ProxMox Cluster - Soup-to-Nutz

aka what i did to get from nothing to done.

Start Date - First week of August 2023

End Date - none

Updates as of 9/23/2023 This cluster is no longer a PoC and is my production cluster for my two dommain controllers.

VHDX import actually works great depite my issues during DC migration (short version is make sure you type commands correctly) Next up is the docker VMs, these are the last VMs to be moved

note most of the time was spent on a)finding somone who could fix the thunderbolt and thunderbolt-net bugs i found and getting them inot the krenel and b) me stupidly using synology backup and restore on the windows VMs because i mistyped qm import when trying to import disks (lol)

note: these are designed to be primarily a re-install guide for myself (writing things down helps me memorize the knowledge), as such don't take any of this on blind faith - some areas are well tested and the docs are very robust, some items, less so). YMMV i will regularly update until all outcomes and todo's are achieved.

Outcomes

TODO

add TLS to the mail relay? with LE certs? maybe?
maybe send syslog to my syslog server (securely)
figure out ceph public/cluster running on different networks - unclear its needed for this size of install
get all nodes listening to my network UPS and shut down before power runs out
For the docker VMs implement both cephfs via virtiofs for and a cephs docker volume and test which i like best in a swarm - using this ceph volume guide and this mounting guide by Drallas - using one of these three ceph volume plugins https://github.com/Brindster/docker-plugin-cephfs https://github.com/flaviostutz/cepher https://gitlab.com/n0r1sk/docker-volume-cephfs

Purpose of cluster

I have been using Hyper-V for my docker swarm cluster VM hosts (see other gists). Original intenttion was to try and get Thunderbolt Networking for a Hyper-V cluster going and clustered storage for the VMs. This turns out to be super hard when using NUCs as cluster nodes due to too few disks. I looked at solar winds as alternative but this was both complex and not pervasive.

I had been watching proxmox for years and thought now was a good time to jump in and see what it is all about. (i had never booted or looked at proxmox UI before doing this - so this documentation is soup to nuts and intended for me to repro if needed)

Goals of Cluster

VMs running on clustered storage {completed}
Use of ThunderBolt for ~26Gbe Cluster VM operations (replication, failover etc)
- Thunderbolt meshs with OSPF routing {completed}
- Ceph over thunderbolt mesh {completed}
- VM running with live migration {completed}
- VM running with HA failove of node failure {completed}
- Seperate VM/CT Migration network over thunderbolt mesh {not started}
Use low powered off the shelf Intel NUCs {completed}
Migrate VMs from Hyper-V:
- Windows Server Domain Controler / DNS / DHCP / CA / AAD SYNC VMs {not started}
- Debian Dcoker Host (for my 3 running 3 node swarm) VMs {not started}
- HomeAssistant VM {not started}
Sized to last me 5+ years (lol, yeah, right)

Hardware Selected

3x 13th Gen Intel NUCs (NUC13ANHi7):
- Core i7-1360P Processor(12 Cores, 5.0 GHz, 16 Threads)
- Intel Iris Xe Graphics
- 64 GB DDR4 3200 CL22 RAM
- Samsung 870 EVO SSD 1TB Boot Drive
- Samsung 980 Pro NVME 2 TB Data Drive
- 1x Onboard 2.5Gbe LAN Port
- 2x Onboard Thunderbolt4 Ports
- 1 x 2.5Gbe usinng Intel NUCIOALUWS nvme epxansion port
3 x OWC TB4 Cables