Proxmox VM and LXC Storage Design for a Homelab

- 500GB NVMe (OS, ext4)

- 3 × 8TB IronWolf Pro (RAID1 planned)

- 1TB NVMe for VM/LXC disks + snapshots

Workloads include Gitea, Jenkins, Nginx, Home Assistant, Technitium, a Docker host, MySQL/MSSQL, and room for future VMs.

Tier 1: OS

- 500GB NVMe

- Ext4 or ZFS

- No VM storage

- Keep it clean and minimal

Tier 2: VM/LXC

- 1TB NVMe

- LVM-Thin (single disk)

- High IOPS for databases

- Fast snapshots

Tier 3: NAS/Data

- 3×8TB HDD

- Prefer RAID-Z1 or Z2

- Bulk storage

- Backups + media

With only one NVMe, ZFS provides no redundancy, so the community suggestion is LVM-Thin for simplicity on a single disk.

- On a single disk, LVM-Thin is easier

- ZFS works best with multiple disks

- Snapshots work well in both

- Databases benefit from NVMe latency

Instead of RAID1 with 3 disks, consider:

- RAID-Z1 (1 disk redundancy)

- RAID-Z2 if expanding to 4+ disks

- Keep spare drives ready

- Always maintain off-site backup

RAID-Z2 is recommended if your budget allows for additional disks.

For typical homelab workloads:

- Linux VMs: 20 to 40GB each

- Docker hosts: 40 to 80GB

- Home Assistant: small footprint

- MS SQL (Express): up to 10GB DB limit

A 1TB NVMe is generally enough unless you store large media or run mostly Windows workloads.

- Store VM OS disks on NVMe

- Store application data on HDD ZFS

- Mount NFS dataset for persistent storage

- Separate database data from OS disk

- Back up VM configs separately

Keeping OS and data apart gives you more backup flexibility and helps the storage last longer.

Is ZFS worth it on a single NVMe?

Not usually. LVM-Thin is simpler unless you need ZFS features.

Should I separate VM and NAS storage?

Yes. NVMe for performance and HDD for capacity is the ideal split.

Is RAID-Z2 overkill for home use?

It adds extra protection but requires at least four disks.

Do I still need backups if I use RAID?

Yes. RAID protects against disk failure, but it does not protect against data loss.