Does anyone manage ZFS pools in Proxmox without spinning up a full NAS?

[gnacho]

I run my homelab on Proxmox with free software, and tools like ProxMenux and community-scripts are what made Proxmox usable for me day-to-day. I try to keep my hosts clean and efficient, but I don't want to memorize every terminal command just to install apps or keep the system in shape.

I spent a while looking for a simple way to see and manage my ZFS pools in Proxmox without running a VM with TrueNAS, Unraid, or OpenMediaVault. Those solutions are great, but for my case jusr felt too-heavy and too-much: a whole VM (RAM, CPU, another OS to care for) just to glance at disks, get a panel view, receive notifications, and kick off a scrub once in a while. Passing through the HBA, waiting for the VM to boot so the pool comes online, then the rest of the services can start. If the VM goes down, the storage goes down. All while Proxmox already ships OpenZFS, so it made no sense to keep going in circles.

Since I couldn't find what I wanted, I built it for myself: EasyZFS. It's a single Go binary (~12 MB, about 30 MB of RAM) with a lightweight web UI (and PWA): pools, vdevs, SMART, disk temperatures, scrubs, snapshots, alerts, scheduled tasks, and disk replacement / resilver tasks. Everything is done through the official CLI commands (zfs, zpool, smartctl), without touching anything weird in the system. Installing it creates a systemd unit and an unprivileged user; uninstalling removes it all and the pools stay where they are, because they were never "owned" by the app.

So I'm sharing it in case it's useful to someone. It's free and will stay that way, AGPL-3.0.

You can see features and even a demo at: https://easyzfs.cloudless.club

Just so nobody asks later: sharing over the network (SMB/NFS) or syncing between servers is not planned. There are better tools for that. I don't rule it out in the future, but today EasyZFS is only disk and pool management, simple and with a small attack surface.

In my case it's more than enough, it simplified my day-to-day management and saved resources. I use it daily and, by now, it behaves fine.

[MacRimi]

Hello @gnacho,

Thank you for sharing your excellent solution that perfectly addresses Proxmox’s gap in ZFS management and administration. I find it to be a really solid approach, and with just a few more enhancements like this, Proxmox could truly evolve into a full-fledged NAS system, even if it wasn’t originally designed for that purpose.

I also believe it fits perfectly as one of those applications that could be installed directly through ProxMenux, especially in the new section that will soon be available with upcoming versions, dedicated to installing complementary addons.

Thanks so much for sharing it!

[gnacho]

That's so great news, thank you so much! Let me know if there's anything I can do.

[MacRimi]

For the addons functionality, I think we’re still about two or three ProxMenux releases away, so I haven’t fully defined the structure yet. Right now, my main focus is on implementing multi-node support.

Broadly speaking, I’m thinking of having two categories within the addons section. One would be for third-party addons that integrate directly with ProxMenux and add new functionality. The other would be for external tools or applications that can be accessed from the ProxMenux Monitor interface but continue to run and be managed independently.

As I mentioned, the structure isn’t finalized yet and will probably evolve along the way. But if you’re interested in having EasyZFS integrated into ProxMenux as an addon, you could start thinking about how you’d like that integration to work and which of these two categories you think would be the best fit.

That way, we can start looking ahead at what might need to be adapted or prepared on both sides to make it possible when the time comes.

[gnacho]

I'd love to see EasyZFS as a part of Proxmenux plattform but I also think the app can be used not just with Proxmox, but also with any other distro as Debian, Arch, Ubuntu... So if it can be installed with your amazing scripts but also maintained for all Linuxes (not just Proxmox) I believe it will reach and help more people.

Not sure if I answered your question tho xd

[MacRimi]

And that’s exactly the idea I have in mind for addons: they remain the property of their creators, they are maintained by their creators, and the developers themselves decide how they want their applications to be used or integrated with ProxMenux.

As I’ve mentioned, I think EasyZFS offers some great functionality.

For addons that integrate directly with ProxMenux, the idea would be for the application, or a version specifically adapted for this purpose, to integrate with ProxMenux. In those cases, there would need to be some collaboration between both projects to make the integration possible.

This would allow users to access the functionality provided by the addon directly from within ProxMenux, while making it clear which additional features are available because that particular addon has been installed and enabled.

The other model would be for applications that continue to run and be managed entirely outside ProxMenux. In that case, ProxMenux would only provide some basic information about the addon, such as its status, version, and perhaps some additional data, along with a link to its own interface or dashboard when available.

Using EasyZFS as an example, it could appear as an addon under the Storage category.

With the integrated addon model, the functionality provided by EasyZFS could be available directly from the Storage section in ProxMenux. The user would see the additional options there, with a clear indication that those features are available because EasyZFS has been installed and enabled as an addon.

With the non-integrated addon model, EasyZFS could still appear in the Storage section, but ProxMenux wouldn’t manage its functionality directly. Instead, it could display some basic information and, for example, provide the URL to the EasyZFS dashboard, where the user would actually manage and perform the operations.

That’s roughly the idea I have in mind at the moment. I haven’t defined the technical structure behind it yet, especially for integrated addons, because I first need to provide the tools, structure, and clear guidelines that other developers would need in order to create this kind of addon for ProxMenux.

The important part for me is that, regardless of the type of integration, developers retain ownership, freedom, and full control over their own applications.

[gnacho]

Got it! I'll be waiting for your news then, thank you!