Reconsidering ProxMox

moka

I have been using Proxmox for many years now in my home environment and it has been nothing but rock solid.
Use ZFS block devices for all guests and a specific pool as file storage which all guests access over NFS.

It´s rich in features and easy to work with. Configs are also easy to find and access in case of any issue.

Only reason I don´t use it in our corporate environment is the backup features. The limitation of only full backups makes offsite copying problematic with large VMs.

ZFS can solve this problem by sending and receiving snapshots but you need to script it your self or use an external library. I use this method to backup my NFS pool but its not robust enough for VMs.

Other pros,
Guest firewall

Cons,
Subscription nag screen
Guest console can be a little dodgy sometimes

Note I´m using version 4.4 so some of my issues might have been resolved in newer versions.

scottalanmiller

@moka said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

Only reason I don´t use it in our corporate environment is the backup features. The limitation of only full backups makes offsite copying problematic with large VMs.

Keep in mind you have alternative options for that. Like Veeam Agents, Windows built in backups, and what have you. It's still not the same robust feature set that Vmware backups would have, but it's more than just what Proxmox includes.

black3dynamite

@moka said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

Note I´m using version 4.4 so some of my issues might have been resolved in newer versions.

Lots of good improvements with version 6.1. The guest console is a lot better.

dafyre

@moka said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

I have been using Proxmox for many years now in my home environment and it has been nothing but rock solid.
Use ZFS block devices for all guests and a specific pool as file storage which all guests access over NFS.

It´s rich in features and easy to work with. Configs are also easy to find and access in case of any issue.

Only reason I don´t use it in our corporate environment is the backup features. The limitation of only full backups makes offsite copying problematic with large VMs.

ZFS can solve this problem by sending and receiving snapshots but you need to script it your self or use an external library. I use this method to backup my NFS pool but its not robust enough for VMs.

Other pros,
Guest firewall

Cons,
Subscription nag screen
Guest console can be a little dodgy sometimes

Note I´m using version 4.4 so some of my issues might have been resolved in newer versions.

For the ZFS stuff, you can look at sanoid ... and it's counterpart syncoid (https://github.com/jimsalterjrs/sanoid)

I'm using Sanoid on my laptop, but don't have anything to sync it to at the moment.

black3dynamite

Accessing Proxmox behind a Nginx Reverse Proxy works pretty well.

Having the option to use Time-base OTP and YubiKey OTP is awesome.

stacksofplates

@black3dynamite said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

Accessing Proxmox behind a Nginx Reverse Proxy works pretty well.

Having the option to use Time-base OTP and YubiKey OTP is awesome.

The Yubikey option is really nice. You can do it with SSH but that's pretty awesome they have that built in.

black3dynamite

https://github.com/foundObjects/pve-nag-buster

VoIP_n00b

@black3dynamite interesting. Have you used this?

black3dynamite

@VoIP_n00b said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

@black3dynamite interesting. Have you used this?

Not yet! I haven't gone through each script yet.

scottalanmiller

@black3dynamite good find!

black3dynamite

Proxmox makes it pretty easy to utilize cloud-init to help make some nice a nice templates.

stacksofplates

@black3dynamite said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

Proxmox makes it pretty easy to utilize cloud-init to help make some nice a nice templates.

Yeah I still go back and forth on how useful that is in non-cloud environments. Packer has a proxmox builder so you could leverage a CM tool to do the provisioning for your templates.

stacksofplates

I think the only advantage I see is adding a key or something as a server is built, but that's easily automated other ways also.

I think I just find doing Bash annoying anymore lol.

black3dynamite

@stacksofplates said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

@black3dynamite said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

Proxmox makes it pretty easy to utilize cloud-init to help make some nice a nice templates.

Yeah I still go back and forth on how useful that is in non-cloud environments. Packer has a proxmox builder so you could leverage a CM tool to do the provisioning for your templates.

Besides what is configured in the cloud.cfg file in that VM, having this accessible from Proxmox Web UI is nice.

Youtube Video

jmoore

So what is Proxmox exactly?

scottalanmiller

@jmoore said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

So what is Proxmox exactly?

Proxmox is a KVM virtualization stack. Just like vSphere is for ESXi, or XCP-NG is for Xen.

jmoore

@scottalanmiller So I can use it like kvm but it just has extra features?

black3dynamite

@jmoore said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

@scottalanmiller So I can use it like kvm but it just has extra features?

Commands lines is different.

From the Proxmox Documentation Index from my proxmox server.
https://ip-address:8006/pve-docs/index.html

jmoore

@black3dynamite Ok thanks. So it looks like another virtualization option. What advantages and disadvantages does it have with KVM?

black3dynamite

@jmoore said in Reconsidering ProxMox:

@black3dynamite Ok thanks. So it looks like another virtualization option. What advantages and disadvantages does it have with KVM?

It's still KVM. They just using there own toolkit to manage KVM.
https://www.proxmox.com/en/proxmox-ve/features