Simplyblock Proxmox integration

High-performance NVMe-first software-defined block storage for Proxmox VE

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🚀 Overview

simplyblock-proxmox is the official simplyblock storage plugin for Proxmox VE.

It enables enterprise-grade, NVMe/TCP-powered block storage directly inside Proxmox, offering high performance, scalability, and resilience without the need for specialized hardware or vendor lock-in.

With simplyblock, you can seamlessly integrate software-defined storage (SDS) into your Proxmox environment, enabling support for advanced features like:

• ⚡ Ultra-low latency: Unlock performance with NVMe-over-TCP
• 🧩 Native Proxmox integration: Manage volumes directly in Proxmox
• 🛡️ Enterprise data services: Snapshots, clones, erasure coding, multi-tenancy
• 🔒 Secure & robust: Cluster authentication and Quality of Service (QoS)
• ☁️ Cloud & on-prem flexibility: Deploy anywhere Proxmox runs

👉 For full documentation, see the Simplyblock Proxmox Deployment Guide.

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✨ Features

Feature	Benefit
Proxmox Plugin	Storage lifecycle fully managed with the Proxmox UI
NVMe/TCP Support	High throughput, low latency storage over standard Ethernet
Snapshots & Clones	Efficient data protection and instant provisioning
Erasure Coding	Fault-tolerant, space-efficient redundancy
Multi-tenancy & QoS	Isolated tenants with guaranteed IOPS, bandwidth, and latency
Resilient Networking	Supports redundant or isolated storage/control networks
Auto-Reconnect	Automatic reconnection of NVMe devices after network or host failures

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📦 Quick Start Guide

The following section acts as a quick start guide. For the full documentation see the Simplyblock Proxmox Deployment Guide.

1. Add the Simplyblock Repository

Run as root or via sudo:

curl https://install.simplyblock.io/install-debian-repository | bash

Or set it up manually:

curl -o /etc/apt/keyrings/simplyblock.gpg https://install.simplyblock.io/simplyblock.key
echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/simplyblock.gpg] https://install.simplyblock.io/debian stable main' | \
  tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/simplyblock.list

2. Install the Plugin

apt update
apt install simplyblock-proxmox

This installs the storage plugin and makes it available inside Proxmox VE.

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⚙️ Configuration

Register a simplyblock storage backend in Proxmox:

pvesm add simplyblock <STORAGE_NAME> \
  --entrypoint=<CONTROL_PLANE_ADDR> \
  --cluster=<CLUSTER_ID> \
  --secret=<CLUSTER_SECRET> \
  --pool=<STORAGE_POOL_NAME>

Parameters

• STORAGE_NAME: Display name of the storage in Proxmox
• CONTROL_PLANE_ADDR: IP/hostname of the simplyblock control plane
• CLUSTER_ID: Id of the simplyblock cluster (retrieved from sbctl cluster list)
• CLUSTER_SECRET: Authentication secret (retrieved from sbctl cluster get-secret)
• STORAGE_POOL_NAME: Storage pool name inside the simplyblock storage plane

👉 Run sbctl cluster list and sbctl cluster get-secret to retrieve cluster details.

Once added, you can manage simplyblock storage like any other backend, directly from the Proxmox GUI or CLI.

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🖥️ Usage

• Create VMs and containers using simplyblock volumes.

• Manage volumes directly via the Proxmox Storage panel.

• Use CLI for advanced workflows:

  pvesm list <STORAGE-NAME>
  pvesm alloc <STORAGE-NAME> <VM-ID> <SIZE>
  pvesm free <STORAGE-NAME> <VOLUME-ID>

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📚 Documentation

• Deployment Guide
• Architecture Overview
• Release Notes
• Maintenance & Operations

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🛠️ Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Storage not showing in UI	Verify installation with `dpkg -l	grep simplyblock` and restart Proxmox
NVMe volume not reconnecting	In Proxmox, auto-reconnect is built in. On plain Linux, run nvme connect
Network contention	Use dedicated NICs or VLANs; avoid software-only VLANs
Cluster secret not accepted	Refresh with sbctl cluster get-secret and re-register storage

If issues persist, please open an issue.

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🤝 Contributing

We welcome community contributions!

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m "Add my feature")
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Before contributing, please review:

• CONTRIBUTING.md (if available)
• Open issues to avoid duplicates

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📬 Support

• 📖 Documentation
• 🐞 GitHub Issues
• 🌐 Simplyblock Website

Maintained by the simplyblock team.

Packaging for Releases

EMAIL=<mail> gbp dch --git-author --release --new-version <version>-1
git add debian/changelog
git commit -m "Release v<version>"
git tag <version> -m "Version <version>"
dpkg-buildpackage -b --no-sign  # or push to GitHub