Simple and easy virtualization! Meet Proxmox!

If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to let yourself have a handful of Virtual Machines taking up 2 to 64GBs at a time. So when the time came to create a virtual cluster I saw the list growing before my eyes. Thankfully, for those situations, there is -̶V̶a̶n̶i̶s̶h̶- Proxmox!

What exactly is Proxmox? And why the strange name?

Asked nobody. Proxmox is a Virtual Environment Software, which basically means you create simple virtual machines intended to work with each other inside it. And according to W̶i̶k̶i̶ a trusted source, its name was chosen for being an available domain at the time of its creation. Kinda kills the mood.

How can I set it up?

If you haven’t guessed it yet, we are going to create a Virtual Machine to host our Virtual Environment. I will leave it up to the reader to choose the software to do so, since I’m not getting paid by neither one 😏
But one thing we all need is the Proxmox Virtual Environment ISO, which can be found here:

https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads/category/iso-images-pve

On Oracle’s VirtualBox, I created a new Virtual Machine and chose a name and a folder for it. The client type should be “Linux” and the version “Debian (64-bit)”.

Give it a good amount of RAM and disk size, since it will be hosting many machines.

On our VM Settings lets “insert” the ISO we just downloaded on the CD slot (on Storage, for the ones using Oracle’s VM tool). And boot it up!

We want to go the “Install Proxmox VE” way, agree with the End User Agreement and select our country :)

Now we choose a password, input our email and let’s get to the serious stuff!

Make sure to select the proper Gateway and DNS Server for your network and choosing an IP Address that’s available on the network. Just don’t forget the IP you chose and then simply click the “Install” button.

When it asks you to reboot itself, allow it. After it’s done, it will prompt you for login. The username is root and the password is the one you defined earlier.

Insert the given address in your browser’s URL box and it should be ready to use!