PVE Proxmox Tips

PVE Proxmox is Linux + KVM (or LXC) virtualization. It is freely available from: https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads

Tested version:

pveversion
   pve-manager/5.1-41/0b958203 (running kernel: 4.13.13-2-pve)

Putty SSH ciphers error

If you get SSH connection error like Couldn't agree a client-to-server cipher ... then you need to upgrade your Putty client (had success with putty-64bit-0.70-installer.msi from https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html)

List and download PVE LXC appliances

To use Linux containers (LXC based) you need to download appliance filesystem archive

Use this command to list LXC appliances:

pveam available

Use this command to download specific appliance:

pveam download local debian-9.0-standard_9.3-1_amd64.tar.gz

NOTE:

The local argument is your storage name. You can list available storages using command:

pvesm status

You can then create new LXC container using this template. Example using Web UI:

• logon to your Proxmox Web UI at https://IP_ADDRESS:8006
• click on "Create CT" (blue button at right-top corner of webpage)
• on "General" tab fill:
  • "Password"
  • "Confirm Password"
• on "Template" tab fill:
  • "Storage" - keep "local" if possible
  • "Template" - there should be only option - previously downloaded debian-9.0-standard_9.3-1_amd64.tar.gz
• keep defaults on "Root Disk" (lvm-thin), "CPU" and "Memory" tabs
• on "Network" tab remember to either fill IPv4 (or IPv6) address or choice DHCP (if you have DHCP server on your network)
• "DNS" - I have available "use host settings" only so it is easy
• click on "Confirm" tab and then click on "Finish" button
• wait for creation to complete:
  • on "Status" tab you should see "stopped: OK"

Now you can expand in tree

• "Data Center" -> "pve" -> "100 (CT100)"

• click on "Start" button

• you can click on "Console" (or "Console JS") to login to your container

• in case or our Debian you can query container ip address using command:

  ip addr

NOTE: above Debian 9 image does not allow root to log via SSH - so you need to either create non-root user to login, or PermitRootLogin yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config of your LXC

Getting container info from Proxmox SSH connection:

• list LXC containers:

  lxc-ls
     100

• list information about container 100:

  lxc-info --name 100

NOTE: grep IP: column to get IP address of container.

Quick Download of ISO vm

To have new VM you typically need installation ISO. You can use either web UI to upload ISO this way:

• logon to your Proxmox Web UI at https://IP_ADDRESS:8006
• expand/click on "Datacenter" -> "pve" -> "local"
• clock on "Upload" on right-pane to Upload your ISO

Or you can download ISO image directly to your proxmox storage:

• SSH to your Proxmox
• cd to ISO directory and download installation ISO image, for example:

cd /var/lib/vz/template/iso
wget http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/debian-cd/9.4.0/amd64/iso-cd/debian-9.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso

NOTE: If your download fail you can continue it (without need to download whole file again) using -c argument for example:

wget -c http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/debian-cd/9.4.0/amd64/iso-cd/debian-9.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso

Now you can create your first VM using this ISO, for example:

• logon to your Proxmox Web UI at https://IP_ADDRESS:8006
• click on "Create VM" blue button at the right-top of web page
• click on "OS" tab
  • select your "Iso image:" - debian-9.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso
• click on "Hard Disk", "CPU", "Memory", "Network", "Confirm" tabs and on "Finish" button.
• expand "Data Center" -> "pve" -> "101 (VM 101)"
• click on "Start"
• click on "Console" and follow standard Debian installation

PVE SSH commands to get basic info about VMs:

qm list

# 101 is VMID from "qm list"
qm config 101

Listing available templates

Use this command to list installed LXC and ISO templates:

# note: "local" is storage name
pvesm list local

Install QEMU Agent

QEMU Agent is used to run commands (for example shutdown...) in guest from Host.

Please see https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Qemu-guest-agent for guide.

You can then run Agent commands from Proxmox SSH, for example:

qm agent 101 network-get-interfaces

Enable backups for local storage

It is two step operation:

• enable backup for local storage:

  pvesm set local --content rootdir,images,backup,iso

• set maximum number of backups to 99 (should be more than enough):

  pvesm set local --maxfiles 99