Lightbits Brings NVMe Over TCP Shared Storage to Proxmox VE, Supporting Open-Architecture VMware Alternatives

Open-source plugin delivers high-performance, resilient block storage for live migrations, high availability and snapshots without proprietary storage networking

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lightbits Labs®, inventor of the NVMe® over TCP storage protocol and Inferra™, intelligent KV cache orchestration engine, today announced that it has been named a Solution Provider by Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH and released a native storage plugin for Proxmox Virtual Environment (Proxmox VE). The integration gives organizations evaluating alternatives to VMware a way to deploy shared, high-performance block storage using standard servers and existing Ethernet infrastructure.

As organizations reassess virtualization infrastructure and explore open-source alternatives, storage remains a critical consideration. Lightbits SDS disaggregated architecture enables independent scaling while delivering NVMe flash performance over standard Ethernet. It runs on commodity servers and replicates data across storage nodes to help maintain availability during drive and server failures. Multipath connectivity supports resilience against network-path failures. The result is shared block storage for performance-sensitive virtualized workloads that is easy to manage and configure through Proxmox VE and doesn’t require costly, complex networking.

The Lightbits open-source plugin connects Proxmox VE clusters to Lightbits software-defined storage over NVMe/TCP. Administrators can provision, resize, snapshot and roll back volumes through the Proxmox VE interface, CLI and API. Because every cluster node accesses the same shared storage, VMs can move between hosts through live migration, while high-availability configurations can support workloads through host failures.

“Proxmox VE supports a wide range of storage technologies, so organizations can build their infrastructure the way it best suits them,” said Tim Marx, COO of Proxmox. “This collaboration extends our service capabilities with a natively integrated option for performance-sensitive workloads, available to existing Lightbits SDS users and Proxmox VE users alike.”

“Our customers have been running Lightbits with Proxmox VE for a while, and the native plugin makes that experience far simpler,” said Roiy Zysman, Director of Product Management at Lightbits Labs. “Connecting, provisioning and operating Lightbits volumes now happens right where virtualization and storage teams already work, giving both a clear, easy way to manage their deployments. And this is only the start: more improvements are on the way.”

Key features and capabilities:

• Shared storage for clustered virtualization: Enable live migration and HA configurations with shared volumes accessible across cluster nodes.
• Integrated storage management: Provision and manage volumes through the Proxmox VE web interface, CLI and API, including snapshots, rollback and online resizing.
• Resilience: Replication across Lightbits storage nodes and multipath connectivity help maintain data availability during infrastructure failures.
• Independent scaling: Scale compute and storage separately using standard servers, NVMe flash and Ethernet.
• Open source: Apache 2.0-licensed plugin available on GitHub.

The plugin supports Proxmox VE 9.x and all supported and maintained Lightbits releases, including Short-Term Support (STS) and Long-Term Support (LTS) versions. Explore the integration at lightbitslabs.com/proxmox-ve or connect with a Lightbits expert to schedule a product demo.

About Proxmox Server Solutions

Proxmox Server Solutions provides powerful, intuitive open-source server software that guarantees vendor independence and minimizes total cost of ownership. Enterprises of all sizes rely on the company’s reliable vendor support, certified training services, and a global network of 3,000 integration partners to ensure business continuity. More than 60,000 enterprises worldwide hold active Proxmox support plans to secure their mission-critical IT. Established in 2005, Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, with its subsidiary Proxmox North America Inc. based in Kingston, Ontario. To learn more, visit https://www.proxmox.com or follow Proxmox on LinkedIn and YouTube.

About Lightbits Labs

Lightbits Labs (Lightbits®) invented the NVMe over TCP storage protocol, which is natively built into its industry-leading block storage, and introduced the first KV cache optimization engine for AI acceleration. Lightbits data infrastructure solutions are engineered to deliver unmatched high performance and maximum hardware efficiency for LLM inference, real-time analytics, and transactional workloads. Lightbits is backed by enterprise technology leaders [Cisco Investments, Dell Technologies Capital, Intel Capital, J.P. Morgan, Lenovo, and Micron] and is on a mission to deliver best-in-class, cost-efficient software solutions for performance-sensitive workloads at scale.

To learn more about Lightbits Labs, visit https://www.lightbitslabs.com/ and follow Lightbits Labs on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Lightbits, Lightbits Labs, Lightbits SDS, and Inferra are registered trademarks of Lightbits Labs, Ltd.

Proxmox and Proxmox VE are trademarks of Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH.