Proxmox VE and Backup Server Cheat Sheet

Proxmox Virtual Environment, (PVE) is an open-source hypervisor manager.

Based on Debian and with a modified Ubuntu LTS kernel it allows deployment and management of virtual machines (KVM) and containers (LXD).

Differently from XCP-ng, Proxmox VE includes a web interface and provides a REST API for third-party tools.

It can be downloaded for free at [Link] and if necessary use the USB Imager to create a bootable thumb drive [Link].

Creating a bootable USB for installation:

dd bs=1M conv=fdatasync if=./proxmox-ve_7.1-2.iso of=/dev/sdc

Updating and upgrading:

apt update
apt upgrade -y
apt dist-upgrade -y

In order to avoid error messages about a repo that is not signed (because it requires subscription), comment all lines in the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list.

Go on your browser to https://192.168.1.103:8006/ and create a new and strong password to the default user root.

CLI COMMANDS

man qm
qm list
qm start 100
qm shutdown 100
qm reboot 100
qm reset 100
qm stop 100
qm config 100
qm set -onboot 1 100
man pct
pct list
pct start 101
pct shutdown 101
pct reboot 101
pct config 101
pct set -memory 1024 101
pct enter 101

INSTALLING THE GUEST AGENT

sudo apt install qemu-guest-agent -y

BEFORE CREATING AN IMAGE FROM A VM

sudo rm -rf /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
sudo truncate -s 0 /etc/machine-id
sudo dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server

IMPORTING A VM

wget http://192.168.1.100:8080/Kali-Linux-2021.4-virtualbox-amd64.ova
tar xvf Kali-Linux-2021.4-virtualbox-amd64.ova
qm importovf 100 ./Kali-Linux-2021.4-virtualbox-amd64.ovf Storage --format qcow2

If the import of the disk (*.ovf) fails, create a new VM manually then:

qemu-img convert -f vmdk Kali-Linux-2021.4-virtualbox-amd64-disk001.vmdk Kali-disk001.qcow2 -O qcow2
qm importdisk 100 Kali-disk001.qcow2 Storage

OTHER CLI TIPS

Wiping a secondary disk from CLI:

wipefs -fa /dev/nvme0n1
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=1M count=1000
udevadm settle
reboot

APPLIANCE MANAGER

pveam update
pveam available
pveam download local debian-10-turnkey-nextcloud_16.1-1_amd64.tar.gz

ATTACHING AN USB DEVICE TO A VM (PASSTHROUGH)

For the example bellow I am attaching a Wireless Adapter model AX200 from Intel (WIFI-6).

lsusb | grep AX200

Output: Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth

qm set 112 -usb0 host=8087:0029,usb3=yes

Output: update VM 112: -usb0 host=8087:0029

Using the Web-UI:

Experiment to find the option that matched better to your needs:

Pull and list the latest list of available container templates:

sudo pveam update
sudo pveam available

PROXMOX BACKUP SERVER (PBS)

PBS is an open-source backup software VMs, containers, and physical (Debian/Ubuntu) hosts [Link].

After the installation, the web interface of the PBS will be available on port 8007 (i.e. https://10.10.10.10:8007/).

Installing PBS Client on Debian/Ubuntu physical instances:

echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pbs-client bullseye main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pbs-client.list
sudo wget http://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-release-bullseye.gpg -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-release-bullseye.gpg
sudo apt update
sudo apt install proxmox-backup-client -y

Backing up the root of the file system:

sudo su -
proxmox-backup-client backup root.pxar:/ --repository 10.10.10.10:backup1

Backing up with encryption key:

proxmox-backup-client key create backup.key
proxmox-backup-client backup root.pxar:/ --repository 10.10.10.10:backup1 --keyfile ./backup.key

Listing backups and snapshots:

proxmox-backup-client list --repository 10.10.10.10:backup1
proxmox-backup-client snapshot list --repository 10.10.10.10:backup1

Creating an environment variable for the target repository:

export PBS_REPOSITORY="10.10.10.10:backup1"
echo $PBS_REPOSITORY

Mapping a directory from the Host to the Guest CT:

sudo nano /etc/pve/nodes/<NODE>/lxc/<ID>.conf

...
mp0: /HOST/PATH/,mp=/GUEST/PATH,mountoptions=noatime

BONUS

Proxmox officially does not run in Raspberry Pi but Pimox does [Link].

Pimox is an adapted build of Proxmox that was tailored to work on the Raspberry Pi 4.

See the following post with a step-by-step to install, configure, and leverage [Link].

Apply NAT to the network on vmbr1:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

sudo nano /etc/nftables.conf

table inet nat {
    chain prerouting {
        type nat hook prerouting priority -100; policy accept;
    }
    chain postrouting {
        type nat hook postrouting priority 100; policy accept;
        oifname "vmbr0" masquerade
    }
}
table inet filter {
    chain forward {
        type filter hook forward priority 0; policy drop;
        iifname "vmbr1" oifname "vmbr0" accept
        ct state established,related accept
    }
}

sudo sysctl -p
sudo nft -f /etc/nftables.conf