Storage Setup, Synology, XCP-ng, Windows fileserver

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

Question to the hive mind.

I am migrating a fileserver from ESXi to XCP-ng but the data drive is 4.5Tb and mostly in a single share. In the future this will be reorganised but for now thats what I have to work with.

I am using a Synology unit as the storage for XCP-ng with a 10Gb connection.
Filserver OS is Windows Server as are all the other servers. Using on-prem AD at the moment for user access control.

XCP-ng has a disk size limit of 2Tb so I’m looking at either creating an iSCSI connection to a LUN on the Synology unit or setting up their shares on the NAS directly.

The storage is mostly standard file storage but there is also an application with an old PSQL database in there too.

Any recommendations on which way to go or other ideas?

Cheers.

2

You may need to create the XCP VM with disk as RAW which will give you the larger than 2tb that you need. I’d suggest reading the manual for the downside of using RAW disks:

3

Thanks for the link. I had already had a read through that and not being able to take snapshots is a big no for this method, hence looking for another solution.

4

Create an iSCSI setup in the Synology and connect it from inside the Windows VM.

5

Thanks Tom. I was leaning towards that, just wanted the confirmation that that was the best route to go or if there was another route that I was not aware of :slight_smile:

6

Another option is to use the Synology as the NAS server and tie it in with your active directory.