What is local-lvm in Proxmox and when should I use it?

local-lvm is a thin-provisioned LVM storage pool created on the Proxmox disk during installation. It is the best default choice for single-node setups or when you want fast local storage. Use NFS or Ceph instead when you need shared storage across cluster nodes.

Should I use ZFS for my Proxmox homelab?

ZFS makes sense if you want built-in data integrity, easy snapshots, and software RAID without a hardware controller. The tradeoff is RAM — ZFS ARC cache uses significant memory. On a 16GB node ZFS is viable; on 8GB nodes it competes with your workloads.

How do I add NFS storage to Proxmox?

In the Proxmox web UI go to Datacenter, Storage, Add, NFS. Enter the NFS server IP, the export path, and select what content types to store there. The NFS share must be reachable from all cluster nodes for cluster-wide availability.

How do I fix a Proxmox disk showing 100% full?

Run df -h on the Proxmox node to identify which filesystem is full. Common culprits: /var/log, old backups in the local storage pool (delete via Datacenter, Storage, local, Content), or a thin-pool running out of metadata space (check with lvs -a).

Proxmox Storage Guide: local-lvm, ZFS, NFS, and When to Use Each

Storage configuration is the most confusing part of a new Proxmox install. The installer creates local and local-lvm by default, and most guides say “use local-lvm for VMs and containers” without explaining why — or what you’d use instead. This post covers the options in plain terms and the setup steps for adding shared NFS storage to a cluster.

What the default storage pools actually are

When Proxmox installs, it creates:

Pool name	Type	What it stores	Location
`local`	Directory	ISO images, LXC templates, backups	`/var/lib/vz/`
`local-lvm`	LVM thin pool	VM disks, CT root filesystems	LVM thin pool on the NVMe

local-lvm is not a directory — it’s an LVM thin provisioning pool. Each VM or CT disk is allocated as a logical volume (LV) inside the pool. The major consequence: you can’t browse it with ls. You access volumes with lvs or lsblk.

pvelab04 — inspect the LVM pool


# List logical volumes
lvs

# List volume groups
vgs

# Show the thin pool
lvs data/vm-data

The output shows your VMs and CTs as individual LVs like vm-100-disk-0, vm-101-disk-0, etc.

Storage backend comparison

Backend	Pros	Cons
local-lvm	Fast · thin provisioning · snapshots	No filesystem access · local only
ZFS	Checksums · compression · native snapshots	High RAM usage (1 GB per TB minimum)
NFS	Shared across nodes · easy setup	Network latency · single NAS SPOF
Ceph	HA · distributed · scalable	Complex · needs 3+ OSD nodes

For a homelab with 1–4 nodes: local-lvm for VM/CT disks, local for ISOs and templates, and NFS from a NAS (if you have one) for shared backups and bulk storage. ZFS makes sense if you have the RAM to spare (8+ GB per node) and want checksumming/compression. Ceph is overkill unless you’re building a 5+ node cluster specifically for high availability.

Task 1: Check current storage usage

1View storage usage across the cluster2 min

In the Proxmox web UI: Datacenter → Storage. This shows each storage pool, its type, available space, and which nodes it’s active on.

From the command line:

pvelab04 — check storage usage


# Overall storage summary
pvesm status

# Disk usage for local volumes
df -h /var/lib/vz

# LVM thin pool usage
lvs --units g data/vm-data

Task 2: Add NFS storage from a NAS

NFS storage is valuable for a cluster because it’s accessible from all nodes — a backup job started on pvelab01 can be read and restored from pvelab03. Most NAS devices (Synology, TrueNAS, QNAP) support NFS out of the box.

1Configure NFS exports on your NAS10 min

On a Synology NAS: Control Panel → Shared Folder → Edit → NFS Permissions → Create.

Set:

Hostname or IP: 10.0.0.0/24 (allow entire lab subnet)
Privilege: Read/Write
Squash: No mapping
Security: sys

Note the NFS path shown (e.g. /volume1/proxmox-backups).

For TrueNAS: Shares → UNIX Shares (NFS) → Add. Set the path and allowed hosts similarly.

2Add the NFS storage in Proxmox5 min

In the Proxmox web UI: Datacenter → Storage → Add → NFS.

Field	Value
ID	nas-backups
Server	192.168.1.100 (your NAS IP)
Export	/volume1/proxmox-backups
Content	Backups, ISO Images, CT Templates
Nodes	All

Click Add. The storage appears immediately if the NFS share is accessible.

Verify NFS mount from any PVE node


# Should show the NAS storage
pvesm status

# Check the actual mount
mount | grep nas-backups

# Write test
touch /mnt/pve/nas-backups/test-write && rm /mnt/pve/nas-backups/test-write
echo "Write test: OK"

3Configure backup jobs to use NAS storage3 min

In Datacenter → Backup → Add: set Storage to nas-backups. Now backups go to the NAS instead of local disk — accessible from any node for restores, and persistent even if the Proxmox node’s NVMe fails.

Task 3: Expand local-lvm storage

If your NVMe is getting full, there are two options: add a second disk, or reclaim space.

1Check what's consuming space in local-lvm3 min

pvelab04 — audit LVM usage


# List all volumes and their sizes
lvs -o lv_name,lv_size,pool_lv data

# Find the largest volumes
lvs -o lv_name,lv_size data | sort -k2 -rh | head -10

2Remove unused volumes5 min

Stopped/deleted containers often leave orphaned volumes. Identify them by comparing the LV list with your active CT/VM IDs:

pvelab04 — identify orphaned volumes


# Active CTs
pct list

# Active VMs
qm list

# All LVs in the pool
lvs data | grep -v "^  LV"

# Manually remove an orphaned volume (replace 999 with the VMID)
lvremove data/vm-999-disk-0

Danger

Only remove volumes for VMIDs that no longer exist. Check both pct list and qm list — a VMID might be a VM even if you think it’s a CT. There is no undo for lvremove.

3Add a second NVMe disk to the pool10 min

If you’ve added a second NVMe (the HP EliteDesk G4 has an M.2 slot), you can extend the LVM pool to include it:

pvelab04 — extend LVM pool with second disk


# Identify the new disk (will show as unpartitioned)
lsblk

# Initialize as a physical volume (replace nvme1n1 with your disk)
pvcreate /dev/nvme1n1

# Add to the existing volume group
vgextend data /dev/nvme1n1

# The thin pool automatically uses the new space
pvesm status

NVMe drives that consistently perform in the HP EliteDesk G4:

Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB — top-tier speed and reliability
WD Blue SN570 500GB — excellent value, consistently available refurbished

Task 4: Set up ZFS on a node with sufficient RAM

ZFS is worth it on nodes with 16+ GB RAM. The main advantages for homelab use: transparent compression (typically 1.5–2× on container root filesystems), checksumming (detects bit rot), and native snapshots that PBS can use. Note: the common “1 GB RAM per TB of storage” rule for ZFS ARC is widely considered a myth — ARC sizes to your working set, not your pool capacity. On a 16 GB homelab node the ARC will use whatever RAM your workloads don’t, which is the correct behavior.

1Create a ZFS pool from a second disk5 min

pvelab01 — create ZFS pool


# List available disks
lsblk

# Create a single-disk pool (no redundancy — accept the risk for homelab)
# Replace sdb with your disk identifier
zpool create -f tank /dev/sdb

# Enable compression (LZ4 is fast with minimal CPU overhead)
zfs set compression=lz4 tank

# Verify
zpool status tank
zfs get compression tank

2Add ZFS pool as Proxmox storage3 min

In Datacenter → Storage → Add → ZFS:

Field	Value
ID	zfs-tank
ZFS Pool	tank
Content	Disk image, Container
Nodes	pvelab01 (the node with the pool)

ZFS storage is node-local — other nodes can’t access it directly. If you want shared ZFS, that requires either Ceph or exporting via NFS.

Storage layout recommended for a 4-node homelab

Storage	Type	Content	Available on
local-lvm	LVM thin	CT disks, VM disks	Each node (local)
local	Directory	ISOs, templates	Each node (local)
nas-backups	NFS	Backups	All nodes
zfs-tank (optional)	ZFS	CT disks (compressed)	Single node

This gives you fast local storage for workloads, shared NAS for backup durability, and keeps complexity manageable.

Recommended hardware for expanded storage:

Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe 500GB — second drive to expand local-lvm
WD Red Plus 4TB NAS HDD — NAS storage for PBS backups
Synology DS223 2-Bay NAS — entry-level NAS, well-supported NFS exporter

Related posts:

Proxmox Backup Server: Automated Container Backups with Deduplication — put the nas-backups storage pool to use with PBS
Proxmox LXC Networking: Bridges, VLANs, and Static IPs — containers that use this storage need proper networking too
Proxmox Cluster Setup: Quorum, Corosync, and Node Joining — shared storage is key to live migration between cluster nodes
Proxmox Security Hardening — encrypt NFS mounts and restrict storage access
Install Plex Media Server on a NAS or Proxmox LXC — present a media array to a container with these storage options

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