Proxmox Migration - Progress Report #1

I have procured parts to build a "modern" Proxmox host, including an ATX MoBo, 12C/24T AMD Ryzen 7900X, 128GB RAM, a 2TB SSD, and 4 x 1GB NIC.  I've pre-built the new host (Joanna, named after Roz mother from Frasier ...and, yes, I've set up that many machines that I'm going that deep into the bench of Frasier characters) on a "test bench" frame I bought.

The parts... minus the NIC and SSD.  Also ended up
using the cooler that came with the CPU.

I have done some storage experiments, and arrived at the conclusion that using the existing 18TB disks in a XFS RAID5 will be the way to go.  That means I will need to wipe the disks and re-format them when I do the OS Reinstall on Jerome.  For continuity of service, that means I need to port those files off to somewhere else.  I have decided to light up Floyd, my old 20-bay storage server, which has been cold iron for a little over a year (that's when I migrated storage to the disks onboard Jerome).  Floyd is up and operating as expected.  I have migrated my video library back over there, and now I have to migrate my other file shares over there.  Then I need to repoint all my share mounts.  That'll be fun.  This is in preparation for the OS install on Jerome.

Of course, I'll also need to migrate all the VMs currently running on Jerome off to Joanna.  In previous migration attempts, I have not forced the MAC address of the copy to match the MAC of the original.  For these remaining VMs, I really want to make sure the copies on Joanna look just like the originals did on Jerome.  Hopefully I can coordinate everything and set the MACs, and they just come up.

I've done some networking experiments with the new NIC, and managed to get 2 of the 4 interfaces set up, which is the minimum I need to set-up my replacement PFsense VM.  I plan on the other two being "room for expansion".  I've decided to go with a replacement rather than a migration, as I want to be able to "flip the switch" on my other machines -- from VirtualBox-based VM to Proxmox-based VM -- without any down time.  Once Jerome is back up running Proxmox, I'll just set up another PFsense VM there.  ...but I'll be able to take my time and make sure all the network interfaces are set up and working as I expect.

I had hoped that I could setup a "storage" VM on Joanna, and mount the shares from Floyd there, and re-share them via NFS, which, I'd hoped, would eliminate the need to re-write all the /etc/fstab files on all the machines on the network that use the shares twice.  It looks like that's not going to work.  However, I did figure out how I'm going to do the big disk array once Jerome is running Proxmox, and I will be using a storage VM to share those filesystems... I may even try out TrueNAS.  Who knows.  At a minimum, I can just use Debian, as my needs are pretty contained.

Ultimately, my plan is for Jerome to be the "prime" VM host, where all my "full time" VMs (storage, firewall, desktop, streaming servers) will run, and Joanna will be my "secondary" VM host, where "lab machines" and other non-full time VMs will live.  Each VM host will have its own local storage, but the "Big Store" will live on Jerome for the foreseeable future.  Floyd (named, incidentally, for Mayberry's favorite barber -- I used to name my machines after Andy Griffith Show characters) will go back to cold iron once the migration on Jerome is complete.

Today, I plan to move the guts of Joanna into the case I'd originally bought for Zora.  Then, I'll migrate some (all?) the non-PFsense VMs to Joanna.  Maybe I can also set up a PFsense VM on Joanna.  We'll see.  It looks like it'll be a full, rich day.