage-lvm.adoc[]
371 include::pve-storage-lvmthin.adoc[]
373 include::pve-storage-iscsi.adoc[]
375 include::pve-storage-iscsidirect.adoc[]
377 include::pve-storage-rbd.adoc[]
382 include::pve-copyright.adoc[]