XCP-ng stability issues on Protectli Vault?

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

I’m about to do my second install of XCP-ng on my second Protectli vault which I’ve attempted to use for this purpose. My first system totally crashed and burned but I was somehow able to migrate VMs to this other vault, which worked fine for a couple years. Now I’ve run into the same issues, networking seems to stop working on the VMs, host is somewhat unresponsive to normal operations, can’t get it to shut down, just generally acting like a corrupt OS.

I’m strongly considering moving to different hardware for XCP-ng but was curious if others have had similar issues with XCP-ng specifically on these Protectli boxes. I’ve been running them with OPNsense and straight Debian for years with no issues.

FWIW, I’ve been storing my VMs on the vault’s primary disk under local storage, so the OS and VMs are on the same SSD, just different partitions. I don’t remember which SSD option I picked for these guys but I want to say I’ve used different brands on each one.

2

Replace the memory and SD cards for decent brands

3

Good point on the memory, I don’t remember what brand they use by default. It has an SSD rather than an SD card for storage, they have some sort of “in house” option as well as Kingston if I recall correctly.

4

Is this for a home lab or a production system? I’d never consider this for production.

For homelab you might look into something like an HP T740, might be enough processor to handle lab work. If you look around, you might be able to score than as low as $200usd each, I should have bought more of these at that price but only bought two of them.

For my lab I have three HP DL360p gen8 servers with 20 cores and 128gb of RAM, and a fourth for DL360e g8 for Truenas, they were $200 each shipped, but they generate a little noise and a lot of heat.

5

This is unfortunately for production. Not my wisest move; “penny wise, pound foolish”.

6

I’d buy a used server similar to above before I spent another $200-$300 on a Protectli device again.

Used Supermicro X10 series would also be a good choice if they came with the core count and ram that you need.

7

Update here, I can’t even get the Protectli to boot. Or if it is, it isn’t lighting up my HDMI monitor for some reason. I just ordered a HP Microserver setup and will have to limp along with one machine until June when the new hardware all comes in. At that point I’ll tear apart the Protectli to retrieve the SSD and copy the VM disks off there. What a pain.