A standard VM template still requires manually setting a hostname, network configuration, and SSH keys after cloning. Combining cloud-init with Proxmox templates removes even that remaining manual step, letting each cloned VM configure itself automatically on first boot based on parameters you set right in the Proxmox web interface. What Is Cloud-Init? Cloud-init is an…
Proxmox’s built-in web interface shows current resource usage, but it doesn’t easily answer questions like “how did CPU load trend over the last month” or “which VM’s memory usage has been slowly creeping up.” Setting up a way to monitor Proxmox with Grafana and Prometheus fills that gap, turning raw metrics into historical dashboards you…
Self-hosted AI agents are quickly becoming a common addition to homelabs, and Hermes Agent has emerged as one of the more popular options for running your own private, model-agnostic AI gateway. Deploying a Hermes Agent server in Proxmox gives you an isolated, easily backed-up environment for running the agent, separate from your other services, with…
Plenty of homelab hardware only works properly when connected directly to a specific machine — a Zigbee USB stick for Home Assistant, a hardware security key, or a USB-connected UPS. Setting up USB passthrough in Proxmox lets a virtual machine access these devices directly, just as if they were physically plugged into that VM rather…
A single Proxmox host means a single point of failure — if that machine’s motherboard, power supply, or storage dies, every VM running on it goes down with it. Setting up Proxmox High Availability across multiple nodes means your VMs automatically migrate to healthy hardware when a node fails, keeping critical services running with minimal…
Then enable the Guest Agent option in the VM’s Proxmox Options tab, which improves shutdown handling and provides more accurate VM status information. Cleaning Up Machine-Specific Identifiers Before converting to a template, remove identifiers that shouldn’t be duplicated across clones: Also clear SSH host keys so each cloned VM generates its own unique keys on…
Relying on Proxmox VE’s built-in backup scheduler works well for a single node, but as a homelab grows to multiple Proxmox hosts, a dedicated Proxmox Backup Server setup becomes far more efficient — offering deduplication, incremental backups, and centralized management that the basic scheduler alone can’t provide. What Is Proxmox Backup Server? Proxmox Backup Server…
For years, VMware ESXi was the default choice for home lab virtualization. But since Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware reshaped licensing for free and small-scale users, more homelabbers are asking how Proxmox vs VMware ESXi actually compares today — and increasingly, the answer favors Proxmox for anyone outside an enterprise environment. Licensing and Cost This is…
Retiring an old physical server doesn’t always mean losing what’s running on it. A P2V migration to Proxmox lets you convert a physical machine’s entire operating system, applications, and data into a virtual machine, preserving everything while freeing you from maintaining separate physical hardware going forward. What Is P2V Migration? Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) migration is the…
Running a virtual machine that needs real graphics performance — for gaming, transcoding, or AI workloads — requires more than Proxmox’s default virtual display. Setting up GPU passthrough in Proxmox gives a virtual machine direct, near-native access to a physical GPU, unlocking performance that emulated graphics simply can’t match. What Is GPU Passthrough? GPU passthrough…