Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH today released version 3.4 of its open
source server virtualization management platform Proxmox Virtual
Environment (VE). Highlights are the integrated ZFS file system, a ZFS
storage plug-in, hotplug and NUMA support (non-uniform memory access),
all based on latest Debian Wheezy 7.8. The Proxmox developers considered
many user feature requests and added many GUI improvements like
start/stop all VMs, migrate all VMs or disconnect virtual network
cards.
The integrated ZFS (OpenZFS)
is an open source file system and logical volume manager in one,
allowing huge storage capacities. Starting with the new ISO installer
for Proxmox VE 3.4, users can now select their preferred root file
system during installation (ext3, ext4 or ZFS). All ZFS raid levels can
be selected, including raid-0, 1, or 10 as well as all raidz levels
(z-1, z-2, z3). ZFS on Proxmox VE can be used either as a local
directory, supporting all storage content types (instead of ext3 or
ext4) or as zvol block-storage, currently supporting KVM images in raw
format (with the new ZFS storage plugin).
Using ZFS allows advanced setups for local storage like live
snapshots and rollbacks but also space and performance efficient linked
templates and clones. The ZFS storage plugin in Proxmox VE 3.4
complements already existing storage plugins like Ceph or the ZFS for
iSCSI, GlusterFS, NFS, iSCSI and others.
The new hot plugging feature for virtual machines allows installing
or replacing virtual hard disks, network cards or USB devices while the
server is running. If hot plug is not possible, the new “pending
changes” (marked now in red) show that the changes need a power off to
be applied - the admin always overviews the actual status of his
changes.
“ZFS in Proxmox VE 3.4 is absolutely powerful,” says Martin Maurer,
CEO of Proxmox Server Solutions. “Users can replace cost intense
hardware raid cards by moderate CPU and memory load, and it’s combined
with easy management.” Maurer summarizes “By using ZFS, our users can
achieve maximum enterprise features with low budget hardware – but they
should not forget to add a SSD for a fast cache (L2ARC and ZIL).“
Download
Proxmox VE 3.4 is released under the free open-source license GNU AGPL, v3 and is available as ISO-image for download at http://www.proxmox.com/downloads. For enterprise customers, Proxmox offers subscriptions starting at 59.90 euros per year and CPU socket.
Facts and Milestones
Proxmox VE is used by more
than 67.000 hosts in over 140 countries. The active community counts
almost 26.000 forum members. The GUI is translated in 19 languages
including Farsi, Basque and the two official forms of Norwegian Bokmål
and Nynorsk.
- Proxmox VE 3.4 (February 2015): ZFS file system, ZFS storage plug-in, hotplug, NUMA support, Debian Wheezy 7.8
- Proxmox VE 3.3 (September 2014): HTML5 console, Proxmox VE Firewall,
Two-factor authentication, ZFS storage plugin, and a touch interface
Proxmox VE Mobile, qemu 2.1
- Proxmox VE 3.2 (March 2014): SPICE and spiceterm, Ceph storage
system, Open vSwitch, support for VMware™ pvscsi and vmxnet3, new ZFS
storage plugin, qemu 1.7
- Proxmox VE 3.1 (August 2013): Enterprise-Repository updates via GUI, SPICE, GlusterFS storage plugin
- Proxmox VE 3.0 (May 2013): VM templates and cloning, new event driven API server, Debian 7.0 (Wheezy), bootlogd
- Proxmox VE 2.0 (April 2012): High-Availability (HA) based on Redhat Cluster and Corosync; RESTful web API
- Proxmox VE 1.0 (October 2008): First stable release with KVM and container live migration and vzdump backups
- Proxmox VE 0.9 (April 2008): First public release with Web-GUI for managing KVM and containers