wiki/wiki/linux/proxmox.md

Proxmox

Proxmox is an environment for virtual machines and containers. It is based on Debian and uses the package manager APT.

Usage

This section addresses the usage of Proxmox specific tasks.

Retrieve PVE Version

The current version of the Proxmox Virtual Environment can be retrieved by running the following command.

pveversion

Upgrading to a Higher Major Version

The first step for a major upgrade usually is retrieving the current version to check the version that should be installed.

The way of updating Proxmox is very similar to Debian since it is also based on it. However there are some differences. Therefore it is described here in detail.

If the user of the system to perform a major version upgrade on is using Docker some additional steps have to be taken before the upgrade. It is generally recommended to hold the Docker upgrade and performing it later. For this reason the following command has to be run first.

apt-mark hold docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

First the packages of the current major release version have to be upgrading using APTs full-upgrade option. Then a reboot is recommended.

At this point the state of the system can be checked this can be done by a special Proxmox command. Depending on the version the system is on the command may differ. If the system is for example running PVE 8 (based on Debian 12) then the following command can be used. Similar commands exist for other versions (for example pve7to8).

pve8to9

This will check if the current state of the system is ready for the major version upgrade. It is not recommended to continue with errors or without running these checks

Now APT needs to be assigned new sources. This can be done by editing the file /etc/apt/sources.list and replacing everything within with the new sources. For PVE 8 - which corresponds to Debians 12th version called bookworm - this lines to add are the following.

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free

On Proxmox there are two additional source lists that need to be changed.

The first one is located at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-no-subscription.list and should look similar to the following.

deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-no-subscription

The list placed at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list should be commented out entirely if the system is not running the enterprise version.

Following this a full upgrade has to be performed. Sometimes this process asks if the user wants to replace the local configuration files with newer ones. It is generally recommended to select N and reject these new configurations.

Finally another reboot is needed and the version number can be checked again confirming that the major version upgrade was successfully performed.

When the system ran Docker and its upgrade was put on hold as described at the start of this section the following commands have to be run to finalize the major upgrade, take Docker from the hold list and upgrade it.

apt-mark unhold docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
apt update
apt install --only-upgrade docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Adding a LVM to Proxmox

Create a pv and vg according to the LVM page at subsection Create VG for proxmox. Then add the LVM via the web-interface. Select Datacenter and Storage. The Add and choose LVM. After that follow the instructions and fill in the fields to your liking.

Enlarging Disk of a VM

Make sure there is enough disk space available. For further information see the disk management article

SSH into Proxmox. Enlarge a disk by using:

qm resize <vmid> <vm-disk-to-enlarge> <size>

For example if you want to the disk 100 by 100G (100GibiByte):

qm resize 100 ide0 +100G

Afterwards the partition of the VM needs to be enlarged. For that the disk management article can be used for non-LVM paritions. Alternatively the LVM article can be referenced for LVM systems. After that grow the filesystem in the vm as described in the disk management article.

Remove Local-LVM and Add Its Size to Local

First remove local-lvm with lvremove /dev/pve/data. Then remove local-lvm in the proxmox gui via Datacenter/Storage/Remove. Change the Content of the remaining storage according to your needs. Add the free storage to the remaining storage with lvresize -rl +100%FREE /dev/pve/root. Finally extend the filesystem resize2fs /dev/mapper/pve-root.

USB Passthrough

On the host system find the usb you're looking to pass through with

lsusb

Then assign it to the vm using

qm set <vm-id> -usb<id-to-set> host=<id-of-the-usb>

for example

qm set 101 -usb0 host=aaaa:8816

PCI/GPU Passthrough

To use GPUs or other PCI devices you need to work with PCI passthrough. For documentation you can look in the Proxmox wiki. There is also an article on reddit, that focusses especially on windows 10 VMs with GPU passthrough.

Increasing Backup-Limit of Proxmox Storage

The default limit for backup is 1. This is a bit too low. To increase it navigate to the webinterface and click on Datacenter and Storage select the storage you want to save your backup to and change Max Backups to your liking.

Troubleshooting

This section addresses various errors that can happen when using Proxmox.

No Internet After Mainboard Swap

If you change the mainboard of your proxmox-virtual-environment it is possible, that the NIC changes. Find out the new interface name with ip a. After that get all occurences of the interface (eth0 in the example) with rgrep eth0 /etc and change them to the new device with a text editor of your choice. It is possible that there are also files existing that need to be renamed. Find them with find /etc -change '*eth0*' and move them to the new name. After that reboot and the internet should be up again. (sources: debian website and proxmox forum)