Learn more about Cache Discard in Proxmox. Our Proxmox Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

Proxmox Cache Discard Feature | An Introduction

If you are looking for a way to reclaim the free space that does not have any data, the Discard option is the best choice. Proxmox offers this feature to help manage virtual machine storage on the Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE) platform.

The Cache Discord feature is also known as TRIM support. It allows the operating system within a virtual machine to inform the underlying storage system that certain data blocks are no longer in use and can be considered free space.

When these blocks are marked as free, the storage system optimizes its operation by reclaiming the associated storage space.

Furthermore, by enabling cache discard for virtual disks, Proxmox leverages the TRIM command, which is part of the ATA and SCSI command set.

The TRIM command is typically supported by solid-state drives (SSDs) and other advanced storage technologies. When a virtual machine operating system sends a TRIM command, it indicates that a specific range of data is no longer needed. In other words, it can be discarded by the storage system.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the benefits offered by enabling cache discard in Proxmox:

• By informing the storage system about freed blocks of data, it can optimize its internal operations, resulting in improved performance.
• Cache discard allows the storage system to reclaim unused space, improving the overall storage utilization efficiency.
• Furthermore, cache discard helps maintain the SSD’s performance and prolong its lifespan by preventing unnecessary write operations on blocks no longer in use.

How to enable cache discard for virtual disks in Proxmox

According to our experts, we can easily enable cache discard for a virtual disk in Proxmox,> this is done by adding the discard=on parameter to the disk configuration.

This is done via the Proxmox web interface, command-line tools like qm, or by manually editing the VM configuration file.

Let us know in the comments if you would like to learn more about Cache Discard in Proxmox.

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Conclusion

To conclude, our Support Techs introduced us to the Cache Discard feature in Proxmox.