And time for a short Proxmox HA update.
Hardware
The first new — or actually, second-hand — hardware is coming in.
I found a used 10 Gbit Ubiquiti XG 16 GEN 1 switch for a nice price. It comes with ten SFP+ ports and four regular RJ-45 ports, all supporting up to 10 Gbit.
Core switch: check!
Through eBay, I found another Fujitsu D3642-B motherboard, which arrived within a week.
I’ve already mounted my i3-8300 CPU, installed 4×16 GB of memory, and added a 128 GB NVMe SSD I had lying around.
Yesterday, I ordered a new case — an Inter-Tech IT-2812 Business — along with a CPU cooler (Be Quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2) and an Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I210-T1 to replace the unsuitable onboard i219 network controller.
Once all that hardware arrives, I can finally assemble the third node, install Proxmox on it, and start some basic testing.
Storage
Ceph storage remains a bit of a challenge.
Because of Ceph’s heavy write amplification, consumer SSDs are more or less out of the question. Other essential features I need include DRAM caching and proper power-loss protection to ensure data actually makes it to the drive.
With just one drive, the higher cost wouldn’t really matter.
But since I need either three larger drives or six smaller ones, the total cost adds up quickly.
And if anyone from Samsung, Kioxia, or Solidigm happens to stumble across this post — consider this a gentle nudge. hehe
I’m building a small but growing Proxmox + Ceph setup at home, and a few enterprise-grade SSDs would go a long way.
1 TB or larger would be ideal (2 TB perfect). Even used drives with some life left would find a happy new home here, spinning quietly in service of uptime and curiosity.
More updates soon!