Proxmox VE 9.1 Homelab: ZFS, LXC vs VM, Docker Migration advice?

Proxmox VE 9.1 Homelab: ZFS, LXC vs VM, Docker Migration advice?

[Marco Malavolti]

Good evening to all Proxmox enthusiasts!

I’m a future new user of Proxmox VE 9.1 and Proxmox Backup Server, and I’m
looking for what you think is the most long‑lasting solution within the
Proxmox ecosystem for a simple homelab.

This is my hardware for Proxmox VE 9.1:

1) CWWK 12th Gen Intel Firewall Mini PC Alder Lake i3 N305 Fanless Soft
Router Proxmox DDR5 4800MHz 4xi226-V 2.5G (
https://cwwk.net/products/12th-gen-intel-firewall-mini-pc-alder-lake-i3-n305-8-core-n200-n100-fanless-soft-router-proxmox-ddr5-4800mhz-4xi226-v-2-5g?_pos=1&_sid=cc36e8016&_ss=r&variant=44613920162024
)

2) 32GB of Crucial DDR5 RAM (https://amzn.eu/d/00DxTBLh)

3) 2TB NVMe M.2: https://amzn.eu/d/0f2XIxHV

4) Legrand Keor Multiplug LG-310082 800VA/480W UPS (
https://amzn.eu/d/06coyhv5)

For Proxmox Backup Server I have a mini PC with an Intel i5-5250U 4‑core
CPU, 8GB RAM and a 1TB Samsung 870 SSD.

I also have another external 1TB hard drive for an additional backup to
support a 3‑2‑1 strategy.

At the moment, all my applications run directly on a mini PC with Debian 12
and Docker Compose: Immich, Nextcloud, Pi-hole, ProjectSend, Nginx Proxy
Manager.

In the future I would like to move everything to Proxmox VE and PBS, but
I’d like to do it wisely. I’d like to set up a system that is both
high‑performance and long‑lasting. I’ve heard about ZFS, but I’d like to
better understand what is the best choice in my situation. LXC or VMs? I
understand that with LXC I would have a better level of separation than
putting everything in a single VM with Docker. Maybe you’ve already
discussed these topics before, and if you can point me to those threads
I’ll be happy to read them with curiosity.

I came here to learn and move toward the best possible setup. Many thanks
for any help, for your experience, and for what you share!

Marco Malavolti

Re: Proxmox VE 9.1 Homelab: ZFS, LXC vs VM, Docker Migration advice?

[Andrei Boros]

Hi,

I have a 2 node setup with X79 motherboards, Xeon E5 CPU with 10 cores
and 32GB ram. My storage is a Synology, so via NFS.
I had 3 nodes and HA cluster, but I had to give away one of the boards.

You are wise to look into backup, as your setup had practically no
redundancy.

I looked into ZFS, understood (at least some of) it's advantages and
disadvantages. As I understand, ZFS requires RAM proportional to how
many TB of storage it handles, plus some more for active workloads.
Think about your setup. How much do you need for your VMs and containers
combined? Do you really need all the bells and whistles from ZFS?
Read the PVE docs on the supported storage types.

IMO Best separation is always VM. Containers effectively share the
running kernel. I also had the experience of better overall performance
with VM vs container when heavy CPU usage was involved (albeit
intermittent in my use case).
On the other hand, PVE comes with many options for containers pre-built,
such as those from Turnkey Linux, which are easy to set up.

For backup I would definitely look to have more storage on the backup
machine then on the production machine. Right now you have half.
First, you want to backup what you use. That takes at least the same
amount of space (plus metadata) - I am not counting compression at this
stage.
Then you might want to have several versions of backup. While
deduplication will greately decrease storage usage, it's not zero ...
Look for storage hardware (ie disks, ssd, nvme) which offer more TB/$,
you don't need the high performance.
For your offline storage prefer disk vs flash, as flash data degrades
over time if unused/unpowered.

Moving to PVE will give you more flexibility and a lot of options. Try
it. Play with it. See what works for you.
Nothing can replace hands-on :-)

Cheers.

On 2026-03-01 11:59 PM, Marco Malavolti wrote:
> Good evening to all Proxmox enthusiasts!
>
> I’m a future new user of Proxmox VE 9.1 and Proxmox Backup Server, and I’m
> looking for what you think is the most long‑lasting solution within the
> Proxmox ecosystem for a simple homelab.
>
> This is my hardware for Proxmox VE 9.1:
>
> 1) CWWK 12th Gen Intel Firewall Mini PC Alder Lake i3 N305 Fanless Soft
> Router Proxmox DDR5 4800MHz 4xi226-V 2.5G (
> https://cwwk.net/products/12th-gen-intel-firewall-mini-pc-alder-lake-i3-n305-8-core-n200-n100-fanless-soft-router-proxmox-ddr5-4800mhz-4xi226-v-2-5g?_pos=1&_sid=cc36e8016&_ss=r&variant=44613920162024
> )
>
> 2) 32GB of Crucial DDR5 RAM (https://amzn.eu/d/00DxTBLh)
>
> 3) 2TB NVMe M.2: https://amzn.eu/d/0f2XIxHV
>
> 4) Legrand Keor Multiplug LG-310082 800VA/480W UPS (
> https://amzn.eu/d/06coyhv5)
>
> For Proxmox Backup Server I have a mini PC with an Intel i5-5250U 4‑core
> CPU, 8GB RAM and a 1TB Samsung 870 SSD.
>
> I also have another external 1TB hard drive for an additional backup to
> support a 3‑2‑1 strategy.
>
> At the moment, all my applications run directly on a mini PC with Debian 12
> and Docker Compose: Immich, Nextcloud, Pi-hole, ProjectSend, Nginx Proxy
> Manager.
>
> In the future I would like to move everything to Proxmox VE and PBS, but
> I’d like to do it wisely. I’d like to set up a system that is both
> high‑performance and long‑lasting. I’ve heard about ZFS, but I’d like to
> better understand what is the best choice in my situation. LXC or VMs? I
> understand that with LXC I would have a better level of separation than
> putting everything in a single VM with Docker. Maybe you’ve already
> discussed these topics before, and if you can point me to those threads
> I’ll be happy to read them with curiosity.
>
> I came here to learn and move toward the best possible setup. Many thanks
> for any help, for your experience, and for what you share!
>
> Marco Malavolti

-- 

*ing. Andrei Boros*

Serviciul IT&C
*Radio Romania*
|Tel:   +40-21-303-1870
       +40-745-115721
Email: andrei@srr.ro <mailto:andrei@srr.ro>|

Re: Proxmox VE 9.1 Homelab: ZFS, LXC vs VM, Docker Migration advice?

[Luis G. Coralle]

Hello,
I would like to share an overview of our current virtualization
infrastructure based on Proxmox.
*Compute cluster*

Our environment consists of a *Proxmox cluster with nine compute nodes*,
built using standard PC hardware. The nodes use a mix of *Intel Core i7 and
Intel Core i9 processors*, with memory configurations ranging from *64 GB
to 128 GB of RAM*, depending on the specific machine. Each node has a *local
1 TB SATA disk dedicated to the Proxmox installation*, formatted using
the *BTRFS
filesystem*. These local disks are used primarily for the operating system
and local storage.


*Shared storage*

For shared storage we operate *three dedicated storage servers*, also built
from standard desktop hardware. These machines have relatively modest
specifications, for example *Intel Core i3 CPUs with around 4 GB of RAM*.
Each storage server contains *four 4 TB SATA disks*, configured as a *software
RAID-5 array using Linux MDADM*. The RAID arrays are formatted with the *XFS
filesystem*, and each storage server exports its storage via *NFS*.
The *Proxmox
cluster mounts these NFS exports*, which are used as shared storage for
virtual machines and related workloads.


*Network configuration*

Each compute node is equipped with *four Ethernet network interfaces*,
which allows us to connect the servers to multiple physical networks and
separate traffic types if necessary. The infrastructure includes a *managed
switch with VLAN support*, where the corresponding VLAN configurations are
defined. This allows *virtual machines within Proxmox to be assigned
directly to specific VLANs*, depending on the network segmentation required.


*VM templates and automation*

We also maintain a set of *virtual machine templates*, for example *Debian
13 NetInstall*, which are used as base images for rapid VM deployment. On
top of these templates we run a set of *custom Bash automation scripts*
designed to manage large groups of virtual machines. These scripts allow us
to operate *batches of VMs simultaneously*, where a batch may contain *16,
32, 90, or more virtual machines* depending on the environment. The scripts
automate bulk VM creation from templates, batch start/stop/restart
operations, large-scale VM removal, and lifecycle management of multiple VM
groups. When new VM batches are deployed, the automation also generates the
corresponding *iptables rules required for remote SSH access*, so that
network access configuration becomes part of the provisioning workflow.


In summary, the environment consists of:


   -

   *9 Proxmox compute nodes*
   -

   *Mixed Intel i7 / i9 CPUs*
   -

   *64–128 GB RAM per node*
   -

   *1 TB SATA BTRFS system disk per node*
   -

   *3 NFS storage servers*
   -

   *MDADM RAID-5 with 4 × 4 TB disks per storage server*
   -

   *XFS filesystem*
   -

   *Managed switch with VLAN segmentation*
   -

   *4 network interfaces per compute node*
   -

   *Automated VM provisioning using templates and Bash scripts*
   -

   *Automatic generation of iptables rules for SSH remote access*
   This architecture has been designed to provide shared storage, flexible
   VM provisioning, and automated operational management using simple and
   cost-effective hardware


Best regards.

On Sun, Mar 1, 2026 at 6:59 PM Marco Malavolti <marco.malavolti@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Good evening to all Proxmox enthusiasts!
>
> I’m a future new user of Proxmox VE 9.1 and Proxmox Backup Server, and I’m
> looking for what you think is the most long‑lasting solution within the
> Proxmox ecosystem for a simple homelab.
>
> This is my hardware for Proxmox VE 9.1:
>
> 1) CWWK 12th Gen Intel Firewall Mini PC Alder Lake i3 N305 Fanless Soft
> Router Proxmox DDR5 4800MHz 4xi226-V 2.5G (
>
> https://cwwk.net/products/12th-gen-intel-firewall-mini-pc-alder-lake-i3-n305-8-core-n200-n100-fanless-soft-router-proxmox-ddr5-4800mhz-4xi226-v-2-5g?_pos=1&_sid=cc36e8016&_ss=r&variant=44613920162024
> )
>
> 2) 32GB of Crucial DDR5 RAM (https://amzn.eu/d/00DxTBLh)
>
> 3) 2TB NVMe M.2: https://amzn.eu/d/0f2XIxHV
>
> 4) Legrand Keor Multiplug LG-310082 800VA/480W UPS (
> https://amzn.eu/d/06coyhv5)
>
> For Proxmox Backup Server I have a mini PC with an Intel i5-5250U 4‑core
> CPU, 8GB RAM and a 1TB Samsung 870 SSD.
>
> I also have another external 1TB hard drive for an additional backup to
> support a 3‑2‑1 strategy.
>
> At the moment, all my applications run directly on a mini PC with Debian 12
> and Docker Compose: Immich, Nextcloud, Pi-hole, ProjectSend, Nginx Proxy
> Manager.
>
> In the future I would like to move everything to Proxmox VE and PBS, but
> I’d like to do it wisely. I’d like to set up a system that is both
> high‑performance and long‑lasting. I’ve heard about ZFS, but I’d like to
> better understand what is the best choice in my situation. LXC or VMs? I
> understand that with LXC I would have a better level of separation than
> putting everything in a single VM with Docker. Maybe you’ve already
> discussed these topics before, and if you can point me to those threads
> I’ll be happy to read them with curiosity.
>
> I came here to learn and move toward the best possible setup. Many thanks
> for any help, for your experience, and for what you share!
>
> Marco Malavolti
>


-- 
Luis G. Coralle
Secretaría de TIC
Facultad de Informática
Universidad Nacional del Comahue
(+54) 299-4490300 Int 647