Managing storage that is glued to your compute nodes makes scaling a nightmare. We found that LVM worked for a while, but it eventually stopped our VMs from being truly disposable and flexible.
To fix this, we migrated our container storage to Ceph. Here is what we learned and why it changed our workflow:
- Separating compute from storage allowed for much better flexibility.
- Data cloning turned out to be the essential feature that drives our setup.
- We gained the ability to perform instant volume migrations.
- Our VMs are finally disposable again.
The storage layer you choose shapes every other part of your system. It is worth looking at the trade-offs and what worked for us before you commit to an architecture.
Check out the full breakdown here:
https://developer.upsun.com/posts/how-it-works/why-upsun-moved-from-lvm-to-ceph
