Open-E JovianDSS Proxmox Plugin

Specifically, the infrastructure is reduced from the original three high-end nodes to two high-performance cluster nodes. A third, more affordable standard server can, for example, handle the quorum or backups. The key point: This third node offers the greatest potential for cost savings. It can run on virtually any Linux machine and does not require a JovianDSS license.

According to Open-E, this can save up to one-fifth of total costs without compromising reliability or split-brain protection – an aspect that is particularly relevant for SMBs and MSPs with limited hardware budgets.

Open-E offers two plugins for iSCSI and NFS, depending on the use case:

• iSCSI Plugin: Relies on full auto-multipathing, which bundles multiple physical I/O paths into a single logical device, thereby eliminating single points of failure in the network. Target management is automated—assignment and detachment per VM occur without user intervention. Each VM or container receives its own JovianDSS volume with a dedicated target. This enables granular snapshot and rollback control based on the VVOL principle.
   
• NFS Plugin: Here, Open-E dispenses with the otherwise standard QCOW2 image layer and instead works directly on the ZFS datasets. This reduces overhead and accelerates snapshots, clones, and rollbacks, which the system performs natively at the ZFS level. VM images, container root directories, and ISO files are all stored together in a central dataset exported via NFS.

The plugins are available for free on GitHub; setup documentation is provided separately for iSCSI and NFS. Regarding protocol selection: iSCSI is suitable for multipath redundancy at the block level, while NFS offers direct ZFS integration and requires less effort for file system snapshots.

Have we piqued your interest? Register for our webinar.

When? Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 10:30–11:30 a.m.

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