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Installing {pve}

{pve} is based on Debian. This is why the install disk images (ISO files) provided by Proxmox include a complete Debian system (Debian 10 Buster for {pve} version 6.x) as well as all necessary {pve} packages.

The installer will guide through the setup, allowing you to partition the local disk(s), apply basic system configurations (for example, timezone, language, network) and install all required packages. This process should not take more than a few minutes. Installing with the provided ISO is the recommended method for new and existing users.

Alternatively, {pve} can be installed on top of an existing Debian system. This option is only recommended for advanced users because detailed knowledge about {pve} is required.

Using the {pve} Installer

The installer ISO image includes the following:

  • Complete operating system (Debian Linux, 64-bit)

  • The {pve} installer, which partitions the local disk(s) with ext4, xfs or ZFS and installs the operating system.

  • {pve} Linux kernel with KVM and LXC support

  • Complete toolset for administering virtual machines, containers, the host system, clusters and all necessary resources

  • Web-based management interface

Note
 All existing data on the for installation selected drives will be removed during the installation process. The installer does not add boot menu entries for other operating systems.

Please insert the prepared installation media (for example, USB flash drive or CD-ROM) and boot from it.

Tip
 Make sure that booting from the installation medium (for example, USB) is enabled in your servers firmware settings.

After choosing the correct entry (e.g. Boot from USB) the {pve} menu will be displayed and one of the following options can be selected:

Install {pve}

Starts the normal installation.

Tip
 It’s possible to use the installation wizard with a keyboard only. Buttons can be clicked by pressing the ALT key combined with the underlined character from the respective button. For example, ALT + N to press a Next button.
Install {pve} (Debug mode)

Starts the installation in debug mode. A console will be opened at several installation steps. This helps to debug the situation if something goes wrong. To exit a debug console, press CTRL-D. This option can be used to boot a live system with all basic tools available. You can use it, for example, to repair a degraded ZFS rpool or fix the bootloader for an existing {pve} setup.

Rescue Boot

With this option you can boot an existing installation. It searches all attached hard disks. If it finds an existing installation, it boots directly into that disk using the Linux kernel from the ISO. This can be useful if there are problems with the boot block (grub) or the BIOS is unable to read the boot block from the disk.

Test Memory

Runs memtest86+. This is useful to check if the memory is functional and free of errors.

After selecting Install {pve} and accepting the EULA, the prompt to select the target hard disk(s) will appear. The Options button opens the dialog to select the target file system.

The default file system is ext4. The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is used when ext4 or xfs is selected. Additional options to restrict LVM space can also be set (see below).

{pve} can be installed on ZFS. As ZFS offers several software RAID levels, this is an option for systems that don’t have a hardware RAID controller. The target disks must be selected in the Options dialog. More ZFS specific settings can be changed under Advanced Options (see below).

Warning
 ZFS on top of any hardware RAID is not supported and can result in data loss.

The next page asks for basic configuration options like the location, the time zone, and keyboard layout. The location is used to select a download server close by to speed up updates. The installer usually auto-detects these settings. They only need to be changed in the rare case that auto detection fails or a different keyboard layout should be used.

Next the password of the superuser (root) and an email address needs to be specified. The password must consist of at least 5 characters. It’s highly recommended to use a stronger password. Some guidelines are:

  • Use a minimum password length of 12 to 14 characters.

  • Include lowercase and uppercase alphabetic characters, numbers, and symbols.

  • Avoid character repetition, keyboard patterns, common dictionary words, letter or number sequences, usernames, relative or pet names, romantic links (current or past), and biographical information (for example ID numbers, ancestors' names or dates).

The email address is used to send notifications to the system administrator. For example:

  • Information about available package updates.

  • Error messages from periodic CRON jobs.

The last step is the network configuration. Please note that during installation you can either use an IPv4 or IPv6 address, but not both. To configure a dual stack node, add additional IP addresses after the installation.

The next step shows a summary of the previously selected options. Re-check every setting and use the Previous button if a setting needs to be changed. To accept, press Install. The installation starts to format disks and copies packages to the target. Please wait until this step has finished; then remove the installation medium and restart your system.

If the installation failed check out specific errors on the second TTY (‘CTRL + ALT + F2’), ensure that the systems meets the minimum requirements. If the installation is still not working look at the how to get help chapter.

Further configuration is done via the Proxmox web interface. Point your browser to the IP address given during installation (https://youripaddress:8006).

Note
 Default login is "root" (realm PAM) and the root password is defined during the installation process.

Advanced LVM Configuration Options

The installer creates a Volume Group (VG) called pve, and additional Logical Volumes (LVs) called root, data, and swap. To control the size of these volumes use:

hdsize

Defines the total hard disk size to be used. This way you can reserve free space on the hard disk for further partitioning (for example for an additional PV and VG on the same hard disk that can be used for LVM storage).

swapsize

Defines the size of the swap volume. The default is the size of the installed memory, minimum 4 GB and maximum 8 GB. The resulting value cannot be greater than hdsize/8.

Note
 If set to 0, no swap volume will be created.
maxroot

Defines the maximum size of the root volume, which stores the operation system. The maximum limit of the root volume size is hdsize/4.

maxvz

Defines the maximum size of the data volume. The actual size of the data volume is:

datasize = hdsize - rootsize - swapsize - minfree

Where datasize cannot be bigger than maxvz.

Note
 In case of LVM thin, the data pool will only be created if datasize is bigger than 4GB.
Note
 If set to 0, no data volume will be created and the storage configuration will be adapted accordingly.
minfree

Defines the amount of free space left in the LVM volume group pve. With more than 128GB storage available the default is 16GB, else hdsize/8 will be used.

Note
 LVM requires free space in the VG for snapshot creation (not required for lvmthin snapshots).

Advanced ZFS Configuration Options

The installer creates the ZFS pool rpool. No swap space is created but you can reserve some unpartitioned space on the install disks for swap. You can also create a swap zvol after the installation, although this can lead to problems. (see ZFS swap notes).

ashift

Defines the ashift value for the created pool. The ashift needs to be set at least to the sector-size of the underlying disks (2 to the power of ashift is the sector-size), or any disk which might be put in the pool (for example the replacement of a defective disk).

compress

Defines whether compression is enabled for rpool.

checksum

Defines which checksumming algorithm should be used for rpool.

copies

Defines the copies parameter for rpool. Check the zfs(8) manpage for the semantics, and why this does not replace redundancy on disk-level.

hdsize

Defines the total hard disk size to be used. This is useful to save free space on the hard disk(s) for further partitioning (for example to create a swap-partition). hdsize is only honored for bootable disks, that is only the first disk or mirror for RAID0, RAID1 or RAID10, and all disks in RAID-Z[123].

ZFS Performance Tips

ZFS works best with a lot of memory. If you intend to use ZFS make sure to have enough RAM available for it. A good calculation is 4GB plus 1GB RAM for each TB RAW disk space.

ZFS can use a dedicated drive as write cache, called the ZFS Intent Log (ZIL). Use a fast drive (SSD) for it. It can be added after installation with the following command:

# zpool add <pool-name> log </dev/path_to_fast_ssd>

Install {pve} on Debian

{pve} ships as a set of Debian packages and can be installed on to of a standard Debian installation. After configuring the repositories you need to run the following commands:

# apt-get update
# apt-get install proxmox-ve

Installing on top of an existing Debian installation looks easy, but it presumes that the base system has been installed correctly and that you know how you want to configure and use the local storage. You also need to configure the network manually.

In general, this is not trivial, especially when LVM or ZFS is used.

A detailed step by step how-to can be found on the {webwiki-url}Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Buster[wiki].