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InfrastructureProxmox - Getting Started

Getting Started with Proxmox VE

Now that Proxmox is installed and configured, let’s explore the essential tasks you’ll perform regularly. This guide covers creating VMs, containers, managing storage, and navigating the web interface.

Work in Progress: This guide is currently being updated and refined. Some sections may be incomplete or subject to change.

Version Reference: This guide is written for Proxmox VE 8.4 (based on Debian 12.10 “Bookworm”, released April 2025). Commands and UI may differ in future versions.

Understanding the Web Interface

When you log into Proxmox at https://YOUR-IP:8006, you’ll see:

Left Sidebar - Datacenter Tree

  • Datacenter: Top-level container for your entire infrastructure
    • Node(s): Individual Proxmox servers (you’ll have at least one)
      • VMs: Virtual machines (QEMU/KVM)
      • Containers: LXC containers
      • Storage: Available storage locations
      • Disks: Physical disks attached to the node

Main Panel - Management Area

  • Changes based on what you select in the sidebar
  • Shows summary statistics, resource usage, and action buttons

Top Toolbar

  • Create VM: Quick access to VM wizard
  • Create CT: Quick access to container wizard
  • Search: Find VMs, containers, and resources quickly

Storage Overview

Before creating VMs or containers, understand your storage options:

Storage Types

Local Storage (default):

  • local: Directory storage for ISO images, backups, and container templates
  • local-lvm: LVM storage for VM disks (block storage, better performance)

Network Storage (optional):

  • NFS: Network File System shares
  • SMB/CIFS: Windows file shares
  • iSCSI: Block-level storage over network
  • Ceph: Distributed storage (advanced, requires multiple nodes)

Checking Available Storage

  1. Click on your node in the sidebar
  2. Click Disks to see physical storage
  3. Click Datacenter → Storage to see configured storage locations

Pro Tip: Use local-lvm for VM disks (better performance) and local for ISOs, backups, and container templates.

Creating Your First VM

VMs (Virtual Machines) provide full hardware virtualization and can run any operating system.

Step 1: Upload an ISO Image

  1. Click Datacenter → [your-node] → local (storage)
  2. Click ISO Images
  3. Click Upload or Download from URL
  4. Upload your OS installation ISO (Ubuntu, Windows, etc.)

Step 2: Create the VM

  1. Click Create VM in the top-right corner
  2. Follow the wizard:

General Tab

  • Node: Select your Proxmox node
  • VM ID: Unique identifier (usually auto-assigned)
  • Name: Descriptive name (e.g., “ubuntu-server”)

OS Tab

  • Storage: Select local
  • ISO image: Choose your uploaded ISO
  • Guest OS Type: Select the appropriate OS type (Linux, Windows, etc.)

System Tab

  • Graphic card: Default (SPICE or VirtIO-GPU)
  • Machine: q35 (recommended for modern OSes)
  • BIOS: SeaBIOS (default) or OVMF for UEFI
  • SCSI Controller: VirtIO SCSI (recommended)

Pro Tip: Use VirtIO drivers for best performance. Windows requires VirtIO driver ISO downloaded separately.

Disks Tab

  • Bus/Device: VirtIO Block or SCSI
  • Storage: local-lvm (recommended)
  • Disk size: Allocate appropriate space (e.g., 32GB)
  • Cache: Default (No cache) or Write back (faster but riskier)

CPU Tab

  • Cores: Number of CPU cores (start with 2-4)
  • Type: host (best performance for homelab)

Memory Tab

  • Memory (MiB): RAM allocation (e.g., 2048 for 2GB, 4096 for 4GB)
  • Ballooning: Keep enabled (allows dynamic memory adjustment)

Network Tab

  • Bridge: vmbr0 (default bridge)
  • Model: VirtIO (paravirtualized, best performance)
  • Firewall: Check if you want to use Proxmox firewall
  1. Click Finish (don’t start yet)

Step 3: Start and Install the OS

  1. Select your new VM in the sidebar
  2. Click Start in the top-right
  3. Click Console to access the VM display
  4. Follow the OS installation process

Pro Tip: Use the noVNC console for quick access, or xterm.js for a terminal-only interface. SPICE client offers the best performance for desktop OSes.

Step 4: Post-Installation Tasks

After OS installation:

Install QEMU Guest Agent (recommended):

For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install qemu-guest-agent -y
sudo systemctl start qemu-guest-agent

For CentOS/Rocky/Alma:

sudo dnf install qemu-guest-agent -y
sudo systemctl start qemu-guest-agent

For Windows:

  • Download VirtIO drivers ISO from Fedora Project 
  • Mount ISO in VM
  • Install virtio-win-guest-tools.exe

Then in Proxmox:

  1. Select the VM → Options
  2. Double-click QEMU Guest Agent
  3. Check Use QEMU Guest Agent
  4. Click OK

Pro Tip: The QEMU Guest Agent enables better VM management, proper shutdown commands, and accurate resource reporting.

Creating LXC Containers

LXC containers are lightweight, share the host kernel, and start instantly. Perfect for services like web servers, databases, and Docker hosts.

Step 1: Download a Container Template

  1. Click on your node → local (storage)
  2. Click CT Templates
  3. Click Templates button
  4. Select a template (e.g., ubuntu-24.04-standard)
  5. Click Download

Step 2: Create the Container

  1. Click Create CT in the top-right corner
  2. Follow the wizard:

General Tab

  • Node: Select your node
  • CT ID: Unique identifier (auto-assigned)
  • Hostname: Container hostname (e.g., “docker-host”)
  • Password: Root password for the container
  • SSH public key: Optional (paste your SSH key for key-based login)

Template Tab

  • Storage: local
  • Template: Select your downloaded template

Root Disk Tab

  • Storage: local-lvm
  • Disk size (GiB): Allocate space (e.g., 8-16GB)

CPU Tab

  • Cores: Number of CPU cores (1-2 is usually enough)

Memory Tab

  • Memory (MiB): RAM allocation (512-1024 for most services)
  • Swap (MiB): Swap space (512-1024)

Network Tab

  • Name: eth0 (default)
  • Bridge: vmbr0
  • IPv4: DHCP or Static
  • IPv6: DHCP or Static (or leave blank)
  1. Click Finish

Step 3: Start and Access the Container

  1. Select your container in the sidebar
  2. Click Start
  3. Click Console to access the container
  4. Log in with root and the password you set

Pro Tip: Containers start in 1-2 seconds compared to 30+ seconds for VMs!

Container Best Practices

Privileged vs Unprivileged:

  • Unprivileged (default): More secure, uses user namespaces
  • Privileged: Required for Docker, NFS mounts, and some hardware access

To make a container privileged:

  1. Select container → Options
  2. Double-click Unprivileged container
  3. Uncheck it (requires container shutdown)

For Docker in LXC:

apt update
apt install curl -y
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Then edit container settings:

  1. Shut down the container
  2. Click Options → Features
  3. Enable keyctl, nesting, and fuse
  4. Start the container

Managing Storage

Adding Local Storage

If you have additional physical disks:

  1. Click on your node → Disks

  2. Click Initialize Disk with GPT for new disks

  3. Create storage:

    • LVM: Click LVM tab → Create: Volume Group
    • Directory: Click Directory tab → Create: Directory
    • ZFS: Click ZFS tab → Create: ZFS (requires ZFS support)

  4. Go to Datacenter → Storage → Add to make it available

Adding Network Storage (NFS Example)

  1. Click Datacenter → Storage → Add → NFS
  2. Configure:
    • ID: Unique name (e.g., “nas-share”)
    • Server: NFS server IP
    • Export: NFS export path (e.g., “/mnt/storage”)
    • Content: Select what to store (Disk image, ISO, Container, etc.)
  3. Click Add

Basic Networking

Proxmox uses Linux bridges for VM/container networking.

Default Network Bridge (vmbr0)

By default, Proxmox creates vmbr0 which bridges to your physical network interface. All VMs and containers on vmbr0 can access your network.

Viewing Network Configuration

In the shell:

ip addr show
cat /etc/network/interfaces

Creating Additional Bridges

  1. Click on your node → Network
  2. Click Create → Linux Bridge
  3. Configure:
    • Name: vmbr1 (or next available number)
    • IPv4/CIDR: Optional (e.g., 10.0.1.1/24 for isolated network)
    • Bridge ports: Leave empty for isolated network, or add physical interface
  4. Click Create
  5. Click Apply Configuration

Pro Tip: Create isolated bridges for lab environments or to separate production and testing VMs.

Essential VM and Container Operations

Starting, Stopping, and Restarting

Start:

  • Select VM/container → Start button

Shutdown (graceful):

  • Select VM/container → Shutdown button

Stop (force):

  • Select VM/container → Stop button

Reboot:

  • Select VM/container → Reboot button

Taking Snapshots

Snapshots let you save VM/container state before changes:

  1. Select VM/container → Snapshots
  2. Click Take Snapshot
  3. Name it descriptively (e.g., “before-upgrade”)
  4. Include RAM (optional, creates memory snapshot)
  5. Click Take Snapshot

To restore:

  1. Snapshots tab
  2. Select snapshot → Rollback

Warning: Snapshots are not backups! They depend on the original disk. Use the backup system for real backups.

Creating Backups

  1. Select VM/container → Backup
  2. Click Backup now
  3. Configure:
    • Storage: Where to save (local or remote)
    • Mode: Snapshot (fast) or Stop (safest)
    • Compression: LZO (fast) or ZSTD (better compression)
  4. Click Backup

To schedule regular backups:

  1. Click Datacenter → Backup
  2. Click Add
  3. Configure schedule and selection
  4. Click Create

Common Administrative Tasks

Checking Resource Usage

Node Summary:

  • Click on your node to see CPU, memory, storage, and network usage

VM/Container Resources:

  • Select VM/container → Summary to see resource usage

Updating Proxmox

From the shell:

apt update
apt dist-upgrade -y

Or from the UI:

  1. Click on your node → Updates
  2. Click Refresh
  3. Review updates
  4. Click Upgrade

Pro Tip: Subscribe to Proxmox VE mailing list or check the forum before major updates for known issues.

Monitoring Logs

System Logs:

  • Click on your node → Syslog (last 500 lines)

VM/Container Logs:

  • Select VM/container → Logs

Task History:

  • Click on your node → Tasks to see all operations

Managing Users and Permissions

Add a User:

  1. Click Datacenter → Permissions → Users → Add
  2. Configure user details
  3. Assign realm (usually PVE or LDAP)

Set Permissions:

  1. Click Datacenter → Permissions → Add → User Permission
  2. Select path (/, /vms, /storage, etc.)
  3. Choose user and role (NoAccess, PVEAdmin, PVEAuditor, etc.)

Pro Tip: Create separate users for team members instead of sharing the root password!

Useful Shell Commands

Access the shell by clicking your node → Shell, then use these commands:

List all VMs and containers:

qm list
pct list

Start a VM (replace 100 with VM ID):

qm start 100

Start a container (replace 100 with CT ID):

pct start 100

Check Proxmox version:

pveversion

Check cluster status (for multi-node setups):

pvecm status

Monitor system resources:

htop

Check disk usage:

df -h

View running VMs/containers:

qm list | grep running
pct list | grep running

Next Steps

Now that you understand the basics:

  • Explore the community scripts: community-scripts.github.io/ProxmoxVE  for one-command LXC container deployments
  • Set up scheduled backups: Datacenter → Backup
  • Configure firewall rules: Datacenter → Firewall
  • Experiment with templates: Create a VM/container, configure it, and convert it to a template for quick deployments
  • Learn about clustering: Connect multiple Proxmox nodes for high availability (advanced)

Pro Tips & Best Practices

VM Management

  • Use cloud-init images for faster Linux VM provisioning (pre-configured, no installation needed)
  • Enable Start at boot for critical VMs: VM Options → Start at boot
  • Set Start/Shutdown order for dependencies: VM Options → Start/Shutdown order
  • Use VM tags for organization: VM → More → Manage Tags

Container Management

  • Containers are perfect for stateless services (web servers, reverse proxies)
  • Use VMs for complex applications requiring kernel modules
  • Keep containers small and focused (single service per container)
  • Use bind mounts to share host directories with containers

Storage Management

  • Monitor storage usage regularly (Datacenter → Storage)
  • Use thin provisioning for VMs to save space (enabled by default)
  • Keep 15-20% free space on storage for snapshots and overhead
  • Consider ZFS for advanced features (snapshots, compression, deduplication)

Backup Strategy

  • Follow 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, 2 different media types, 1 offsite
  • Test restores periodically to ensure backups work
  • Use protected flag on critical backups to prevent accidental deletion
  • Store backups on separate physical storage if possible

Official Documentation

For advanced topics and detailed technical information:

Troubleshooting

VM Won’t Start

  • Check resource availability (CPU, RAM, storage)
  • Review Tasks log for error messages
  • Verify disk storage has space: df -h
  • Check VM configuration: select VM → Hardware for issues

Container Network Issues

  • Verify bridge configuration: ip addr show vmbr0
  • Check firewall rules: Datacenter → Firewall
  • Restart networking: systemctl restart networking
  • Verify container has correct network settings: Container → Network

Can’t Access Web Interface

  • Verify service is running: systemctl status pveproxy
  • Check firewall: iptables -L
  • Restart web interface: systemctl restart pveproxy pvedaemon

Storage Full

  • Check usage: df -h
  • Remove old backups: Datacenter → Backup → select and delete
  • Delete unused templates: local → CT Templates or ISO Images
  • Clean up old log files: journalctl --vacuum-time=7d

Ready to deploy services? Check out the Community Scripts  for one-command LXC container deployments of popular services!

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