Guide to Proxmox Home Lab Optimization

✅ 1. System Setup Examples

Typical Home Lab Build

• Mini PC/NUC: Intel NUC8i5BEH – 8th Gen i5
  
• Memory: 32 GB DDR4 RAM
  
• Primary Storage: Samsung 970 Evo/970 Evo Plus 1TB NVMe SSD
  
  • 1GB DRAM cache
• Host OS: Proxmox VE (Debian-based virtualization stack)
• Use case: Single-node setup focused on VM and container hosting without clustering / HA (High Availability)

🧠 2. Write Amplification: How to Reduce SSD Wear

Problem: Even after just 2 days of use, NVMe SSD reported 250GB+ data writes, raising concerns about drive endurance.

📌 Tips to Reduce Write Amplification:

1. Tweak Swappiness

   • Linux tends to swap even with enough free RAM.
     
   • Set value to:

    vm.swappiness = 1
   

   Update /etc/sysctl.conf or /etc/sysctl.d/99-custom.conf.

2. Avoid Unnecessary Logs and Metrics

   • Disable or reduce journald persistence:

    Storage=volatile  # in /etc/systemd/journald.conf
   

• Reduce PVE logging level – especially related to high-frequency background jobs.

1. Avoid Clustering & HA

   • Disabling clustering and high-availability daemons reduces background sync traffic and logs.
   • These features generate constant disk activity even when idle.

2. Use RAM Disk for Temporary Writes

   • Mount a RAM disk for write-heavy but short-lived operations:

    mkdir /mnt/ramdisk  
    mount -t tmpfs -o size=8G tmpfs /mnt/ramdisk  
   

• Apps like Zabbix, ntop, or logs destined for daily rotation can go here.

1. Move Swap to a RAM-limited ZRAM Device
   Better alternative to disk swap:

   apt install zram-tools  

Configure /etc/default/zramswap to use a portion of memory as compressed RAM-based swap.

💾 3. Backups – Proxmox Features & Improvements

Inbuilt backup system: Proxmox uses vzdump to take backups of containers (CT) and VMs (KVM-based).

✅ Best Practices:

1. Nightly Backups to Network (NFS/SMB/Proxmox Backup Server)
   
   Proxmox supports:

   • Manual or scheduled backups
     
   • Full or snapshot-based
   • Backup destinations: NAS, NFS share, or external USB

2. Incremental Backups
   
   Combine with Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) for:

   • Deduplication
   • Compression
   • Encrypted backups

3. Restore Caution – Avoid Duplicate Machine IDs

   • If restoring a VM to the same Proxmox host:
     • Change MAC address
     • Possibly change VM ID or use separate VLAN

🔁 Offsite/Cold Sync Option (Cheap HA-like setup):

• Power up a second Proxmox server periodically (e.g., once a day)
• Use rsync or pbs-client to pull backups or sync VMs
• Shut it down after sync is complete — minimal electricity usage

🛠 4. Single Server High Availability – Power Efficient Strategy

While real HA generally requires at least 3 servers, here's a cost-and-power-efficient alternative:

Use one active node and one passive cold node:

• Backup VM nightly
• Passive node stays off
  
• If main node fails, start passive, restore latest backups
  
• Can automate with scripts or PXE boot + restore ISO

This provides near-HA for personal/home use.

📚 5. Recommended Tools & Tweaks

apt install smartmontools
smartctl -a /dev/nvme0

Add weekly TRIM:

systemctl enable fstrim.timer

🛡️ 6. Longevity Tips for NVMe SSDs

Samsung EVO drives are prosumer-grade, but NVMe SSDs still have TBW (Total Bytes Written) limits.

To extend SSD life:

• Avoid running metrics/logging containers on rootfs.
• External log aggregation → Docker + Loki or ELK on a separate disk/NAS.
• Use USB SSD / external NFS share for high-write services.

🧭 7. Final Notes & Community Insights

• Proxmox is stable and efficient, even for single-node homelabs.
• Longevity concerns addressed with disk I/O tuning
• Combining PBS and ZRAM gives maximum system smoothness without costing SSD life.
• Community migrating more toward NUCs or micro-servers (low power, fanless options like ODROID H3+/Pi5)

📦 Learn More:

• Proxmox Offsite Backup Concepts
• Proxmox Backup Server
• ZRAM on Debian (Wiki)
• Smartmontools Docs