Proxmox + Compatible Supermicro ITC Servers for ISPs.

Proxmox

Proxmox is open-source software that allows for server virtualization and management through a single graphical interface. It is an excellent solution for companies that require multiple virtual machines and want full control over them. Proxmox also offers many additional features such as disaster recovery, automatic backups, and performance monitoring.

Here are some features of the system:

Flexible Storage

The Proxmox VE storage model is very flexible. Virtual machine images can be stored on one or several local storage devices, or on shared storage like NFS or SAN. There are no limitations - you can configure as many storage definitions as you need. You can use all storage technologies available in Debian Linux.

One major benefit of storing virtual machines on shared storage is the ability to live-migrate running machines without any downtime, as all nodes in the cluster have direct access to VM disk images.

Currently, we support the following network storage types:

• LVM Group (network backing with iSCSI targets)
• iSCSI target
• NFS Share
• CIFS Share
• Ceph RBD
• Directly use iSCSI LUNs
• GlusterFS

Supported local storage types include:

• LVM Group
• Directory
• ZFS

Backup:

The integrated backup tool (vzdump) in Proxmox VE allows for creating consistent snapshots of running containers (CT) and KVM guests. It essentially creates an archive of the virtual machine or container data, including the configuration files.

KVM live backup works for all storage types, including VM images on NFS, CIFS, iSCSI LUN, and Ceph RBD. The new backup format is optimized for fast and efficient storage of VM backups (sparse files, out-of-order data, minimized I/O).

High Availability Cluster

A Proxmox VE High Availability (HA) cluster enables the creation of highly available virtual servers. The HA cluster in Proxmox VE is based on proven Linux HA technologies, providing stable and reliable HA services.

Recommended Hardware Requirements:

• Intel EMT64 or AMD64 processor with Intel VT/AMD-V CPU flag.
• Minimum 2 GB of RAM for the operating system and Proxmox VE services. Additional memory for virtual machines. For Ceph or ZFS, additional memory is required, approximately 1 GB of memory per each 1 TB of used storage.
• Fast and redundant storage, achieving best results with SSD disks.
• Operating system storage: Hardware RAID with battery-protected write cache ("BBU") or non-RAID with ZFS and SSD cache.
• Virtual machine storage: For local storage, use hardware RAID with battery-backed write cache (BBU) or non-RAID for ZFS. Neither ZFS nor Ceph are compatible with hardware RAID controllers. Shared and distributed storage is also possible.
• Redundant 1 Gbit NICs, with additional NICs depending on the preferred storage technology and cluster configuration. 10 Gbit and higher technologies are also supported.