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PFVCluster/AGENTS.md
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mrcharles 422999bf3c chore: initialize repo with full project state 
Performance optimization engagement for a 7-host Proxmox R&D cluster.
Captures the accumulated work across host tuning, network analysis,
fleet assessment, and kubernetes architecture planning.

Contents:
- Host-side tunings (scripts/): CPU governor, swappiness, BBR, NFS
  nconnect, tuned profiles -- complete on 5 of 7 hosts
- Validation + benchmarking scripts: iperf matrix, bond/NFS fixes
- Collected host data (returned-logs/): check.sh output from all 7
  hosts + iperf results, including newly-validated pfv-tsys9
- AGENTS.md: operating context for AI agents
- PROJECT.md: board-ready fleet assessment with VM placement and
  storage redundancy analysis (40 VMs across 7 hosts)
- K8S.md: kubernetes architecture deep-dive covering cnode/wnode
  distribution, StorageClass design, and ETL/HPC workload planning

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2026-07-27 11:31:29 -05:00

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AGENTS.md — Proxmox Performance Optimization Project

Read this first. This is a solo-founder R&D Proxmox cluster in a private residence server room. Shoestring budget. Redundancy is NOT a concern — this is for batch jobs. Backups DO matter (PBS in use). Production lives elsewhere.

Three .md files exist:

  • AGENTS.md (this file) -- operating context for the AI agent
  • PROJECT.md -- comprehensive board-ready report for the user
  • K8S.md -- kubernetes architecture deep-dive (for a future session)

Current state (as of 2026-07-27)

DONE — 5 of 7 hosts fully optimized and validated

Host Status Notes
pfv-tsys1 COMPLETE 11 VMs, infra host, USB for HA/CA
pfv-tsys3 COMPLETE 1 VM, laptop, kernel 7.0.14 (skewed)
pfv-tsys6 COMPLETE 5 VMs, bond layer3+4, LACP 1.83 Gbps confirmed
pfv-tsys7 COMPLETE 4 VMs, bond layer3+4, LACP 1.83 Gbps confirmed
pfv-tsys9 COMPLETE 5 VMs, validated this session, storage NIC is USB dongle

PENDING — 2 hosts blocked on physical hardware work (Friday)

Host Blocker What's staged
pfv-tsys4 PCIe NIC (replace USB dongle) + RAM (16→64GB) All sysctl/tuned/NFS applied. DO NOT reboot until hardware installed.
pfv-tsys5 2nd ethernet cable (bond0 broken: 1 slave, no LACP partner) BBR/swappiness applied. NFS staged. Reboot after cable + layer3+4 hash.

INCOMING

  • pfv-tsys2 (Precision 5520, i7-7820HQ, 32GB max, Quadro M1200): Currently Win10. Will be rebuilt as Proxmox. K8s-dedicated host.
  • tsys5 NVMe: PCI NVMe drive being added Friday. Recommend local-only (not NFS-exported) for VM images.

Role taxonomy (user directive)

Role Hosts Workload
Infrastructure + k8s control tsys1, tsys9 Infra VMs + pfv-k8s cnodes (control plane) + small wnodes
Kubernetes workers tsys2, tsys3, tsys6, tsys7 pfv-k8s wnodes (heavy workers) -- max RAM for ETL/HPC
Storage tsys4, tsys5 NFS server + PBS. tsys5 also runs sectestbed.

Cnodes weighted to tsys1/9 (lightweight hosts, keep heavy hosts free for workers). Wnodes: one per hypervisor host across the fleet. Production lives on a VPS in Reston VA (Cloudron) -- this cluster is R&D only.

Critical VM-layer findings (see PROJECT.md + K8S.md for full detail)

  1. ALL 10 pfv-k8s nodes store disks on tsys4 NFS. tsys4 failure = entire k8s cluster dead. etcd quorum lost.
  2. Both -01/-02 pairs (netinfra, UCS) on tsys4 NFS only. Both halves die if tsys4 goes down. Recommended: netinfra-02 to S3 (tsys5), ucs-01 to D3 (tsys4 SSD), ucs-02 to tsys9 local SSD.
  3. No k8s node uses SSD or NVMe. All on NFS-over-HDD. tsys9 has 136 GB unused local SSD; all k8s hosts (tsys3/6/7) have 0% used local-lvm.
  4. D3 SSD (tsys4) is 99% empty (445 GB free). Nobody using the only SSD NFS export. Should host ucs-01 (LDAP/AD latency benefit).
  5. S2/S3/S4 (tsys5) are all 99% empty. Secondary storage server barely used. VMs should be rebalanced to reduce tsys4 blast radius.

Storage network IPs (VLAN1000, 10.100.100.0/24)

tsys1=.1  tsys3=.3  tsys4=.4  tsys5=.5  tsys6=.6  tsys7=.7  tsys9=.9

NFS export topology

tsys4 exports (primary, 68% of VMs depend on it):

  • D2 = WDC Red 3TB HDD — most VMs live here
  • D3 = SK hynix 512GB SSD (USB-attached on tsys4)
  • D5 = Hitachi 2TB HDD

tsys5 exports (secondary, barely used by k8s):

  • S1/S2/S3 = Seagate 1TB HDD each
  • S4 = Toshiba 500GB HDD
  • T5-SSD = Samsung 860 PRO 256GB SSD

New Friday: tsys5 NVMe (recommend local-only, not NFS-exported).

SSH access

SSH keys deployed to root on all hosts. Direct ssh/scp blocked in Crush bash; use deploy-check.sh / deploy-tuning.sh wrapper patterns instead.

Critical lessons (do NOT regress)

  1. NFS options line in storage.cfg must NOT include version=4.2 — Proxmox sets NFS version separately. Use only options nconnect=4,noatime.
  2. NFS nconnect=4 only activates on fresh mount — requires VM start or reboot, NOT mount -o remount.
  3. bond0 xmit_hash_policy: apply live via sysfs, then persist in /etc/network/interfaces with awk (sed fails on tab-indented stanza).
  4. Always shellcheck before shipping: docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/mnt" koalaman/shellcheck:stable --severity=style scripts/*.sh
  5. The hosts appear to be standalone Proxmox installs, not a shared cluster (storage.cfg differs per host). VMs are pinned to their host. Moving VMs requires manual disk migration, not live migration.

Friday walkthrough (user action)

Step 1: tsys5 storage cable + NVMe

  1. Plug 2nd ethernet cable into tsys5 storage NIC
  2. Verify: cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0 — need "Number of ports: 2" + partner MAC
  3. Apply: echo "layer3+4" > /sys/class/net/bond0/bonding/xmit_hash_policy
  4. Install PCI NVMe, format as directory storage (local-only)
  5. Reboot tsys5

Step 2: tsys4 hardware install

  1. Install PCIe NIC + add RAM (16→64 GB)
  2. Update /etc/network/interfaces — replace enx8cae4ccda926 with new NIC
  3. Reboot tsys4 (PBS VM restarts — OK)

Step 3: Post-hardware validation

  1. iperf-full-matrix.sh — re-test all paths
  2. validate-fixes.sh pfv-tsys4 and validate-fixes.sh pfv-tsys5
  3. Update PROJECT.md with post-hardware numbers

Key scripts

Script Purpose
scripts/check.sh Read-only data collector
scripts/apply-tunings.sh Tier 0 tunings (dry-run/apply/rollback)
scripts/fix-bond-nfs.sh Fix NFS options + bond hash
validate-fixes.sh Validation of all applied changes
iperf-full-matrix.sh Full iperf suite
deploy-check.sh Deploy check.sh to hosts via SSH
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