The following sections will focus on common virtualization tasks and explain the Proxmox VE specifics regarding the administration and management of the host machine.
Proxmox VE is based on Debian GNU/Linux with additional repositories to provide the Proxmox VE related packages. This means that the full range of Debian packages is available including security updates and bug fixes. Proxmox VE provides it’s own Linux kernel based on the Ubuntu kernel. It has all the necessary virtualization and container features enabled and includes ZFS and several extra hardware drivers.
For other topics not included in the following sections, please refer to the Debian documentation. The Debian Administrator's Handbook is available online, and provides a comprehensive introduction to the Debian operating system (see [Hertzog13]).
Package Repositories
Proxmox VE uses APT as its package management tool like any other Debian-based system. Repositories are defined in the file /etc/apt/sources.list and in .list files placed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/.
Each line defines a package repository. The preferred source must come first. Empty lines are ignored. A # character anywhere on a line marks the remainder of that line as a comment. The available packages from a repository are acquired by running apt-get update. Updates can be installed directly using apt-get, or via the GUI.
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian buster main contrib deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib # security updates deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib
Proxmox VE additionally provides three different package repositories.
Proxmox VE Enterprise Repository
This is the default, stable, and recommended repository, available for all Proxmox VE subscription users. It contains the most stable packages and is suitable for production use. The pve-enterprise repository is enabled by default:
deb https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve buster pve-enterprise
The root@pam user is notified via email about available updates. Click the Changelog button in the GUI to see more details about the selected update.
You need a valid subscription key to access the pve-enterprise repository. Different support levels are available. Further details can be found at https://www.proxmox.com/en/proxmox-ve/pricing.
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You can disable this repository by commenting out the above line using a # (at the start of the line). This prevents error messages if you do not have a subscription key. Please configure the pve-no-subscription repository in that case. |
Proxmox VE No-Subscription Repository
This is the recommended repository for testing and non-production use. Its packages are not as heavily tested and validated. You don’t need a subscription key to access the pve-no-subscription repository.
We recommend to configure this repository in /etc/apt/sources.list.
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian buster main contrib deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib # PVE pve-no-subscription repository provided by proxmox.com, # NOT recommended for production use deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve buster pve-no-subscription # security updates deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib
Proxmox VE Test Repository
This repository contains the latest packages and is primarily used by developers to test new features. To configure it, add the following line to etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve buster pvetest
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The pvetest repository should (as the name implies) only be used for testing new features or bug fixes. |
Ceph Octopus Repository
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Ceph Octopus (15.2) was declared stable with Proxmox VE 6.3 and is the most recent Ceph release supported. It will continue to get updates for the remaining life time of the 6.x release. |
This repository holds the main Proxmox VE Ceph Octopus packages. They are suitable for production. Use this repository if you run the Ceph client or a full Ceph cluster on Proxmox VE.
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-octopus buster main
Ceph Octopus Test Repository
This Ceph repository contains the Ceph packages before they are moved to the main repository. It is used to test new Ceph releases on Proxmox VE.
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-octopus buster test
Ceph Nautilus Repository
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Ceph Nautlius (14.2) is the older supported Ceph version, introduced with Proxmox VE 6.0. It will continue to get updates until end of Q2 2021, so you will eventually need to upgrade to Ceph Octopus. |
This repository holds the main Proxmox VE Ceph Nautilus packages. They are suitable for production. Use this repository if you run the Ceph client or a full Ceph cluster on Proxmox VE.
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-nautilus buster main
Ceph Nautilus Test Repository
This Ceph repository contains the Ceph packages before they are moved to the main repository. It is used to test new Ceph releases on Proxmox VE.
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-nautilus buster test
Proxmox VE Ceph Luminous Repository For Upgrade
If Ceph is deployed this repository is needed for the upgrade from Proxmox VE 5.x to Proxmox VE 6.0. It provides packages for the older Ceph Luminous release for Proxmox VE 6.0.
The Upgrade 5.x to 6.0 document explains how to use this repository in detail.
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-luminous buster main
SecureApt
The Release files in the repositories are signed with GnuPG. APT is using these signatures to verify that all packages are from a trusted source.
If you install Proxmox VE from an official ISO image, the key for verification is already installed.
If you install Proxmox VE on top of Debian, download and install the key with the following commands:
# wget http://download.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-ve-release-6.x.gpg -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-ve-release-6.x.gpg
Verify the checksum afterwards with:
# sha512sum /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-ve-release-6.x.gpg
The output should be:
acca6f416917e8e11490a08a1e2842d500b3a5d9f322c6319db0927b2901c3eae23cfb5cd5df6facf2b57399d3cfa52ad7769ebdd75d9b204549ca147da52626 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-ve-release-6.x.gpg
or:
# md5sum /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-ve-release-6.x.gpg
The output should be:
f3f6c5a3a67baf38ad178e5ff1ee270c /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-ve-release-6.x.gpg
System Software Updates
Proxmox provides updates on a regular basis for all repositories. To install updates use the web-based GUI or the following CLI commands:
# apt-get update # apt-get dist-upgrade
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The APT package management system is very flexible and provides many features, see man apt-get, or [Hertzog13] for additional information. |
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Regular updates are essential to get the latest patches and security related fixes. Major system upgrades are announced in the Proxmox VE Community Forum. |
Network Configuration
Network configuration can be done either via the GUI, or by manually editing the file /etc/network/interfaces, which contains the whole network configuration. The interfaces(5) manual page contains the complete format description. All Proxmox VE tools try hard to keep direct user modifications, but using the GUI is still preferable, because it protects you from errors.
Once the network is configured, you can use the Debian traditional tools ifup and ifdown commands to bring interfaces up and down.
Apply Network Changes
Proxmox VE does not write changes directly to /etc/network/interfaces. Instead, we write into a temporary file called /etc/network/interfaces.new, this way you can do many related changes at once. This also allows to ensure your changes are correct before applying, as a wrong network configuration may render a node inaccessible.
Reboot Node to apply
With the default installed ifupdown network managing package you need to reboot to commit any pending network changes. Most of the time, the basic Proxmox VE network setup is stable and does not change often, so rebooting should not be required often.
Reload Network with ifupdown2
With the optional ifupdown2 network managing package you also can reload the network configuration live, without requiring a reboot.
Since Proxmox VE 6.1 you can apply pending network changes over the web-interface, using the Apply Configuration button in the Network panel of a node.
To install ifupdown2 ensure you have the latest Proxmox VE updates installed, then
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installing ifupdown2 will remove ifupdown, but as the removal
scripts of ifupdown before version 0.8.35+pve1 have a issue where network
is fully stopped on removal [Introduced with Debian Buster: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=945877] you must ensure that you have a up to date ifupdown package version. |
For the installation itself you can then simply do:
apt install ifupdown2
With that you’re all set. You can also switch back to the ifupdown variant at any time, if you run into issues.
Naming Conventions
We currently use the following naming conventions for device names:
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Ethernet devices: en*, systemd network interface names. This naming scheme is used for new Proxmox VE installations since version 5.0.
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Ethernet devices: eth[N], where 0 ≤ N (eth0, eth1, …) This naming scheme is used for Proxmox VE hosts which were installed before the 5.0 release. When upgrading to 5.0, the names are kept as-is.
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Bridge names: vmbr[N], where 0 ≤ N ≤ 4094 (vmbr0 - vmbr4094)
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Bonds: bond[N], where 0 ≤ N (bond0, bond1, …)
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VLANs: Simply add the VLAN number to the device name, separated by a period (eno1.50, bond1.30)
This makes it easier to debug networks problems, because the device name implies the device type.
Systemd Network Interface Names
Systemd uses the two character prefix en for Ethernet network devices. The next characters depends on the device driver and the fact which schema matches first.
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o<index>[n<phys_port_name>|d<dev_port>] — devices on board
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s<slot>[f<function>][n<phys_port_name>|d<dev_port>] — device by hotplug id
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[P<domain>]p<bus>s<slot>[f<function>][n<phys_port_name>|d<dev_port>] — devices by bus id
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x<MAC> — device by MAC address
The most common patterns are:
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eno1 — is the first on board NIC
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enp3s0f1 — is the NIC on pcibus 3 slot 0 and use the NIC function 1.
For more information see Predictable Network Interface Names.
Choosing a network configuration
Depending on your current network organization and your resources you can choose either a bridged, routed, or masquerading networking setup.
Proxmox VE server in a private LAN, using an external gateway to reach the internet
The Bridged model makes the most sense in this case, and this is also the default mode on new Proxmox VE installations. Each of your Guest system will have a virtual interface attached to the Proxmox VE bridge. This is similar in effect to having the Guest network card directly connected to a new switch on your LAN, the Proxmox VE host playing the role of the switch.
Proxmox VE server at hosting provider, with public IP ranges for Guests
For this setup, you can use either a Bridged or Routed model, depending on what your provider allows.
Proxmox VE server at hosting provider, with a single public IP address
In that case the only way to get outgoing network accesses for your guest systems is to use Masquerading. For incoming network access to your guests, you will need to configure Port Forwarding.
For further flexibility, you can configure VLANs (IEEE 802.1q) and network bonding, also known as "link aggregation". That way it is possible to build complex and flexible virtual networks.
Default Configuration using a Bridge
Bridges are like physical network switches implemented in software. All virtual guests can share a single bridge, or you can create multiple bridges to separate network domains. Each host can have up to 4094 bridges.
The installation program creates a single bridge named vmbr0, which is connected to the first Ethernet card. The corresponding configuration in /etc/network/interfaces might look like this:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eno1 inet manual
auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
address 192.168.10.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.10.1
bridge-ports eno1
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
Virtual machines behave as if they were directly connected to the physical network. The network, in turn, sees each virtual machine as having its own MAC, even though there is only one network cable connecting all of these VMs to the network.
Routed Configuration
Most hosting providers do not support the above setup. For security reasons, they disable networking as soon as they detect multiple MAC addresses on a single interface.
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Some providers allow you to register additional MACs through their management interface. This avoids the problem, but can be clumsy to configure because you need to register a MAC for each of your VMs. |
You can avoid the problem by “routing” all traffic via a single interface. This makes sure that all network packets use the same MAC address.
A common scenario is that you have a public IP (assume 198.51.100.5 for this example), and an additional IP block for your VMs (203.0.113.16/29). We recommend the following setup for such situations:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eno1
iface eno1 inet static
address 198.51.100.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 198.51.100.1
post-up echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
post-up echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/eno1/proxy_arp
auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
address 203.0.113.17
netmask 255.255.255.248
bridge-ports none
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
Masquerading (NAT) with iptables
Masquerading allows guests having only a private IP address to access the network by using the host IP address for outgoing traffic. Each outgoing packet is rewritten by iptables to appear as originating from the host, and responses are rewritten accordingly to be routed to the original sender.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eno1
#real IP address
iface eno1 inet static
address 198.51.100.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 198.51.100.1
auto vmbr0
#private sub network
iface vmbr0 inet static
address 10.10.10.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
bridge-ports none
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
post-up echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
post-up iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s '10.10.10.0/24' -o eno1 -j MASQUERADE
post-down iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -s '10.10.10.0/24' -o eno1 -j MASQUERADE
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In some masquerade setups with firewall enabled, conntrack zones might be needed for outgoing connections. Otherwise the firewall could block outgoing connections since they will prefer the POSTROUTING of the VM bridge (and not MASQUERADE). |
Adding these lines in the /etc/network/interfaces can fix this problem:
post-up iptables -t raw -I PREROUTING -i fwbr+ -j CT --zone 1 post-down iptables -t raw -D PREROUTING -i fwbr+ -j CT --zone 1
For more information about this, refer to the following links:
Linux Bond
Bonding (also called NIC teaming or Link Aggregation) is a technique for binding multiple NIC’s to a single network device. It is possible to achieve different goals, like make the network fault-tolerant, increase the performance or both together.
High-speed hardware like Fibre Channel and the associated switching hardware can be quite expensive. By doing link aggregation, two NICs can appear as one logical interface, resulting in double speed. This is a native Linux kernel feature that is supported by most switches. If your nodes have multiple Ethernet ports, you can distribute your points of failure by running network cables to different switches and the bonded connection will failover to one cable or the other in case of network trouble.
Aggregated links can improve live-migration delays and improve the speed of replication of data between Proxmox VE Cluster nodes.
There are 7 modes for bonding:
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Round-robin (balance-rr): Transmit network packets in sequential order from the first available network interface (NIC) slave through the last. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.
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Active-backup (active-backup): Only one NIC slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if, and only if, the active slave fails. The single logical bonded interface’s MAC address is externally visible on only one NIC (port) to avoid distortion in the network switch. This mode provides fault tolerance.
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XOR (balance-xor): Transmit network packets based on [(source MAC address XOR’d with destination MAC address) modulo NIC slave count]. This selects the same NIC slave for each destination MAC address. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.
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Broadcast (broadcast): Transmit network packets on all slave network interfaces. This mode provides fault tolerance.
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IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation (802.3ad)(LACP): Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. Utilizes all slave network interfaces in the active aggregator group according to the 802.3ad specification.
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Adaptive transmit load balancing (balance-tlb): Linux bonding driver mode that does not require any special network-switch support. The outgoing network packet traffic is distributed according to the current load (computed relative to the speed) on each network interface slave. Incoming traffic is received by one currently designated slave network interface. If this receiving slave fails, another slave takes over the MAC address of the failed receiving slave.
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Adaptive load balancing (balance-alb): Includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special network switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation. The bonding driver intercepts the ARP Replies sent by the local system on their way out and overwrites the source hardware address with the unique hardware address of one of the NIC slaves in the single logical bonded interface such that different network-peers use different MAC addresses for their network packet traffic.
If your switch support the LACP (IEEE 802.3ad) protocol then we recommend using
the corresponding bonding mode (802.3ad). Otherwise you should generally use the
active-backup mode.
If you intend to run your cluster network on the bonding interfaces, then you
have to use active-passive mode on the bonding interfaces, other modes are
unsupported.
The following bond configuration can be used as distributed/shared storage network. The benefit would be that you get more speed and the network will be fault-tolerant.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eno1 inet manual
iface eno2 inet manual
iface eno3 inet manual
auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
bond-slaves eno1 eno2
address 192.168.1.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
bond-miimon 100
bond-mode 802.3ad
bond-xmit-hash-policy layer2+3
auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
address 10.10.10.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.10.10.1
bridge-ports eno3
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
Another possibility it to use the bond directly as bridge port. This can be used to make the guest network fault-tolerant.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eno1 inet manual
iface eno2 inet manual
auto bond0
iface bond0 inet manual
bond-slaves eno1 eno2
bond-miimon 100
bond-mode 802.3ad
bond-xmit-hash-policy layer2+3
auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
address 10.10.10.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.10.10.1
bridge-ports bond0
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
VLAN 802.1Q
A virtual LAN (VLAN) is a broadcast domain that is partitioned and isolated in the network at layer two. So it is possible to have multiple networks (4096) in a physical network, each independent of the other ones.
Each VLAN network is identified by a number often called tag. Network packages are then tagged to identify which virtual network they belong to.
VLAN for Guest Networks
Proxmox VE supports this setup out of the box. You can specify the VLAN tag when you create a VM. The VLAN tag is part of the guest network configuration. The networking layer supports different modes to implement VLANs, depending on the bridge configuration:
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VLAN awareness on the Linux bridge: In this case, each guest’s virtual network card is assigned to a VLAN tag, which is transparently supported by the Linux bridge. Trunk mode is also possible, but that makes configuration in the guest necessary.
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"traditional" VLAN on the Linux bridge: In contrast to the VLAN awareness method, this method is not transparent and creates a VLAN device with associated bridge for each VLAN. That is, creating a guest on VLAN 5 for example, would create two interfaces eno1.5 and vmbr0v5, which would remain until a reboot occurs.
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Open vSwitch VLAN: This mode uses the OVS VLAN feature.
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Guest configured VLAN: VLANs are assigned inside the guest. In this case, the setup is completely done inside the guest and can not be influenced from the outside. The benefit is that you can use more than one VLAN on a single virtual NIC.
VLAN on the Host
To allow host communication with an isolated network. It is possible to apply VLAN tags to any network device (NIC, Bond, Bridge). In general, you should configure the VLAN on the interface with the least abstraction layers between itself and the physical NIC.
For example, in a default configuration where you want to place the host management address on a separate VLAN.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eno1 inet manual
iface eno1.5 inet manual
auto vmbr0v5
iface vmbr0v5 inet static
address 10.10.10.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.10.10.1
bridge-ports eno1.5
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet manual
bridge-ports eno1
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eno1 inet manual
auto vmbr0.5
iface vmbr0.5 inet static
address 10.10.10.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.10.10.1
auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet manual
bridge-ports eno1
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
bridge-vlan-aware yes
The next example is the same setup but a bond is used to make this network fail-safe.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eno1 inet manual
iface eno2 inet manual
auto bond0
iface bond0 inet manual
bond-slaves eno1 eno2
bond-miimon 100
bond-mode 802.3ad
bond-xmit-hash-policy layer2+3
iface bond0.5 inet manual
auto vmbr0v5
iface vmbr0v5 inet static
address 10.10.10.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.10.10.1
bridge-ports bond0.5
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet manual
bridge-ports bond0
bridge-stp off
bridge-fd 0
Disabling IPv6 on the Node
Proxmox VE works correctly in all environments, irrespective of whether IPv6 is deployed or not. We recommend leaving all settings at the provided defaults.
Should you still need to disable support for IPv6 on your node, do so by creating an appropriate sysctl.conf (5) snippet file and setting the proper sysctls, for example adding /etc/sysctl.d/disable-ipv6.conf with content:
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1 net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
This method is preferred to disabling the loading of the IPv6 module on the kernel commandline.
Time Synchronization
The Proxmox VE cluster stack itself relies heavily on the fact that all the nodes have precisely synchronized time. Some other components, like Ceph, also refuse to work properly if the local time on nodes is not in sync.
Time synchronization between nodes can be achieved with the “Network Time Protocol” (NTP). Proxmox VE uses systemd-timesyncd as NTP client by default, preconfigured to use a set of public servers. This setup works out of the box in most cases.
Using Custom NTP Servers
In some cases, it might be desired to not use the default NTP servers. For example, if your Proxmox VE nodes do not have access to the public internet (e.g., because of restrictive firewall rules), you need to setup local NTP servers and tell systemd-timesyncd to use them:
[Time] NTP=ntp1.example.com ntp2.example.com ntp3.example.com ntp4.example.com
After restarting the synchronization service (systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd) you should verify that your newly configured NTP servers are used by checking the journal (journalctl --since -1h -u systemd-timesyncd):
... Oct 07 14:58:36 node1 systemd[1]: Stopping Network Time Synchronization... Oct 07 14:58:36 node1 systemd[1]: Starting Network Time Synchronization... Oct 07 14:58:36 node1 systemd[1]: Started Network Time Synchronization. Oct 07 14:58:36 node1 systemd-timesyncd[13514]: Using NTP server 10.0.0.1:123 (ntp1.example.com). Oct 07 14:58:36 nora systemd-timesyncd[13514]: interval/delta/delay/jitter/drift 64s/-0.002s/0.020s/0.000s/-31ppm ...
External Metric Server
In Proxmox VE, you can define external metric servers, which will periodically receive various stats about your hosts, virtual guests and storages.
Currently supported are:
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Graphite (see https://graphiteapp.org )
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InfluxDB (see https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-platform/influxdb/ )
The external metric server definitions are saved in /etc/pve/status.cfg, and can be edited through the web interface.
Graphite server configuration
The default port is set to 2003 and the default graphite path is proxmox.
By default, Proxmox VE sends the data over UDP, so the graphite server has to be configured to accept this. Here the maximum transmission unit (MTU) can be configured for environments not using the standard 1500 MTU.
You can also configure the plugin to use TCP. In order not to block the important pvestatd statistic collection daemon, a timeout is required to cope with network problems.
Influxdb plugin configuration
Proxmox VE sends the data over UDP, so the influxdb server has to be configured for this. The MTU can also be configured here, if necessary.
Here is an example configuration for influxdb (on your influxdb server):
[[udp]] enabled = true bind-address = "0.0.0.0:8089" database = "proxmox" batch-size = 1000 batch-timeout = "1s"
With this configuration, your server listens on all IP addresses on port 8089, and writes the data in the proxmox database
Alternatively, the plugin can be configured to use the http(s) API of InfluxDB 2.x. InfluxDB 1.8.x does contain a forwards compatible API endpoint for this v2 API.
To use it, set influxdbproto to http or https (depending on your configuration). By default, Proxmox VE uses the organization proxmox and the bucket/db proxmox (They can be set with the configuration organization and bucket respectively).
Since InfluxDB’s v2 API is only available with authentication, you have to generate a token that can write into the correct bucket and set it.
In the v2 compatible API of 1.8.x, you can use user:password as token (if required), and can omit the organization since that has no meaning in InfluxDB 1.x.
You can also set the HTTP Timeout (default is 1s) with the timeout setting, as well as the maximum batch size (default 25000000 bytes) with the max-body-size setting (this corresponds to the InfluxDB setting with the same name).
Disk Health Monitoring
Although a robust and redundant storage is recommended, it can be very helpful to monitor the health of your local disks.
Starting with Proxmox VE 4.3, the package smartmontools
[smartmontools homepage https://www.smartmontools.org]
is installed and required. This is a set of tools to monitor and control
the S.M.A.R.T. system for local hard disks.
You can get the status of a disk by issuing the following command:
# smartctl -a /dev/sdX
where /dev/sdX is the path to one of your local disks.
If the output says:
SMART support is: Disabled
you can enable it with the command:
# smartctl -s on /dev/sdX
For more information on how to use smartctl, please see man smartctl.
By default, smartmontools daemon smartd is active and enabled, and scans the disks under /dev/sdX and /dev/hdX every 30 minutes for errors and warnings, and sends an e-mail to root if it detects a problem.
For more information about how to configure smartd, please see man smartd and man smartd.conf.
If you use your hard disks with a hardware raid controller, there are most likely tools to monitor the disks in the raid array and the array itself. For more information about this, please refer to the vendor of your raid controller.
Logical Volume Manager (LVM)
Most people install Proxmox VE directly on a local disk. The Proxmox VE installation CD offers several options for local disk management, and the current default setup uses LVM. The installer let you select a single disk for such setup, and uses that disk as physical volume for the Volume Group (VG) pve. The following output is from a test installation using a small 8GB disk:
# pvs PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree /dev/sda3 pve lvm2 a-- 7.87g 876.00m # vgs VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree pve 1 3 0 wz--n- 7.87g 876.00m
The installer allocates three Logical Volumes (LV) inside this VG:
# lvs LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta% data pve twi-a-tz-- 4.38g 0.00 0.63 root pve -wi-ao---- 1.75g swap pve -wi-ao---- 896.00m
- root
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Formatted as ext4, and contains the operation system.
- swap
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Swap partition
- data
-
This volume uses LVM-thin, and is used to store VM images. LVM-thin is preferable for this task, because it offers efficient support for snapshots and clones.
For Proxmox VE versions up to 4.1, the installer creates a standard logical volume called “data”, which is mounted at /var/lib/vz.
Starting from version 4.2, the logical volume “data” is a LVM-thin pool, used to store block based guest images, and /var/lib/vz is simply a directory on the root file system.
Hardware
We highly recommend to use a hardware RAID controller (with BBU) for such setups. This increases performance, provides redundancy, and make disk replacements easier (hot-pluggable).
LVM itself does not need any special hardware, and memory requirements are very low.
Bootloader
We install two boot loaders by default. The first partition contains the standard GRUB boot loader. The second partition is an EFI System Partition (ESP), which makes it possible to boot on EFI systems.
Creating a Volume Group
Let’s assume we have an empty disk /dev/sdb, onto which we want to create a volume group named “vmdata”.
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Please note that the following commands will destroy all existing data on /dev/sdb. |
First create a partition.
# sgdisk -N 1 /dev/sdb
Create a Physical Volume (PV) without confirmation and 250K metadatasize.
# pvcreate --metadatasize 250k -y -ff /dev/sdb1
Create a volume group named “vmdata” on /dev/sdb1
# vgcreate vmdata /dev/sdb1
Creating an extra LV for /var/lib/vz
This can be easily done by creating a new thin LV.
# lvcreate -n <Name> -V <Size[M,G,T]> <VG>/<LVThin_pool>
A real world example:
# lvcreate -n vz -V 10G pve/data
Now a filesystem must be created on the LV.
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/pve/vz
At last this has to be mounted.
|
|
be sure that /var/lib/vz is empty. On a default installation it’s not. |
To make it always accessible add the following line in /etc/fstab.
# echo '/dev/pve/vz /var/lib/vz ext4 defaults 0 2' >> /etc/fstab
Resizing the thin pool
Resize the LV and the metadata pool can be achieved with the following command.
# lvresize --size +<size[\M,G,T]> --poolmetadatasize +<size[\M,G]> <VG>/<LVThin_pool>
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When extending the data pool, the metadata pool must also be extended. |
Create a LVM-thin pool
A thin pool has to be created on top of a volume group. How to create a volume group see Section LVM.
# lvcreate -L 80G -T -n vmstore vmdata
ZFS on Linux
ZFS is a combined file system and logical volume manager designed by Sun Microsystems. Starting with Proxmox VE 3.4, the native Linux kernel port of the ZFS file system is introduced as optional file system and also as an additional selection for the root file system. There is no need for manually compile ZFS modules - all packages are included.
By using ZFS, its possible to achieve maximum enterprise features with low budget hardware, but also high performance systems by leveraging SSD caching or even SSD only setups. ZFS can replace cost intense hardware raid cards by moderate CPU and memory load combined with easy management.
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Easy configuration and management with Proxmox VE GUI and CLI.
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Reliable
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Protection against data corruption
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Data compression on file system level
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Snapshots
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Copy-on-write clone
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Various raid levels: RAID0, RAID1, RAID10, RAIDZ-1, RAIDZ-2 and RAIDZ-3
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Can use SSD for cache
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Self healing
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Continuous integrity checking
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Designed for high storage capacities
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Asynchronous replication over network
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Open Source
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Encryption
-
…
Hardware
ZFS depends heavily on memory, so you need at least 8GB to start. In practice, use as much as you can get for your hardware/budget. To prevent data corruption, we recommend the use of high quality ECC RAM.
If you use a dedicated cache and/or log disk, you should use an enterprise class SSD (e.g. Intel SSD DC S3700 Series). This can increase the overall performance significantly.
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Do not use ZFS on top of a hardware RAID controller which has its own cache management. ZFS needs to communicate directly with the disks. An HBA adapter or something like an LSI controller flashed in “IT” mode is more appropriate. |
If you are experimenting with an installation of Proxmox VE inside a VM (Nested Virtualization), don’t use virtio for disks of that VM, as they are not supported by ZFS. Use IDE or SCSI instead (also works with the virtio SCSI controller type).
Installation as Root File System
When you install using the Proxmox VE installer, you can choose ZFS for the root file system. You need to select the RAID type at installation time:
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RAID0
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Also called “striping”. The capacity of such volume is the sum of the capacities of all disks. But RAID0 does not add any redundancy, so the failure of a single drive makes the volume unusable. |
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RAID1
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Also called “mirroring”. Data is written identically to all disks. This mode requires at least 2 disks with the same size. The resulting capacity is that of a single disk. |
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RAID10
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A combination of RAID0 and RAID1. Requires at least 4 disks. |
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RAIDZ-1
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A variation on RAID-5, single parity. Requires at least 3 disks. |
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RAIDZ-2
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A variation on RAID-5, double parity. Requires at least 4 disks. |
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RAIDZ-3
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A variation on RAID-5, triple parity. Requires at least 5 disks. |
The installer automatically partitions the disks, creates a ZFS pool called rpool, and installs the root file system on the ZFS subvolume rpool/ROOT/pve-1.
Another subvolume called rpool/data is created to store VM images. In order to use that with the Proxmox VE tools, the installer creates the following configuration entry in /etc/pve/storage.cfg:
zfspool: local-zfs
pool rpool/data
sparse
content images,rootdir
After installation, you can view your ZFS pool status using the zpool command:
# zpool status
pool: rpool
state: ONLINE
scan: none requested
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
rpool ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0
sda2 ONLINE 0 0 0
sdb2 ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-1 ONLINE 0 0 0
sdc ONLINE 0 0 0
sdd ONLINE 0 0 0
errors: No known data errors
The zfs command is used configure and manage your ZFS file systems. The following command lists all file systems after installation:
# zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT rpool 4.94G 7.68T 96K /rpool rpool/ROOT 702M 7.68T 96K /rpool/ROOT rpool/ROOT/pve-1 702M 7.68T 702M / rpool/data 96K 7.68T 96K /rpool/data rpool/swap 4.25G 7.69T 64K -
ZFS RAID Level Considerations
There are a few factors to take into consideration when choosing the layout of a ZFS pool. The basic building block of a ZFS pool is the virtual device, or vdev. All vdevs in a pool are used equally and the data is striped among them (RAID0). Check the zpool(8) manpage for more details on vdevs.
Performance
Each vdev type has different performance behaviors. The two parameters of interest are the IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second) and the bandwidth with which data can be written or read.
A mirror vdev (RAID1) will approximately behave like a single disk in regards to both parameters when writing data. When reading data if will behave like the number of disks in the mirror.
A common situation is to have 4 disks. When setting it up as 2 mirror vdevs (RAID10) the pool will have the write characteristics as two single disks in regard of IOPS and bandwidth. For read operations it will resemble 4 single disks.
A RAIDZ of any redundancy level will approximately behave like a single disk in regard of IOPS with a lot of bandwidth. How much bandwidth depends on the size of the RAIDZ vdev and the redundancy level.
For running VMs, IOPS is the more important metric in most situations.
Size, Space usage and Redundancy
While a pool made of mirror vdevs will have the best performance characteristics, the usable space will be 50% of the disks available. Less if a mirror vdev consists of more than 2 disks, for example in a 3-way mirror. At least one healthy disk per mirror is needed for the pool to stay functional.
The usable space of a RAIDZ type vdev of N disks is roughly N-P, with P being the RAIDZ-level. The RAIDZ-level indicates how many arbitrary disks can fail without losing data. A special case is a 4 disk pool with RAIDZ2. In this situation it is usually better to use 2 mirror vdevs for the better performance as the usable space will be the same.
Another important factor when using any RAIDZ level is how ZVOL datasets, which are used for VM disks, behave. For each data block the pool needs parity data which is at least the size of the minimum block size defined by the ashift value of the pool. With an ashift of 12 the block size of the pool is 4k. The default block size for a ZVOL is 8k. Therefore, in a RAIDZ2 each 8k block written will cause two additional 4k parity blocks to be written, 8k + 4k + 4k = 16k. This is of course a simplified approach and the real situation will be slightly different with metadata, compression and such not being accounted for in this example.
This behavior can be observed when checking the following properties of the ZVOL:
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volsize
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refreservation (if the pool is not thin provisioned)
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used (if the pool is thin provisioned and without snapshots present)
# zfs get volsize,refreservation,used <pool>/vm-<vmid>-disk-X
volsize is the size of the disk as it is presented to the VM, while refreservation shows the reserved space on the pool which includes the expected space needed for the parity data. If the pool is thin provisioned, the refreservation will be set to 0. Another way to observe the behavior is to compare the used disk space within the VM and the used property. Be aware that snapshots will skew the value.
There are a few options to counter the increased use of space:
-
Increase the volblocksize to improve the data to parity ratio
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Use mirror vdevs instead of RAIDZ
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Use ashift=9 (block size of 512 bytes)
The volblocksize property can only be set when creating a ZVOL. The default value can be changed in the storage configuration. When doing this, the guest needs to be tuned accordingly and depending on the use case, the problem of write amplification if just moved from the ZFS layer up to the guest.
Using ashift=9 when creating the pool can lead to bad performance, depending on the disks underneath, and cannot be changed later on.
Mirror vdevs (RAID1, RAID10) have favorable behavior for VM workloads. Use them, unless your environment has specific needs and characteristics where RAIDZ performance characteristics are acceptable.
Bootloader
Proxmox VE uses proxmox-boot-tool to manage the bootloader configuration. See the chapter on Proxmox VE host bootloaders for details.
ZFS Administration
This section gives you some usage examples for common tasks. ZFS itself is really powerful and provides many options. The main commands to manage ZFS are zfs and zpool. Both commands come with great manual pages, which can be read with:
# man zpool # man zfs
Create a new zpool
To create a new pool, at least one disk is needed. The ashift should have the same sector-size (2 power of ashift) or larger as the underlying disk.
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> <device>
To activate compression (see section Compression in ZFS):
# zfs set compression=lz4 <pool>
Create a new pool with RAID-0
Minimum 1 disk
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> <device1> <device2>
Create a new pool with RAID-1
Minimum 2 disks
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> mirror <device1> <device2>
Create a new pool with RAID-10
Minimum 4 disks
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> mirror <device1> <device2> mirror <device3> <device4>
Create a new pool with RAIDZ-1
Minimum 3 disks
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> raidz1 <device1> <device2> <device3>
Create a new pool with RAIDZ-2
Minimum 4 disks
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> raidz2 <device1> <device2> <device3> <device4>
Create a new pool with cache (L2ARC)
It is possible to use a dedicated cache drive partition to increase the performance (use SSD).
As <device> it is possible to use more devices, like it’s shown in "Create a new pool with RAID*".
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> <device> cache <cache_device>
Create a new pool with log (ZIL)
It is possible to use a dedicated cache drive partition to increase the performance(SSD).
As <device> it is possible to use more devices, like it’s shown in "Create a new pool with RAID*".
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> <device> log <log_device>
Add cache and log to an existing pool
If you have a pool without cache and log. First partition the SSD in 2 partition with parted or gdisk
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Always use GPT partition tables. |
The maximum size of a log device should be about half the size of physical memory, so this is usually quite small. The rest of the SSD can be used as cache.
# zpool add -f <pool> log <device-part1> cache <device-part2>
Changing a failed device
# zpool replace -f <pool> <old device> <new device>
Depending on how Proxmox VE was installed it is either using proxmox-boot-tool
[Systems installed with Proxmox VE 6.4 or later, EFI systems installed with
Proxmox VE 5.4 or later]
or plain grub as bootloader (see
Host Bootloader). You can check by running:
# proxmox-boot-tool status
The first steps of copying the partition table, reissuing GUIDs and replacing the ZFS partition are the same. To make the system bootable from the new disk, different steps are needed which depend on the bootloader in use.
# sgdisk <healthy bootable device> -R <new device> # sgdisk -G <new device> # zpool replace -f <pool> <old zfs partition> <new zfs partition>
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Use the zpool status -v command to monitor how far the resilvering process of the new disk has progressed. |
# proxmox-boot-tool format <new disk's ESP> # proxmox-boot-tool init <new disk's ESP>
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|
ESP stands for EFI System Partition, which is setup as partition #2 on bootable disks setup by the Proxmox VE installer since version 5.4. For details, see Setting up a new partition for use as synced ESP. |
# grub-install <new disk>
Activate E-Mail Notification
ZFS comes with an event daemon, which monitors events generated by the ZFS kernel module. The daemon can also send emails on ZFS events like pool errors. Newer ZFS packages ship the daemon in a separate package, and you can install it using apt-get:
# apt-get install zfs-zed
To activate the daemon it is necessary to edit /etc/zfs/zed.d/zed.rc with your favorite editor, and uncomment the ZED_EMAIL_ADDR setting:
ZED_EMAIL_ADDR="root"
Please note Proxmox VE forwards mails to root to the email address configured for the root user.
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|
The only setting that is required is ZED_EMAIL_ADDR. All other settings are optional. |
Limit ZFS Memory Usage
ZFS uses 50 % of the host memory for the Adaptive Replacement Cache (ARC) by default. Allocating enough memory for the ARC is crucial for IO performance, so reduce it with caution. As a general rule of thumb, allocate at least 2 GiB Base + 1 GiB/TiB-Storage. For example, if you have a pool with 8 TiB of available storage space then you should use 10 GiB of memory for the ARC.
You can change the ARC usage limit for the current boot (a reboot resets this change again) by writing to the zfs_arc_max module parameter directly:
echo "$[10 * 1024*1024*1024]" >/sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_arc_max
To permanently change the ARC limits, add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/zfs.conf:
options zfs zfs_arc_max=8589934592
This example setting limits the usage to 8 GiB (8 * 230).
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|
In case your desired zfs_arc_max value is lower than or equal to zfs_arc_min (which defaults to 1/32 of the system memory), zfs_arc_max will be ignored unless you also set zfs_arc_min to at most zfs_arc_max - 1. |
echo "$[8 * 1024*1024*1024 - 1]" >/sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_arc_min echo "$[8 * 1024*1024*1024]" >/sys/module/zfs/parameters/zfs_arc_max
This example setting (temporarily) limits the usage to 8 GiB (8 * 230) on systems with more than 256 GiB of total memory, where simply setting zfs_arc_max alone would not work.
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If your root file system is ZFS, you must update your initramfs every time this value changes: # update-initramfs -u You must reboot to activate these changes. |
SWAP on ZFS
Swap-space created on a zvol may generate some troubles, like blocking the server or generating a high IO load, often seen when starting a Backup to an external Storage.
We strongly recommend to use enough memory, so that you normally do not run into low memory situations. Should you need or want to add swap, it is preferred to create a partition on a physical disk and use it as a swap device. You can leave some space free for this purpose in the advanced options of the installer. Additionally, you can lower the “swappiness” value. A good value for servers is 10:
# sysctl -w vm.swappiness=10
To make the swappiness persistent, open /etc/sysctl.conf with an editor of your choice and add the following line:
vm.swappiness = 10
| Value | Strategy |
|---|---|
vm.swappiness = 0 |
The kernel will swap only to avoid an out of memory condition |
vm.swappiness = 1 |
Minimum amount of swapping without disabling it entirely. |
vm.swappiness = 10 |
This value is sometimes recommended to improve performance when sufficient memory exists in a system. |
vm.swappiness = 60 |
The default value. |
vm.swappiness = 100 |
The kernel will swap aggressively. |
Encrypted ZFS Datasets
ZFS on Linux version 0.8.0 introduced support for native encryption of datasets. After an upgrade from previous ZFS on Linux versions, the encryption feature can be enabled per pool:
# zpool get feature@encryption tank NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE tank feature@encryption disabled local # zpool set feature@encryption=enabled # zpool get feature@encryption tank NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE tank feature@encryption enabled local
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There is currently no support for booting from pools with encrypted datasets using Grub, and only limited support for automatically unlocking encrypted datasets on boot. Older versions of ZFS without encryption support will not be able to decrypt stored data. |
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|
It is recommended to either unlock storage datasets manually after booting, or to write a custom unit to pass the key material needed for unlocking on boot to zfs load-key. |
|
|
Establish and test a backup procedure before enabling encryption of production data. If the associated key material/passphrase/keyfile has been lost, accessing the encrypted data is no longer possible. |
Encryption needs to be setup when creating datasets/zvols, and is inherited by default to child datasets. For example, to create an encrypted dataset tank/encrypted_data and configure it as storage in Proxmox VE, run the following commands:
# zfs create -o encryption=on -o keyformat=passphrase tank/encrypted_data Enter passphrase: Re-enter passphrase: # pvesm add zfspool encrypted_zfs -pool tank/encrypted_data
All guest volumes/disks create on this storage will be encrypted with the shared key material of the parent dataset.
To actually use the storage, the associated key material needs to be loaded and the dataset needs to be mounted. This can be done in one step with:
# zfs mount -l tank/encrypted_data Enter passphrase for 'tank/encrypted_data':
It is also possible to use a (random) keyfile instead of prompting for a passphrase by setting the keylocation and keyformat properties, either at creation time or with zfs change-key on existing datasets:
# dd if=/dev/urandom of=/path/to/keyfile bs=32 count=1 # zfs change-key -o keyformat=raw -o keylocation=file:///path/to/keyfile tank/encrypted_data
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|
When using a keyfile, special care needs to be taken to secure the keyfile against unauthorized access or accidental loss. Without the keyfile, it is not possible to access the plaintext data! |
A guest volume created underneath an encrypted dataset will have its encryptionroot property set accordingly. The key material only needs to be loaded once per encryptionroot to be available to all encrypted datasets underneath it.
See the encryptionroot, encryption, keylocation, keyformat and keystatus properties, the zfs load-key, zfs unload-key and zfs change-key commands and the Encryption section from man zfs for more details and advanced usage.
Compression in ZFS
When compression is enabled on a dataset, ZFS tries to compress all new blocks before writing them and decompresses them on reading. Already existing data will not be compressed retroactively.
You can enable compression with:
# zfs set compression=<algorithm> <dataset>
We recommend using the lz4 algorithm, because it adds very little CPU overhead. Other algorithms like lzjb and gzip-N, where N is an integer from 1 (fastest) to 9 (best compression ratio), are also available. Depending on the algorithm and how compressible the data is, having compression enabled can even increase I/O performance.
You can disable compression at any time with:
# zfs set compression=off <dataset>
Again, only new blocks will be affected by this change.
ZFS Special Device
Since version 0.8.0 ZFS supports special devices. A special device in a pool is used to store metadata, deduplication tables, and optionally small file blocks.
A special device can improve the speed of a pool consisting of slow spinning hard disks with a lot of metadata changes. For example workloads that involve creating, updating or deleting a large number of files will benefit from the presence of a special device. ZFS datasets can also be configured to store whole small files on the special device which can further improve the performance. Use fast SSDs for the special device.
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The redundancy of the special device should match the one of the pool, since the special device is a point of failure for the whole pool. |
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Adding a special device to a pool cannot be undone! |
# zpool create -f -o ashift=12 <pool> mirror <device1> <device2> special mirror <device3> <device4>
# zpool add <pool> special mirror <device1> <device2>
ZFS datasets expose the special_small_blocks=<size> property. size can be 0 to disable storing small file blocks on the special device or a power of two in the range between 512B to 128K. After setting the property new file blocks smaller than size will be allocated on the special device.
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If the value for special_small_blocks is greater than or equal to the recordsize (default 128K) of the dataset, all data will be written to the special device, so be careful! |
Setting the special_small_blocks property on a pool will change the default value of that property for all child ZFS datasets (for example all containers in the pool will opt in for small file blocks).
# zfs set special_small_blocks=4K <pool>
# zfs set special_small_blocks=4K <pool>/<filesystem>
# zfs set special_small_blocks=0 <pool>/<filesystem>
ZFS Pool Features
Changes to the on-disk format in ZFS are only made between major version changes and are specified through features. All features, as well as the general mechanism are well documented in the zpool-features(5) manpage.
Since enabling new features can render a pool not importable by an older version of ZFS, this needs to be done actively by the administrator, by running zpool upgrade on the pool (see the zpool-upgrade(8) manpage).
Unless you need to use one of the new features, there is no upside to enabling them.
In fact, there are some downsides to enabling new features:
-
A system with root on ZFS, that still boots using grub will become unbootable if a new feature is active on the rpool, due to the incompatible implementation of ZFS in grub.
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The system will not be able to import any upgraded pool when booted with an older kernel, which still ships with the old ZFS modules.
-
Booting an older Proxmox VE ISO to repair a non-booting system will likewise not work.
|
|
Do not upgrade your rpool if your system is still booted with grub, as this will render your system unbootable. This includes systems installed before Proxmox VE 5.4, and systems booting with legacy BIOS boot (see how to determine the bootloader). |
# zpool upgrade <pool>
Proxmox Node Management
The Proxmox VE node management tool (pvenode) allows to control node specific settings and resources.
Currently pvenode allows to set a node’s description and to manage the node’s SSL certificates used for the API and the web GUI through pveproxy.
Wake-on-LAN
Wake-on-LAN (WoL) allows to switch on a sleeping computer in the network by sending a magic packet. At least one NIC must support this feature and the respective option needs to be enabled in the computers firmware (BIOS/UEFI) configuration. The option name can vary from Enable Wake-on-Lan to Power On By PCIE Device, check your motherboards vendor manual, if unsure. ethtool can be used to check the WoL configuration of <interface> by running:
ethtool <interface> | grep Wake-on
pvenode allows to wake sleeping members of a cluster via WoL using the command:
pvenode wakeonlan <node>
This broadcasts the WoL magic packet on UDP port 9, containing the MAC address of <node> obtained from the wakeonlan property. The node specific wakeonlan property can be set by the following command:
pvenode config set -wakeonlan XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
Certificate Management
Certificates for Intra-Cluster Communication
Each Proxmox VE cluster creates by default its own (self-signed) Certificate Authority (CA) and generates a certificate for each node which gets signed by the aforementioned CA. These certificates are used for encrypted communication with the cluster’s pveproxy service and the Shell/Console feature if SPICE is used.
The CA certificate and key are stored in the Proxmox Cluster File System (pmxcfs).
Certificates for API and Web GUI
The REST API and web GUI are provided by the pveproxy service, which runs on each node.
You have the following options for the certificate used by pveproxy:
-
By default the node-specific certificate in /etc/pve/nodes/NODENAME/pve-ssl.pem is used. This certificate is signed by the cluster CA and therefore not automatically trusted by browsers and operating systems.
-
use an externally provided certificate (e.g. signed by a commercial CA).
-
use ACME (Let’s Encrypt) to get a trusted certificate with automatic renewal, this is also integrated in the Proxmox VE API and Webinterface.
For options 2 and 3 the file /etc/pve/local/pveproxy-ssl.pem (and /etc/pve/local/pveproxy-ssl.key, which needs to be without password) is used.
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|
Keep in mind that /etc/pve/local is a node specific symlink to /etc/pve/nodes/NODENAME. |
Certificates are managed with the Proxmox VE Node management command (see the pvenode(1) manpage).
|
|
Do not replace or manually modify the automatically generated node certificate files in /etc/pve/local/pve-ssl.pem and /etc/pve/local/pve-ssl.key or the cluster CA files in /etc/pve/pve-root-ca.pem and /etc/pve/priv/pve-root-ca.key. |
Upload Custom Certificate
If you already have a certificate which you want to use for a Proxmox VE node you can upload that certificate simply over the web interface.
Note that the certificates key file, if provided, mustn’t be password protected.
Trusted certificates via Let’s Encrypt (ACME)
Proxmox VE includes an implementation of the Automatic Certificate Management Environment ACME protocol, allowing Proxmox VE admins to use an ACME provider like Let’s Encrypt for easy setup of TLS certificates which are accepted and trusted on modern operating systems and web browsers out of the box.
Currently, the two ACME endpoints implemented are the Let’s Encrypt (LE) production and its staging environment. Our ACME client supports validation of http-01 challenges using a built-in web server and validation of dns-01 challenges using a DNS plugin supporting all the DNS API endpoints acme.sh does.
ACME Account
You need to register an ACME account per cluster with the endpoint you want to use. The email address used for that account will serve as contact point for renewal-due or similar notifications from the ACME endpoint.
You can register and deactivate ACME accounts over the web interface Datacenter -> ACME or using the pvenode command line tool.
pvenode acme account register account-name mail@example.com
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Because of rate-limits you should use LE staging for experiments or if you use ACME for the first time. |
ACME Plugins
The ACME plugins task is to provide automatic verification that you, and thus the Proxmox VE cluster under your operation, are the real owner of a domain. This is the basis building block for automatic certificate management.
The ACME protocol specifies different types of challenges, for example the http-01 where a web server provides a file with a certain content to prove that it controls a domain. Sometimes this isn’t possible, either because of technical limitations or if the address of a record to is not reachable from the public internet. The dns-01 challenge can be used in these cases. This challenge is fulfilled by creating a certain DNS record in the domain’s zone.
Proxmox VE supports both of those challenge types out of the box, you can configure plugins either over the web interface under Datacenter -> ACME, or using the pvenode acme plugin add command.
ACME Plugin configurations are stored in /etc/pve/priv/acme/plugins.cfg. A plugin is available for all nodes in the cluster.
Node Domains
Each domain is node specific. You can add new or manage existing domain entries under Node -> Certificates, or using the pvenode config command.
After configuring the desired domain(s) for a node and ensuring that the desired ACME account is selected, you can order your new certificate over the web-interface. On success the interface will reload after 10 seconds.
Renewal will happen automatically.
ACME HTTP Challenge Plugin
There is always an implicitly configured standalone plugin for validating http-01 challenges via the built-in webserver spawned on port 80.
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The name standalone means that it can provide the validation on it’s own, without any third party service. So, this plugin works also for cluster nodes. |
There are a few prerequisites to use it for certificate management with Let’s Encrypts ACME.
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You have to accept the ToS of Let’s Encrypt to register an account.
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Port 80 of the node needs to be reachable from the internet.
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There must be no other listener on port 80.
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The requested (sub)domain needs to resolve to a public IP of the Node.
ACME DNS API Challenge Plugin
On systems where external access for validation via the http-01 method is not possible or desired, it is possible to use the dns-01 validation method. This validation method requires a DNS server that allows provisioning of TXT records via an API.
Configuring ACME DNS APIs for validation
Proxmox VE re-uses the DNS plugins developed for the acme.sh
[acme.sh https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh]
project, please
refer to its documentation for details on configuration of specific APIs.
The easiest way to configure a new plugin with the DNS API is using the web interface (Datacenter -> ACME).
Choose DNS as challenge type. Then you can select your API provider, enter the credential data to access your account over their API.
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See the acme.sh How to use DNS API wiki for more detailed information about getting API credentials for your provider. |
As there are many DNS providers and API endpoints Proxmox VE automatically generates the form for the credentials for some providers. For the others you will see a bigger text area, simply copy all the credentials KEY=VALUE pairs in there.
DNS Validation through CNAME Alias
A special alias mode can be used to handle the validation on a different domain/DNS server, in case your primary/real DNS does not support provisioning via an API. Manually set up a permanent CNAME record for _acme-challenge.domain1.example pointing to _acme-challenge.domain2.example and set the alias property in the Proxmox VE node configuration file to domain2.example to allow the DNS server of domain2.example to validate all challenges for domain1.example.
Combination of Plugins
Combining http-01 and dns-01 validation is possible in case your node is reachable via multiple domains with different requirements / DNS provisioning capabilities. Mixing DNS APIs from multiple providers or instances is also possible by specifying different plugin instances per domain.
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Accessing the same service over multiple domains increases complexity and should be avoided if possible. |
Automatic renewal of ACME certificates
If a node has been successfully configured with an ACME-provided certificate (either via pvenode or via the GUI), the certificate will be automatically renewed by the pve-daily-update.service. Currently, renewal will be attempted if the certificate has expired already, or will expire in the next 30 days.
ACME Examples with pvenode
Example: Sample pvenode invocation for using Let’s Encrypt certificates
root@proxmox:~# pvenode acme account register default mail@example.invalid Directory endpoints: 0) Let's Encrypt V2 (https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory) 1) Let's Encrypt V2 Staging (https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory) 2) Custom Enter selection: 1 Terms of Service: https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf Do you agree to the above terms? [y|N]y ... Task OK root@proxmox:~# pvenode config set --acme domains=example.invalid root@proxmox:~# pvenode acme cert order Loading ACME account details Placing ACME order ... Status is 'valid'! All domains validated! ... Downloading certificate Setting pveproxy certificate and key Restarting pveproxy Task OK
Example: Setting up the OVH API for validating a domain
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the account registration steps are the same no matter which plugins are used, and are not repeated here. |
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OVH_AK and OVH_AS need to be obtained from OVH according to the OVH API documentation |
First you need to get all information so you and Proxmox VE can access the API.
root@proxmox:~# cat /path/to/api-token
OVH_AK=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
OVH_AS=YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
root@proxmox:~# source /path/to/api-token
root@proxmox:~# curl -XPOST -H"X-Ovh-Application: $OVH_AK" -H "Content-type: application/json" \
https://eu.api.ovh.com/1.0/auth/credential -d '{
"accessRules": [
{"method": "GET","path": "/auth/time"},
{"method": "GET","path": "/domain"},
{"method": "GET","path": "/domain/zone/*"},
{"method": "GET","path": "/domain/zone/*/record"},
{"method": "POST","path": "/domain/zone/*/record"},
{"method": "POST","path": "/domain/zone/*/refresh"},
{"method": "PUT","path": "/domain/zone/*/record/"},
{"method": "DELETE","path": "/domain/zone/*/record/*"}
]
}'
{"consumerKey":"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ","state":"pendingValidation","validationUrl":"https://eu.api.ovh.com/auth/?credentialToken=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"}
(open validation URL and follow instructions to link Application Key with account/Consumer Key)
root@proxmox:~# echo "OVH_CK=ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" >> /path/to/api-token
Now you can setup the the ACME plugin:
root@proxmox:~# pvenode acme plugin add dns example_plugin --api ovh --data /path/to/api_token root@proxmox:~# pvenode acme plugin config example_plugin ┌────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ key │ value │ ╞════════╪══════════════════════════════════════════╡ │ api │ ovh │ ├────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ data │ OVH_AK=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX │ │ │ OVH_AS=YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY │ │ │ OVH_CK=ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ │ ├────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ digest │ 867fcf556363ca1bea866863093fcab83edf47a1 │ ├────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ plugin │ example_plugin │ ├────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ type │ dns │ └────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┘
At last you can configure the domain you want to get certificates for and place the certificate order for it:
root@proxmox:~# pvenode config set -acmedomain0 example.proxmox.com,plugin=example_plugin root@proxmox:~# pvenode acme cert order Loading ACME account details Placing ACME order Order URL: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/order/11111111/22222222 Getting authorization details from 'https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/authz-v3/33333333' The validation for example.proxmox.com is pending! [Wed Apr 22 09:25:30 CEST 2020] Using OVH endpoint: ovh-eu [Wed Apr 22 09:25:30 CEST 2020] Checking authentication [Wed Apr 22 09:25:30 CEST 2020] Consumer key is ok. [Wed Apr 22 09:25:31 CEST 2020] Adding record [Wed Apr 22 09:25:32 CEST 2020] Added, sleep 10 seconds. Add TXT record: _acme-challenge.example.proxmox.com Triggering validation Sleeping for 5 seconds Status is 'valid'! [Wed Apr 22 09:25:48 CEST 2020] Using OVH endpoint: ovh-eu [Wed Apr 22 09:25:48 CEST 2020] Checking authentication [Wed Apr 22 09:25:48 CEST 2020] Consumer key is ok. Remove TXT record: _acme-challenge.example.proxmox.com All domains validated! Creating CSR Checking order status Order is ready, finalizing order valid! Downloading certificate Setting pveproxy certificate and key Restarting pveproxy Task OK
Example: Switching from the staging to the regular ACME directory
Changing the ACME directory for an account is unsupported, but as Proxmox VE supports more than one account you can just create a new one with the production (trusted) ACME directory as endpoint. You can also deactivate the staging account and recreate it.
root@proxmox:~# pvenode acme account deactivate default Renaming account file from '/etc/pve/priv/acme/default' to '/etc/pve/priv/acme/_deactivated_default_4' Task OK root@proxmox:~# pvenode acme account register default example@proxmox.com Directory endpoints: 0) Let's Encrypt V2 (https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory) 1) Let's Encrypt V2 Staging (https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory) 2) Custom Enter selection: 0 Terms of Service: https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf Do you agree to the above terms? [y|N]y ... Task OK
Host Bootloader
Proxmox VE currently uses one of two bootloaders depending on the disk setup selected in the installer.
For EFI Systems installed with ZFS as the root filesystem systemd-boot is used. All other deployments use the standard grub bootloader (this usually also applies to systems which are installed on top of Debian).
Partitioning Scheme Used by the Installer
The Proxmox VE installer creates 3 partitions on all disks selected for installation.
The created partitions are:
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a 1 MB BIOS Boot Partition (gdisk type EF02)
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a 512 MB EFI System Partition (ESP, gdisk type EF00)
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a third partition spanning the set hdsize parameter or the remaining space used for the chosen storage type
Systems using ZFS as root filesystem are booted with a kernel and initrd image stored on the 512 MB EFI System Partition. For legacy BIOS systems, grub is used, for EFI systems systemd-boot is used. Both are installed and configured to point to the ESPs.
grub in BIOS mode (--target i386-pc) is installed onto the BIOS Boot
Partition of all selected disks on all systems booted with grub
[These are all installs with root on ext4 or xfs and installs
with root on ZFS on non-EFI systems]
.
Synchronizing the content of the ESP with proxmox-boot-tool
proxmox-boot-tool is a utility used to keep the contents of the EFI System
Partitions properly configured and synchronized. It copies certain kernel
versions to all ESPs and configures the respective bootloader to boot from
the vfat formatted ESPs. In the context of ZFS as root filesystem this means
that you can use all optional features on your root pool instead of the subset
which is also present in the ZFS implementation in grub or having to create a
separate small boot-pool
[Booting ZFS on root with grub
https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/Debian-Stretch-Root-on-ZFS]
.
In setups with redundancy all disks are partitioned with an ESP, by the installer. This ensures the system boots even if the first boot device fails or if the BIOS can only boot from a particular disk.
The ESPs are not kept mounted during regular operation. This helps to prevent filesystem corruption to the vfat formatted ESPs in case of a system crash, and removes the need to manually adapt /etc/fstab in case the primary boot device fails.
proxmox-boot-tool handles the following tasks:
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formatting and setting up a new partition
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copying and configuring new kernel images and initrd images to all listed ESPs
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synchronizing the configuration on kernel upgrades and other maintenance tasks
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managing the list of kernel versions which are synchronized
You can view the currently configured ESPs and their state by running:
# proxmox-boot-tool status
To format and initialize a partition as synced ESP, e.g., after replacing a failed vdev in an rpool, or when converting an existing system that pre-dates the sync mechanism, proxmox-boot-tool from pve-kernel-helpers can be used.
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the format command will format the <partition>, make sure to pass in the right device/partition! |
For example, to format an empty partition /dev/sda2 as ESP, run the following:
# proxmox-boot-tool format /dev/sda2
To setup an existing, unmounted ESP located on /dev/sda2 for inclusion in Proxmox VE’s kernel update synchronization mechanism, use the following:
# proxmox-boot-tool init /dev/sda2
Afterwards /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids should contain a new line with the UUID of the newly added partition. The init command will also automatically trigger a refresh of all configured ESPs.
To copy and configure all bootable kernels and keep all ESPs listed in /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids in sync you just need to run:
# proxmox-boot-tool refresh
(The equivalent to running update-grub systems with ext4 or xfs on root).
This is necessary should you make changes to the kernel commandline, or want to sync all kernels and initrds.
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Both update-initramfs and apt (when necessary) will automatically trigger a refresh. |
The following kernel versions are configured by default:
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the currently running kernel
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the version being newly installed on package updates
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the two latest already installed kernels
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the latest version of the second-to-last kernel series (e.g. 5.0, 5.3), if applicable
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any manually selected kernels
Should you wish to add a certain kernel and initrd image to the list of bootable kernels use proxmox-boot-tool kernel add.
For example run the following to add the kernel with ABI version 5.0.15-1-pve to the list of kernels to keep installed and synced to all ESPs:
# proxmox-boot-tool kernel add 5.0.15-1-pve
proxmox-boot-tool kernel list will list all kernel versions currently selected for booting:
# proxmox-boot-tool kernel list Manually selected kernels: 5.0.15-1-pve Automatically selected kernels: 5.0.12-1-pve 4.15.18-18-pve
Run proxmox-boot-tool kernel remove to remove a kernel from the list of manually selected kernels, for example:
# proxmox-boot-tool kernel remove 5.0.15-1-pve
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It’s required to run proxmox-boot-tool refresh to update all EFI System Partitions (ESPs) after a manual kernel addition or removal from above. |
Determine which Bootloader is Used
The simplest and most reliable way to determine which bootloader is used, is to watch the boot process of the Proxmox VE node.
You will either see the blue box of grub or the simple black on white systemd-boot.
Determining the bootloader from a running system might not be 100% accurate. The safest way is to run the following command:
# efibootmgr -v
If it returns a message that EFI variables are not supported, grub is used in BIOS/Legacy mode.
If the output contains a line that looks similar to the following, grub is used in UEFI mode.
Boot0005* proxmox [...] File(\EFI\proxmox\grubx64.efi)
If the output contains a line similar to the following, systemd-boot is used.
Boot0006* Linux Boot Manager [...] File(\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi)
By running:
# proxmox-boot-tool status
you can find out if proxmox-boot-tool is configured, which is a good indication of how the system is booted.
Grub
grub has been the de-facto standard for booting Linux systems for many years
and is quite well documented
[Grub Manual https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html]
.
Configuration
Changes to the grub configuration are done via the defaults file
/etc/default/grub or config snippets in /etc/default/grub.d. To regenerate
the configuration file after a change to the configuration run:
[Systems using proxmox-boot-tool will call proxmox-boot-tool
refresh upon update-grub.]
# update-grub
Systemd-boot
systemd-boot is a lightweight EFI bootloader. It reads the kernel and initrd images directly from the EFI Service Partition (ESP) where it is installed. The main advantage of directly loading the kernel from the ESP is that it does not need to reimplement the drivers for accessing the storage. In Proxmox VE proxmox-boot-tool is used to keep the configuration on the ESPs synchronized.
Configuration
systemd-boot is configured via the file loader/loader.conf in the root directory of an EFI System Partition (ESP). See the loader.conf(5) manpage for details.
Each bootloader entry is placed in a file of its own in the directory loader/entries/
An example entry.conf looks like this (/ refers to the root of the ESP):
title Proxmox version 5.0.15-1-pve options root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/pve-1 boot=zfs linux /EFI/proxmox/5.0.15-1-pve/vmlinuz-5.0.15-1-pve initrd /EFI/proxmox/5.0.15-1-pve/initrd.img-5.0.15-1-pve
Editing the Kernel Commandline
You can modify the kernel commandline in the following places, depending on the bootloader used:
The kernel commandline needs to be placed in the variable GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in the file /etc/default/grub. Running update-grub appends its content to all linux entries in /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
The kernel commandline needs to be placed as one line in /etc/kernel/cmdline. To apply your changes, run proxmox-boot-tool refresh, which sets it as the option line for all config files in loader/entries/proxmox-*.conf.