Proxmox VE
is a virtualization platform that allows you to create and manage multiple virtual machines and containers from an intuitive web interface.
We will perform the installation of Proxmox VE and the configuration of a desktop environment.
Preparing the Server
The installation of Proxmox begins long before inserting the installation USB. The first step is to correctly configure your server's BIOS.
- Enable Virtualization: Look for options such as "Intel Virtualization Technology" (VT-x) or "AMD-V".
- Enable UEFI mode: Look for the "Boot Mode" or "Boot Configuration" option and set it to UEFI mode instead of Legacy.
- Enable Secure Boot: Look for the "Secure Boot" option in the security section.
- Change the boot order: Find the "Boot Order" or "Boot Sequence" section and ensure that the USB device is first in the boot order.
- Configure automatic power-on: Set your server to automatically turn on after a power outage. Look for options such as "AC Power Recovery", "After Power Loss", or "Safe After G3".
Install Proxmox
The installation of Proxmox begins with the creation of a USB boot drive. Download the Proxmox ISO image from their official website and use tools like Balena Etcher , Rufus , Ventoy or even Raspberry Pi Imager to write it to your USB drive.
Once the boot drive is prepared, connect the necessary peripherals to your server: keyboard, mouse, and monitor. It's crucial to use an Ethernet connection for the network, avoiding WiFi at this stage. Turn off the server, connect the USB drive, and restart it, making sure it boots from the USB.
In the boot menu, select "Install Proxmox VE (Graphical)" to start the graphical installation. The process will guide you through several steps: accepting the license, selecting the hard drive for installation, configuring the time zone and keyboard, setting a secure password for the root user, and providing an email for notifications.
Review the installation summary and click "Install". After a few minutes and an automatic restart, you'll see the IP address and port to access the Proxmox web interface on the terminal, thus completing the basic installation.
Run post-install script
After the initial Proxmox installation, it's essential to optimize its configuration using a post-installation script. This process begins by accessing the Proxmox web interface through your browser, using your server's IP address followed by :8006, for example: 192.168.1.100:8006. From there, you'll open the Proxmox console to run the script.
You can find the necessary command on the helper scripts website , just paste it into the Proxmox command console:
The script execution, which includes several updates and optimizations, can take about 10 minutes. Once completed, a simple Proxmox restart will finish the process.
Install Desktop Environment
We'll follow the steps from the Proxmox documentation with the options that best suit our needs.
First, we must update the Linux system packages:
apt update && apt dist-upgrade
We install the graphical environment, we can choose between the following:
For the example, I'm going to use KDE with the complete suite of this desktop environment, so I'll use the kde-full package and use the chromium browser.
The command would look like this:
apt install kde-full chromium
Now we need to create a user to be able to log in to our desktop environment, with the command:
adduser userName
💡 This command asks for the user's data and the password that will be used when logging in.
And that's it, we just need to restart the computer for the desktop environment to start, we can do this by running the reboot command from the Proxmox console.
Resize the host system partition (optional)
After installing Proxmox VE, you may want to adjust the size of the default partitions to optimize your storage space usage. For example, on a 1TB NVMe SSD, the default configuration allocates 100GB to Local(PVE) for backups, ISOs, and templates, while the rest is allocated to Local-LVM(PVE) for virtual machine and container disks.
If you need more space for backups and templates, you can resize these partitions. This process involves deleting the existing Local-LVM(PVE) partition and creating a new one with the desired size, then extending Local(PVE) with the remaining space.
To perform this process, you'll need to use the Proxmox SSH terminal. First, delete the current Local-LVM(PVE) partition with the command:
lvremove pve/data
Then, create a new Local-LVM(PVE) partition of the desired size, for example 600GB, using:
lvcreate -L+600G -ndata pve
It's important to add metadata to this new partition. To do this, use the command:
lvconvert --type thin-pool --poolmetadatasize 6G pve/data
💡 Keep in mind that the metadata size is usually 1% of the Local-LVM size.
Finally, extend the Local(PVE) partition to occupy the remaining space with:
lvextend -l 100%FREE /dev/mapper/pve-root
And make the changes effective with:
resize2fs /dev/mapper/pve-root
(assuming the file system is ext4)
After this process, your storage will be distributed more evenly. For example, on a 1TB SSD, you could have approximately 226GB for Local(PVE) and 644GB for Local-LVM(PVE), providing more space for backups and templates without compromising too much space for virtual machines and containers.
Remember that this process carries risks and should only be performed if you really need a different space distribution. It's always recommended to make a full backup before making changes to system partitions.