Ceph: The Future of Storage or Overhyped Technology?

As I delve into the world of Ceph, a highly scalable and intelligent storage system, I can’t help but wonder if it’s truly the future of storage or just an overhyped technology. The official definition from Ceph’s website states that it supports object, block, and file storage in one unified storage system, leaving me with more questions than answers. In this blog post, I’ll share my experience planning to install and configure Ceph in a 3-node cluster using Proxmox UI, and discuss the challenges I faced with storage devices.

My Journey with Ceph

I started planning to install and configure Ceph in a 3-node cluster a few weeks ago. Everything was done via Proxmox UI, which made the process relatively easy. However, one of the main issues I faced was the storage devices. It doesn’t like Consumer SSD/Disks/NVME, which was a major challenge for me.

I have a pair of 970 EVO Plus (1TB) that were working fine with vSAN ESA, but I decided to move to Intel Enterprise NVMe because there is a lot of information around the web pointing to bad performance with this type of NVMe. The Supermicro machine is already running Proxmox, so I thought it was time to take the Ceph adventure to the next level.

Challenges with Storage Devices

One of the biggest challenges I faced during my journey with Ceph was finding suitable storage devices. The official documentation states that Ceph supports object, block, and file storage in one unified storage system, but it doesn’t specify the type of storage devices required. This lack of clarity led me to spend hours researching and experimenting with different storage devices before I finally found a solution that worked for me.

I initially used Consumer SSD/Disks/NVME, which resulted in poor performance and stability issues. After researching further, I discovered that Intel Enterprise NVMe is the way to go when it comes to Ceph storage. This was a game-changer for me, as I was able to achieve better performance and stability with my Ceph cluster.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my experience with Ceph has been both challenging and rewarding. While the official documentation could be more specific about the type of storage devices required, I found that Intel Enterprise NVMe is the way to go for optimal performance and stability. With Ceph, you can achieve operational excellence through scalable, intelligent, reliable, and highly available storage software.

Whether Ceph is the future of storage or just an overhyped technology remains to be seen. However, based on my experience so far, I believe that Ceph has the potential to revolutionize the way we think about storage in the future. With its ability to support object, block, and file storage in one unified storage system, Ceph is definitely a technology worth exploring further.