Proxmox NVMe Partition Management#

What Was Established#

• Advanced manual partitioning strategy for separating OS and VM/Container data on a single NVMe drive.
• Recommended for test clusters where OS reinstalls are expected without risking data loss on the storage partition.
• Uses sgdisk to create distinct partitions that Proxmox treats as independent storage targets.

Key Decisions#

• Partition Layout: EFI (1GB), OS (~100GB), Data (remaining ~399GB).
• Tooling: sgdisk for GPT partitioning, mkfs.ext4/mkfs.fat for formatting, manual mounting for data.
• Storage Integration: Data partition mounted at /mnt/data and added as a Directory storage in Proxmox.

Current Configuration#

• Target Hardware: 3x Laptops with 500GB NVMe drives.
• Partition Scheme:
  • /dev/nvme0n1p1: 1GB EFI System Partition (FAT32)
  • /dev/nvme0n1p2: ~100GB Proxmox OS (ext4)
  • /dev/nvme0n1p3: ~399GB VM/Container Data (ext4)
• Post-Install Mount: Data partition mounted at /mnt/data and auto-mounted via /etc/fstab.

Historical Notes#

• As of 2026-02-28, the user opted for the “complex” manual partitioning approach over the installer’s built-in LVM/ZFS options to ensure OS and data appear as totally separate drives.
• This method requires dropping to a shell during installation and manually launching proxinstall.

Open Questions#

• How does this partitioning scheme interact with future ZFS pool expansions if the laptops are clustered?
• Are there specific sgdisk flags needed for NVMe drives in UEFI mode?

Related Pages#

• Proxmox Storage Management
• Proxmox ZFS Storage & Installation Patterns
• Proxmox ZFS Storage Setup

Sources#

• ingested/chats/013-Set Up Proxmox with LVM and ZFS.md
• DeepSeek conversation: Proxmox OS and Storage Separation Guide (2026-02-28)