Linux for virtualization and containers: Proxmox VE 7.3 with new ZFS dRAID

Proxmox Virtual Environment version 7.3 is here: it is an open source HA and cluster compatible package for running Linux containers and virtual machines concurrently. It is based on Debian GNU/Linux and can be managed through a central web interface.

The new Proxmox VE 7.3 is based on Debian GNU/Linux 11.5 “Bullseye” with a Linux 5.15 (optionally 5.19) kernel. Slim Linux containers are provided with LXC 5.0.0, KVM/QEMU 7.1 is responsible for virtual machines (VMs). In addition to the usual GNU/Linux file systems, Proxmox VE 7.3 is mainly based on OpenZFS 2.1.6. Distributed storage solutions are based on Ceph Quincy 17.2.5 or Ceph Pacific 16.2.10. The previously usable Ceph Octopus is no longer supported (EoL).

When building GNU/Linux containers, there are new templates for Fedora, Ubuntu, Alma Linux, and Rocky Linux (both free RHEL clones). There is also a template for Devuan GNU/Linux “Daedalus” (Debian 12) free from systemd.

Preview: Cluster Resource Scheduler (CRS)

New in Proxmox VE 7.3 is a first release of cluster resource scheduler (CRS), which is marked as technological advance. The CRS is a kind of automatic migration tool that dynamically distributes newly started VMs to available nodes in the HA stack based on their CPU and especially RAM requirements.

That Offline mirror tool for Proxmox it is a local APT mirror for Debian-based operating systems like Proxmox VE itself or Debian GNU/Linux virtual machines and containers. For example, the tool can be used to create USB sticks with updated deb packages for systems that cannot or cannot access the Internet. This makes it relatively easy to import updates for so-called air-gapped systems.

OpenZFS now with dRAID

Since OpenZFS 2.1.0 it is possible called dRAID use. This is a variant of RAIDZ in which distributed hot spares are integrated. A dRAID-VDEV is built from several RAIDZ-VDEV groups, each containing data and parity devices. dRAID is intended to ensure that these VDEVs are distributed throughout the network in such a way that speed is optimized. Above all, this “parity stripping” should significantly speed up the resilvering (restoration) of very large RAIDZ solutions. ZFS dRAID groups can be configured through the Proxmox VE 7.3 GUI.

In addition to many other small improvements, tasks can now be easily bound to specific CPUs (CPU pinning, affinity). It is also practical that USB devices can now be connected during operation. This is possible after rebooting a VM with KVM/QEMU 7.1 and that is at least Windows 8 or GNU/Linux with kernel >= 2.6.

All the news are in the Release Notes for Proxmox VE 7.3 list. Proxmox Virtual Environment 7.3 is available as OpenSource software and can be used free of charge. The extensive enterprise support from the Viennese developers is available from EUR 95 (net) per year and CPU.

(fo)