NetApp E-Series SANtricity in Proxmox Ecosystem

Enterprise storage arrays with leading performance/price

Last update: June 2026

Agenda

  • About NetApp E-Series
  • E-Series with Proxmox
  • PVE on E-Series
  • PBS on E-Series
  • SANtricity monitoring
  • SANtricity automation

About NetApp E-Series

  • Originally Engenio by LSI Logic Corporation
    • Engenio product line acquired by NetApp in 2011
  • Reliable, high-performing block storage arrays with low learning curve
  • Widely used for databases, HPC, analytics, big data, backup-to-disk and more
  • Over 1,000,000 arrays sold

Overview of E/EF Series models

Line Model What Media Protocols 1 Relative Perf 2
EF EF80 fastest NVMe NVMe IB, RoCEv2 5️⃣
EF EF50 regular NVMe NVMe FC 3️⃣
EF3 EF600 prev. fastest NVMe NVMe IB, RoCEv2 3️⃣
EF EF300 prev. regular NVMe NVMe RoCEv2, FC 2️⃣
E E4000 general purpose hybrid SAS FC, iSCSI 2️⃣

1 Only main protocols are listed
2 Educated guesstimate
3 Previous generation EF arrays are still available (April 2026)

E-Series with Proxmox

  • Proxmox Virtualization Environment (PVE)
    • All storage media
    • All block protocols
    • All storage tiers
    • Plug-in, TUI, automation
  • Proxmox Backup Server (PBS)
    • All storage tiers and all block protocols
    • Set & forget backend for PBS data stores

Proxmox Virtualization Environment (PVE) with E-Series

  • Reliable, affordable storage with wide range of performance and capacity options
  • PVE uses E-Series as standard LVM shared storage
  • All popular media (NVMe SSD, SAS SSD, NL-SAS HDD)
  • All popular block protocols (NVMe/RoCE, iSCSI, FC)
  • Direct Attach for ~1,000 VMs/CTs
    • Switchless SAN for better security, lower cost, less power, less rack space
  • Classic RAID (0, 1, 5, 6) and Dynamic Disk Pools (RAID 1, RAID 6)
    • Recommended: one DDP for R6 and R1 volumes - no stranded capacity

Relevant storage options with E-Series

Desc Type Level Shared PVE Snap E/EF Snap Workload
Backup pbs both yes yes yes VM or BM
LVM lvm block yes yes yes S/M/L
ZFS (local) zfspool both no yes yes S/M
Btrfs btrfs file no yes yes S/M
CephFS cephfs file yes yes yes S/M
Ceph/RBD rbd block yes yes yes S/M
iSCSI & rdma block block yes no yes S/M/L
NFS nfs file yes yes yes S/M
  • Run NFS, ZFS, Btrfs in Linux VMs backed by E-Series

Storage efficiency comparison

Desc Efficiency Recommendation
Backup yes App compression (PBS default: on)
LVM no Enable app compression
ZFS yes Compression only
Btrfs yes Compression only
CephFS yes Compression & selective deduplication
Ceph/RBD yes Compression & selective deduplication
iSCSI/kernel, rdma/kernel no Enable app compression
NFS no/yes Depends on File System (ex: Btrfs, ZFS)
  • Consider VMs with ZFS, Btrfs, Ceph for datastores with highly duplicate data
Workload Recommendation
Tier 1 (Critical or High Perf) Shared storage LVM (SSLVM)
Tier 2/3 SSLVM, NFS VM
Highly duplicate data ZFS, Btrfs (replicated or HA VM on SSLVM)
High churn VMs/CTs ZFS, Btrfs, NFS VM on SSLVM
  • Virtualized PBS is a Tier 1 app - depends on storage availability
Protocol Comment
iSCSI Good, simplest (10/25 Gbps per link on E-Series)
NVMe/RoCE Good, fastest (100/200 Gbps per link on EF-Series)
NVMe/TCP Okay, but Poor Man's NVMe/RoCE is not yet available on E/EF
NVMe/FC Okay, but harder to automate. Avoid
FC Dead end. Avoid
  • iSCSI works out of box and is easy to automate
  • NVMe/RoCE needed for some workloads (big data, analytics, AI, backup)
  • PVE 9.1 has no NVMe/RDMA automation (provisioning is semi-manual)
  • Switchless NVMe/RoCE OK; switchless iSCSI for ~500 VMs/CTs

PVE integrations for E-Series

  • SANmox TUI for PVE 9.1
    • Permissive Open Source TUI written in PowerShell 7
    • Developed and tested on Debian Trixie
  • SANtricity CLI Plug-in for PVE 9.1
    • Identical to PVE's shared LVM
    • Only difference: it identifies SANtricity system
    • Targets modern protocols (iSCSI, NVMe/RoCE) for shared LVM use

PVE integrations - SANmox TUI

  • Secure approach, with HTTPS API access to E-Series and PVE API endpoints
  • SANtricity volumes can be created, mapped, extended from TUI
  • Workflow for provisioning and unprovisioning
    • E2E automated operation for iSCSI and NVMe/RoCE
    • PVE 9.1 has no API for NVMe/RoCE so SSH is used for NVMe/RoCE
  • View pools' and volumes' capacity and performance
  • Modify basci volume settings (such as caching)

PVE integrations - SANmox Volume, Mappings, Pools views and actions

  • Rich console for key operations
  • Create, edit, and view volumes
  • View storage pool details, volume-to-host mappings and more
  • Eliminates risk of credentials theft by malicious browser extensions

PVE integrations - SANmox Storage Pool Details View

Protect PVE data on E-Series with PBS

  • PVE environments with E-Series-backed data stores
    • Zero learning curve with no new patterns or configuration steps
    • LVM snapshots and backup orchestrated by PBS and performed by PVE
  • E-Series volumes in non-PVE environments
    • Automate backup using any of several automation options
    • Example: backup generic Linux volumes with Proxmox backup client

Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) with E-Series

  • E-Series provides reliable, fast, and secure block storage targets for PBS
  • Backup-to-disk one of top use cases for E-Series
    • Widely used for Veeam, Commvault and more
  • Range of configurations available (protocol, media, RAID level)
  • Use any popular block protocol, any disk media or hybrid
  • Direct Attach (recommended for PBS) or SAN access
  • Versity S3 Gateway backed by E-Series another option for PBS 4.2+ users

Why E-Series for PBS

  • E-Series arrays require minimal management, low maintenance
    • Easy monitoring, SNMP and e-mail alerts
    • Optional phone-home for faster disk replacement
  • Does not require change in PBS/PVE workflows or new skills
    • Low learning curve for Linux administrators
    • DM-MP (SCSI) and ANA (NVMe) work out-of-box
  • Configure and automate with popular open source frameworks and tools
  • Blog post: Proxmox Backup Server with E-Series
    • Details on solutioning, sizing, deployment options

E-Series as PBS backup store

  • ROBO, Edge: hybrid E-Series for PVE/PBS all-in-one, low cost
    • PVE data on SSD or hybrid, backup on NL-SAS
    • 2U, NL-SAS for lowest cost, protected PBS data stores
  • Large, segregated environments: dedicated E-Series systems
    • NL-SAS, hybrid or other combinations possible
    • Hybrid for large PBS with with ZFS or S3 cache on flash, etc.
  • Configure and start using storage in seconds with Ansible

Hybrid E-Series with singleton PBS cluster

  • Single E-Series array, segregated client groups
  • Each side sees only own storage
  • PBS on Bare Metal or as sole VM on singleton PVE
    • Option: run S3 SDS alongside PBS
    • S3 data store is easy to DR

Hybrid E-Series with Disk-to-Disk-to-PBS

  • VM/CT backup job to local backup data store (shared LVM) & then to PBS
    • Alternative: D2D in VM/CT with PBS backup of dump disk
  • Fastest backup and restore for very large data stores, VMs, databases

E-Series for both disk and S3 datastores

  • Default approach (mentioned earlier): backup-to-disk
  • PBS supports S3 since 4.2.0
  • Use StorageGRID SDS (VMs) or other S3 SDS backed by SANtricity
    • Provide block and S3 using same or different E-Series systems
    • PoC walk-through and configuration examples with S3 SDS available here

Complementary solutions and resources for PVE

  • PVE 9 performance test with E-Series NVMe/RoCE
    • Real-life sequential and random workloads with EF600 (NVMe/RoCE)
  • Linux NFS v4/v3 server backed by E-Series
    • Offload high-churn workloads to Linux NFS VM
    • Use filesystem with compression (ZFS, Btrfs)
    • Use PVE snapshots and PBS backups to protect
    • On-demand and scheduled hardware snapshots available as fallback
  • Enterprise data protection: Veeam B&R 13 with PVE 9.1 and E-Series

Linked clones from PVE VM Templates

  • Linked VM clones from VM Templates require local or NFS storage
    • NFS: deploy Linux VM on Shared LVM and protect with PVE HA
    • Local: for stateless, use internal disks; else attach a SANtricity volume to each PVE host
    • Protect user or application data by placing it on an additional disk
  • See this post for more
  • Templating and provisioning scripts are available at https://github.com/scaleoutsean/proxmox-template-scripts

Complementary solutions and resources for PBS

  • Use PBS with software-defined S3 backed by E-Series
  • Backup generic non-PVE source to PBS (shared in PVE section)
    • Use for non-PVE sources (e.g. directly from VM or Bare Metal server)
    • Usable in generic "Snapshot, Linked Clone, Backup" workflows

Monitoring and observability

Automation

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