Installation

Proxmox Datacenter Manager can either be installed with a graphical installer or on top of Debian from the provided package repository.

System Requirements

We recommend using high quality server hardware when running Proxmox Datacenter Manager in production. While no managed remote or resource depends on Proxmox Datacenter Manager to run, you might find that Proxmox Datacenter Manager will become a convenient and critical tool in your operations fast enough.

Minimum Server Requirements, for Evaluation

These minimum requirements are for evaluation purposes only and should not be used in production.

  • CPU: 64bit (x86-64 or AMD64), 1+ Cores

  • Memory (RAM): 1 GiB RAM

  • Hard drive: more than 10 GB of space.

  • Network card (NIC)

Supported Web Browsers for Accessing the Web Interface

To access the server's web-based user interface, we recommend using one of the following browsers:

  • Firefox, a release from the current year, or the latest Extended Support Release

  • Chrome, a release from the current year

  • Microsoft's currently supported version of Edge

  • Safari, a release from the current year

Installation Medium

Proxmox Datacenter Manager can be installed via different methods. The recommended method is the usage of an installation medium, to simply boot the interactive installer.

Prepare Installation Medium

Download the installer ISO image from https://www.proxmox.com/downloads.

The Proxmox Datacenter Manager installation medium is a hybrid ISO image. It works in two ways:

  • An ISO image file ready to burn to a DVD.

  • A raw sector (IMG) image file ready to copy to a USB flash drive (USB stick).

Using a USB flash drive to install Proxmox Datacenter Manager is the recommended way since it is the faster and more frequently available option these days.

Prepare a USB Flash Drive as Installation Medium

The flash drive needs to have at least 2 GB of storage space.

Note

Do not use UNetbootin. It does not work with the Proxmox Datacenter Manager installation image.

Important

Existing data on the USB flash drive will be overwritten. Therefore, make sure that it does not contain any still needed data and unmount it afterwards again before proceeding.

Instructions for GNU/Linux

On Unix-like operating systems use the dd command to copy the ISO image to the USB flash drive. First find the correct device name of the USB flash drive (see below). Then run the dd command. Depending on your environment, you will need to have root privileges to execute dd.

# dd bs=1M conv=fdatasync if=./proxmox-datacenter-manager_*.iso of=/dev/XYZ

Note

Be sure to replace /dev/XYZ with the correct device name and adapt the input filename (if) path.

Caution

Be very careful, and do not overwrite the wrong disk!

Find the Correct USB Device Name

There are two ways to find out the name of the USB flash drive. The first one is to compare the last lines of the dmesg command output before and after plugging in the flash drive. The second way is to compare the output of the lsblk command. Open a terminal and run:

# lsblk

Then plug in your USB flash drive and run the command again:

# lsblk

A new device will appear. This is the one you want to use. To be on the extra safe side check if the reported size matches your USB flash drive.

Instructions for macOS

Open the terminal (query Terminal in Spotlight).

Convert the .iso file to .dmg format using the convert option of hdiutil, for example:

# hdiutil convert proxmox-datacenter-manager_*.iso -format UDRW -o proxmox-datacenter-manager_*.dmg

Note

macOS tends to automatically add .dmg to the output file name.

To get the current list of devices run the command:

# diskutil list

Now insert the USB flash drive and run this command again to determine which device node has been assigned to it. (e.g., /dev/diskX).

# diskutil list
# diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX

Note

replace X with the disk number from the last command.

# sudo dd if=proxmox-datacenter-manager_*.dmg bs=1M of=/dev/rdiskX

Note

rdiskX, instead of diskX, in the last command is intended. It will increase the write speed.

Instructions for Windows

Using Etcher

Etcher works out of the box. Download Etcher from https://etcher.io. It will guide you through the process of selecting the ISO and your USB flash drive.

Using Rufus

Rufus is a more lightweight alternative, but you need to use the DD mode to make it work. Download Rufus from https://rufus.ie/. Either install it or use the portable version. Select the destination drive and the downloaded Proxmox ISO file.

Important

Once you click Start, you have to click No on the dialog asking to download a different version of Grub. In the next dialog select DD mode.

Use the Installation Medium

Insert the created USB flash drive (or DVD) into your server. Continue by reading the installer chapter, which also describes possible boot issues.

Using our provided disk image (ISO file) is the recommended installation method, as it includes a convenient installer, a complete Debian system as well as all necessary packages for the Proxmox Datacenter Manager.

Once you have created an Installation Medium, the booted installer will guide you through the setup process. It will help you to partition your disks, apply basic settings such as the language, time zone and network configuration, and finally install all required packages within minutes.

As an alternative to the interactive installer, advanced users may wish to install Proxmox Datacenter Manager unattended.

With sufficient Debian knowledge, you can also install Proxmox Datacenter Manager on top of Debian yourself.

Install Proxmox Datacenter Manager Unattended

It is possible to install Proxmox Datacenter Manager automatically in an unattended manner. This enables you to fully automate the setup process on bare-metal. Once the installation is complete and the host has booted up, automation tools like Ansible can be used to further configure the installation.

The necessary options for the installer must be provided in an answer file. This file allows the use of filter rules to determine which disks and network cards should be used.

To use the automated installation, it is first necessary to prepare an installation ISO. For more details and information on the unattended installation see our wiki.

Install Proxmox Datacenter Manager on Debian

Proxmox ships as a set of Debian packages which can be installed on top of a standard Debian installation. After configuring the Debian Package Repositories, you need to run:

# apt update
# apt install proxmox-datacenter-manager proxmox-datacenter-manager-ui

The above commands keep the current (Debian) kernel and install a minimal set of required packages.

You can install the Proxmox default kernel with ZFS support by using:

# apt update
# apt install proxmox-default-kernel

Caution

Installing Proxmox Datacenter Manager on top of an existing Debian installation looks easy, but it assumes that the base system and local storage have been set up correctly. In general this is not trivial, especially when LVM or ZFS is used. The network configuration is completely up to you as well.

Note

You can access the web interface of the Proxmox Datacenter Manager with your web browser, using HTTPS on port 8443. For example at https://<ip-or-dns-name>:8443

Debian Package Repositories

All Debian based systems use APT_ as a package management tool. The lists of repositories are defined in /etc/apt/sources.list and the .list or .sources files found in the /etc/apt/sources.d/ directory. Updates can be installed directly with the apt command-line tool, or via the GUI.

Repository Formats

APT_ repositories can be configured in two distinct formats, the old single line format and the newer deb822 format. No matter what format you choose, apt update will fetch the information from all configured sources.

Single Line

Single line repositories are defined in .list files list one package repository per line, with the most preferred source listed first. Empty lines are ignored and a # character anywhere on a line marks the remainder of that line as a comment.

deb822 Style

The newer deb822 multiline format is used in .sources files. Each repository consists of a stanza with multiple key value pairs. A stanza is simply a group of lines. One file can contain multiple stanzas by separating them with a blank line. You can still use # to comment out lines.

Note

Modernizing your repositories is recommended under Debian Trixie, as apt will complain about older repository definitions otherwise. You can run the command apt modernize-sources to modernize your existing repositories automatically.

Debian Base Repositories

You will need a Debian base repository as a minimum to get updates for all packages provided by Debian itself:

File: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
Suites: trixie trixie-updates
Components: main contrib non-free-firmware
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

Types: deb
URIs: http://security.debian.org/debian-security/
Suites: trixie-security
Components: main contrib non-free-firmware
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

In addition, you need a package repository from Proxmox to get Proxmox Datacenter Manager updates.

Proxmox Datacenter Manager Enterprise Repository

This is the stable, recommended repository. It is available for all users fulfilling the Proxmox Datacenter Manager subscription requirements. It contains the most stable packages, and is suitable for production use. The pdm-enterprise repository is enabled by default:

File: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pdm-enterprise.sources
Types: deb
URIs: https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pdm
Suites: trixie
Components: pdm-enterprise
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

The change-log and details of each package can be viewed in the web UI.

Please note that you need a valid subscription key to access this repository, and for that your remote nodes need Basic or higher subscriptions. See the FAQ for details.

Note

You can disable this repository by adding the line Enabled: false to the stanza.

Proxmox Datacenter Manager No-Subscription Repository

As the name suggests, you do not need a subscription key to access this repository. It can be used for testing and non-production use. It is not recommended to use it on production servers, because these packages are not always heavily tested and validated.

We recommend to configure this repository in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/proxmox.sources.

File: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/proxmox.sources
Types: deb
URIs: http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pdm
Suites: trixie
Components: pdm-no-subscription
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

Proxmox Datacenter Manager Test Repository

This repository contains the latest packages and is heavily used by developers to test new features.

Warning

the pdm-test repository should (as the name implies) only be used to test new features or bug fixes.

You can access this repository by adding the following stanza to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/proxmox.sources:

sources.list entry for pdm-test
Types: deb
URIs: http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pdm
Suites: trixie
Components: pdm-test
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

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 Datacenter Manager from an official ISO image, the verification key is already installed.

If you install Proxmox Datacenter Manager on top of Debian, download and install the key with the following commands:

# wget https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-archive-keyring-trixie.gpg -O /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

Note

The wget command above adds the keyring for Proxmox releases based on Debian Trixie. Once the proxmox-archive-keyring package is installed, it will manage this file. At that point, the hashes below may no longer match the hashes of this file, as keys for new Proxmox releases get added or removed. This is intended, apt will ensure that only trusted keys are being used. Modifying this file is discouraged once `proxmox-archive-keyring` is installed.

Verify the SHA256 checksum afterwards with the expected output below:

# sha256sum /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg
136673be77aba35dcce385b28737689ad64fd785a797e57897589aed08db6e45 /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

and the md5sum, with the expected output below:

# md5sum /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg
77c8b1166d15ce8350102ab1bca2fcbf /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg

Note

Make sure that the path that you download the key to, matches the path specified in the Signed-By: lines in your repository stanzas from above.