Storage decides how fast customer servers feel, how backups behave and how easily you can grow. VirtFusion supports several storage types on a hypervisor; pick one per disk set and configure it before you create servers.
Before you start
- A hypervisor added as in Add a KVM hypervisor to VirtFusion.
- Dedicated data disks (NVMe or SSD) separate from the OS disk, with RAID or redundancy planned.
- Root SSH or console access to the hypervisor.
Compare the options
| Type | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Local file (disk images in a directory) | Simple setups, easy to inspect and copy | Filesystem overhead; image files can fragment |
| LVM | Fast block devices, predictable performance | Thick volumes reserve full size; plan the volume group |
| ZFS | Checksums, compression, snapshots | Needs RAM for the ARC and ZFS packages on the host |
Note: Check the VirtFusion documentation for the storage types and features supported by your release before committing hardware to one.
Set up local file storage
- Format and mount the data disk, for example at
/home/vf-data, and add it to/etc/fstab. - In the hypervisor's storage settings in VirtFusion, add a local storage location pointing to that path and enable it for new servers.
Set up LVM
- Create the physical volume and volume group:
pvcreate /dev/nvme1n1 && vgcreate vg_vps /dev/nvme1n1 - Confirm with
vgs. - In VirtFusion, add LVM storage to the hypervisor and enter the volume group name (
vg_vps).
LVM concepts are explained in LVM basics: extend a volume.
Set up ZFS
- Install ZFS for your OS (on Debian/Ubuntu the
zfsutils-linuxpackage). - Create a pool, for example a mirror:
zpool create -o ashift=12 vfpool mirror /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme2n1 - Enable compression with
zfs set compression=lz4 vfpool. - Limit the ARC size so customer VMs keep their RAM, then add the pool as ZFS storage on the hypervisor in VirtFusion.
Check afterwards
- Create a test server on the new storage and check its disk appears (
lvs,zfs listor the image directory). - Run a quick disk benchmark inside the VPS and compare it with what you advertise.
- Make sure the sellable disk space set for the hypervisor in VirtFusion matches the real free space.
Troubleshooting
- Server creation fails at the disk step: the storage name or path in VirtFusion does not match the host, or the volume group is full.
- Slow disks: check the RAID controller cache, or that ZFS is not starved of RAM.