Debian linstor?

mtheimpaler · April 12, 2025, 9:05pm

Has anyone had any luck at all in installing Linstor on their Debian server?

I would like to run Debian Bookworm with my setup but it’s been very hard to get everything working and even with Docker it doesn’t seem to work right for the satellite and controllers. I have used the releases from linbit website and tried to use their git repo as well. It works very easily with Ubuntu which is nice, but I would like to avoid Ubuntu at all costs.

Anyone have any insight in this?

As an example:
Am I suppose to run the docker images with any special parameters? I can’t run any linstor commands if I just run the docker image. Documentation is pretty bad, im hoping someone knows something?

stgraber · April 12, 2025, 11:05pm

@bensmrs what have you been deploying your environment on?

So far I’ve done my own testing on Ubuntu but I’ll eventually want to run it on Debian too. Though in my case I’ll only really care about the Satellites, the Controller can run in a container or VM and so can be on Ubuntu easily enough.

bensmrs · April 13, 2025, 10:30am

On Debian, this can get tricky. I don’t recommend using LINBIT’s PPA, because Ubuntu PPAs are notoriously not that well supported on Debian, but I think you can still get it working. LINBIT only makes available their official Debian packages for Proxmox (the full repos require a subscription). Would be nice to have that packaged in Debian

Step 1: Use LINBIT’s Proxmox repository

My current environment is running Bookworm (I still have to test if it can be upgraded to Trixie), so the corresponding Proxmox version is 8. I’m using the following sources file:

Types: deb
URIs: https://packages.linbit.com/public
Suites: proxmox-8
Components: drbd-9
Architectures: amd64
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/linbit.asc

Note that LINBIT provides a linbit-keyring package; do NOT install it, as it installs their key in trusted.gpg.d. Unarchive the linbit-keyring package to find the key, or use this one:

Save it to /etc/apt/keyrings/linbit.asc, apt update, and you’re good to go

Step 2: Install DRBD 9

apt install linux-headers-amd64 drbd-dkms

Optional, but required if you’re using secure boot: register your DKMS MOK

yes dkms | head -n 2 | mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub
Reboot and enroll the key when prompted (with the password dkms).

Step 3: Install LINSTOR

For a hyperconverged setup, apt install linstor-client linstor-controller linstor-satellite.
You may drop whichever package you don’t need. On my setup, I also need drbd-reactor.

I have worked on an Ansible role at $job to automate everything and reconfigure LINSTOR to have a fully distributed controller. I’ll release it in a few days (but it will need to be adapted, as it’s only meant to work on my environment).

mtheimpaler · April 14, 2025, 11:45pm

@bensmrs thank you !

victoitor · October 24, 2025, 4:54pm

I was randomly browsing around the proxmox public repository and found folders for distros that include both proxmox and debian versions.

I’m guessing that for trixie you would use

Types: deb
URIs: https://packages.linbit.com/public
Suites: trixie
Components: misc
Architectures: amd64
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/linbit.asc

I have not tested this yet, but you guys can check for yourselves. And please check the edited repository first.

bensmrs · October 24, 2025, 7:49pm

No, the Debian-specific repositories only contain the misc tools. You really should be using the Proxmox repository that matches your Debian version.
I’m thinking about actually packaging the tools for Debian, but I’m already worried about the non-DRBD packages, as packaging Java apps properly (read: in such a way that it’s accepted in Debian) is notoriously difficult.
And the time I have available for open source contributions at $job is mainly taken by Incus . Still, I’ll have a first look in the coming months. Having that in Debian Forky would be awesome.