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You're reading from Mastering Proxmox, - Third Edition

Product typeBook

Published inNov 2017

PublisherPackt

ISBN-139781788397605

Edition3rd Edition

Tools

Ceph Proxmox

Concepts

Cloud Computing

Author (1)

Wasim Ahmed

Chapter 3. Proxmox under the Hood

In the previous chapter, we saw how the Proxmox GUI looks and also looked at its features. In this chapter, we will take a look how configuration files hold a Proxmox virtualization platform together, and the files to be used for advanced configuration and how they are used to troubleshoot a Proxmox platform. Proxmox is built on Debian Linux, which is very stable with a large active community. So, it inherited the heavy dependency on configuration or .conf files as a primary means to store various configurations. The Proxmox GUI provides you with the ability to manage a cluster, but does not provide direct access to any configuration files. Any direct changes by advanced users have to be done through a command-line interface (CLI). Commonly used scenarios, such as adding special arguments to configuration files, is done through the CLI. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

The Proxmox cluster file system, or pmxcfs
The Proxmox directory structure...

The Proxmox cluster file system

Proxmox is a cluster-based hypervisor. It is meant to be used with several server nodes. By using multiple nodes in a cluster, we provide redundancy or high availability to the platform while increasing uptime. A production virtual environment may have several dozens to several hundreds of nodes in a cluster. As an administrator, it may not be a realistic scenario to change configuration files in the cluster one node at a time. Depending on the number of nodes in a cluster, it may take several hours just to change one small argument in a configuration file of all the nodes. To save precious time, Proxmox implemented the clustered filesystem to keep all the configuration files or any other common files shared by all the nodes in the cluster, in a synchronous state. Its official name is Proxmox Cluster file system (pmxcfs). The pmxcfs is a database-driven filesystem used to store configuration files. Any changes made to any files or copied/deleted in this filesystem...

Proxmox directory structure

Proxmox comes with a distinct directory structure where all the configuration files and other necessary files are stored. This makes finding those configuration files in time of need very easy. The following table shows the location of the files stored and their functions:

Dissecting the configuration files

We now know where all the important files that hold a Proxmox cluster together are placed. We will go inside some of these files for a better understanding of what they do and what command arguments they use. You can use any Linux editor to view/edit these configuration files. In this book, we will use #nano to view and edit configuration files.

During the learning process, it will be a good idea to make a backup of the configuration files before editing them. In case something goes wrong, you will be able to replace it with the original working configuration file. Simply copy the configuration file using the following command:

# cp /etc/pve/<config_file> /home/<any_folder>

We can also use the SCP command to back up files to another node:

# scp /etc/pve/<config_file> <user>@<ip_or_hostname>:/<folder>

The cluster configuration file

The corosync.conf configuration file stores parameters needed for a cluster operation. Any empty...

Summary

In this chapter, we looked at the location of the important configuration files needed to run a Proxmox cluster. We also looked at the configuration files from inside to have a better understanding of the parameters used and other possible values for different parameters. As mentioned earlier, most of these configuration files can be changed via the Proxmox GUI. But when the GUI becomes inaccessible for any reason, knowing where these files are located can save a tremendous amount of time by accessing them through the CLI.

In the next chapter, we will take a look at the various storage systems that can be used with Proxmox and the different types of disk images and their use cases.

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Author (1)

Wasim Ahmed

Wasim Ahmed, born in Bangladesh and now a citizen of Canada, is a veteran of the IT world. He first came into close contact with computers in 1992 and never looked back. Wasim has a deep understanding of networks, virtualization, big data storage, and network security. By profession, Wasim is the CEO of a global IT support and cloud service provider based in Calgary, Alberta. He serves many companies and organizations through his company on a daily basis. Wasim's strength comes from his experience, which comes from learning and serving continually. Wasim strives to find the most effective solution at the most competitive price. He has built over 20 enterprise production virtual infrastructures using Proxmox and the Ceph storage system. Wasim and his team are notorious for not simply accepting a technology based on its description alone, but putting it through rigorous testing to check its validity. Any new technology that his company provides goes through months of continuous testing before it is accepted. Proxmox made the cut superbly.
Read more about Wasim Ahmed

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Filename/location	File function
`/etc/pve/datacenter.cfg`	Proxmox VE data center configuration file. Used to change options such as the default language, keyboard layout, default console, and so on.
`/etc/pve/corosync.conf`	Main cluster configuration file. Prior to Proxmox VE 4.0, this was known as `cluster.conf` and can also be used to change the vote of a particular node.
`/etc/pve/storage.cfg`	PVE storage configuration file. This holds all the information of a local or shared storage system.
`/etc/pve/user.cfg`	User list and access control configuration for all users and groups in the cluster.
`/etc/pve/authkey.pub`	Public key used by the ticket system.
`/etc/pve/ceph.conf`	When a Ceph cluster is integrated with Proxmox...