A storage system is a medium to store data for simultaneous access by multiple devices or nodes in a network. As server and desktop virtualization becomes the norm, a proper, stable storage system today is much more critical for a virtual environment. In terms of Proxmox, a storage system is where virtual disk images are stored for both KVM and container-based virtual machines.
Although a Proxmox cluster can function fully with Direct Attached Storage (DAS) or a local storage system in the same Proxmox node, a shared storage system has many benefits in a production environment, such as increased manageability, seamless storage expansion, and redundancy, just to name a few. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
- Local versus shared storage
- Virtual disk image types
- Storage types supported by Proxmox
- Commercial and free shared storage options
- FreeNAS...
