How is capacity counted on two direct NVMe disks?

The default pair

The default build is two 1TB NVMe disks, each wired to the board, with no hardware RAID card in the path.

Neither disk is mirrored, so the system should show two independent disks.

Usable capacity is the sum of both, around 2TB, rather than the 1TB left by a RAID-1 pair.

When installing Ubuntu 24.04, confirm both entries in the disk list first, then install onto one of them.

Leave the other disk unformatted in the installer and partition it after the install finishes.

Spotting both at install time

Proxmox VE 8 or 9 can keep the first disk as the system disk and leave the second for virtual machine images.

Debian, AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream and FreeBSD 13 also list two disks of similar size.

lsblk should report two NVMe rows. With only one row, check whether the installer used a single disk.

An unpartitioned second disk stays out of df, which does not mean the disk is missing.

Windows Disk Management shows two basic disks in the same way; building a mirrored volume there does not substitute for a hardware array.

Checking after the install

A multi-site setup can keep the system on the first disk and site data on the second, so a rebuild leaves the data disk untouched.

Database files suit the second disk. Do not assume the pair has already been striped into one volume.

The processor is an AMD EPYC 7543P with 32 cores and 64 threads, 2.8 to 3.7 GHz, and 256MB of L3 cache.

Memory is DDR4-3200 ECC RDIMM; 128GB rents for $454.8 a month and 256GB for $612.7, and modules cannot be added after the order.

The facility is Tokyo, Japan. One tenant holds one machine. Linux is reached over SSH, Windows over RDP.

Splitting disks between data and virtual machines

An added 2TB NVMe disk is a separate disk at $84.7 a month, up to two, and still direct-attached.

Added disks never merge into the default 2TB. Striping or mirroring at the software layer has to be built by hand, clear of the system disk.

Bandwidth defaults to 250 Mbps unmetered; 1 Gbps adds $245.0 and 2 Gbps adds $742.7.

One IPv4 is included, and extra addresses are $1.6 each, up to 255 more.

The amount due is the monthly rent times the month count. Monthly, quarterly, semiannual and annual carry no discount, and there is no setup fee.

Added disks stay out of the default total

An added-disk count of 0 on the configuration page means no further 2TB disk, while the default pair of 1TB disks remains.

If only one disk appears after the install, paste the lsblk output into a console ticket together with the order number.

The console shows the address and password only once a machine is connectable. Several addresses are split apart, and SSH takes the first line alone.

Public pages do not present the graphical session as an access method; it opens inside the console.

The factory state is always one visible disk per device. Before building software RAID, mark which disk carries the boot loader.

Ordering and tickets

Write the second disk's mount point into the system configuration so it survives a reboot instead of existing only in the current session.

A disk close to 1TB is a default disk; one close to 2TB is an added disk. Compare sizes before partitioning.

Disks in one machine are shared with no other tenant and are not carved up the way cloud volumes are.

No hardware RAID means that losing one disk leaves the other's data intact, without any automatic mirror.

Backups still have to be arranged. Direct attachment describes how a disk is wired, not a backup schedule.

Work out the capacity before partitioning

A disk labelled 1TB reports slightly fewer usable sectors than a decimal 1000GB, because the vendor counts in decimal and the system counts in binary. That does not change the arithmetic of adding both disks. With both present, the two sizes together should still land near 2TB rather than near 1TB. A total the size of one disk means the other was not detected, or the installer skipped it.

An installer sometimes lists both disks yet builds a partition table only on the first. After the install, run lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT inside the system and read the rows whose TYPE is disk. Two disk rows mean both are present. More partition rows do not mean another physical disk arrived.

Use GPT for the partition table on the second disk. The first already carries the system, so do not rebuild its table. A single partition on the second disk is enough, mounted at /data or /var/lib/vz. Write the mount entry against a stable identifier: a plain name such as /dev/nvme0n1 can point at the system disk once slots move around.

When Proxmox keeps virtual machine images on the second disk, either a directory store or LVM-Thin works, provided that disk already carries a filesystem or a volume group. There is no point hunting for hardware RAID in the wizard: this EPYC 7543P machine has no such card, so no array appears there.

Windows Server 2019, 2022 or 2025 Standard adds $18.1 a month and Datacenter adds $31.8 a month. When Disk Management shows both disks as basic disks, the capacity arithmetic matches Linux. Converting them into a mirrored volume drops usable space to roughly one disk, which contradicts the delivery of 2×1TB direct NVMe with no hardware RAID.

128GB and 256GB differ in the number of memory modules and nothing else about storage. Choosing 256GB adds no disk, and choosing 128GB removes none. Memory is DDR4-3200 ECC RDIMM and cannot be added after the order, so larger memory means the 256GB tier at $612.7 a month.

Bandwidth and addresses do not change the disk count. 250 Mbps is included and unmetered. Moving to 1 Gbps adds $245.0 a month and 2 Gbps adds $742.7 a month. One IPv4 is included, and extra addresses cost $1.6 each. All of it enters the monthly rent, which is then multiplied by the month count: quarterly is three times that rent, semiannual six times, annual twelve times.

One machine serves one tenant. Partitions, files and virtual machines on both disks are shared with no other customer. The facility is Tokyo, Japan. After payment, the console gives the first address once the machine is connectable, and the SSH command carries that address alone. Where the hostname record holds further addresses, they scroll in their own list instead of joining the same command.

A workable checklist runs in this order: count the disk rows, confirm each size is close to 1TB, check that the system partition sits on one row only, then mount the other row at a data directory. With all four in place, plan for roughly 2TB of usable space instead of the 1TB a mirror would leave.

If the second disk is absent on install day, reboot once and read lsblk again. Still absent, compare the added-disk count in the order: even at 0 the default pair should be there. Submit the order number and the full lsblk output to a console ticket, and do not ask for the two disks to be joined into a hardware mirror, which the machine cannot do.